When humanity attempts to wind back the clock on ecological collapse, who decides what gets left behind?
This project attempts to reveal humanity’s reaction to ecological disaster and the inability to retain sustainability due to disparate intentions and ideologies. It explores the fate a small collection of colonists escaping the collapse of civilization to a remote island. Seeing their community as a second chance for humanity they attempt to construct a collective dedicated to the pursuit of sustainability, particularly with regard to their limited food supply. However, the inhabitants soon begin to quarrel. What does sustainability look like? Will bias regarding GMOs stymie the ability of the colonists to feed themselves? The player will piece together the puzzle by exploring the environment and discovering journal entries left by the island’s occupants.
Technical details
The game can be accessed as an individual .exe compiled for platform agnostic compatibility for windows machines. Dlls and assets contained in surrounding file hierarchy. Constructed with CE 5.5.
Progress
- Level has been constructed
- 1st Session playtesting complete
- Audio story segments have been recorded
- Music has been arranged
- Level 2nd Draft has been completed
Next steps
- Add volumes to trigger audio, complete construction of custom assets, insert final story objects into game.
- Stretch Goal: Complete the custom notes with inventory.
Why you should support this project
Today, there’s a great deal of disagreement about the future of farming. Many academic journals have pointed out the negative impact small homesteads have on the environment compared to the larger scale, but more efficient, farms. These disparate views are reflected in the characters who populated the island. Their disagreements mirror our own. This game attempts to entice thoughtful discussion on the contrasting views, and hopes to highlight the importance of unity and dialogue to overall success.
Risks and challenges
Conceptually, the game runs the risk of either being overtly controversial, or saying little to nothing to move the dialogue forward. How do you make a statement without taking sides on issues people feel strongly about? I’ve attempted to say that, without trust and fruitful dialogue, what we individually resolve to do won’t contribute the sort of solutions we’re after. Making sure this is the game’s principle message as more content is added will be an ongoing balancing act.
As a one man team, learning a state of the art game engine used for modern AAA titles comes with a number of very substantial risks. The engine is fraught with glitches and strange behavior that defy expectation. Textures often detach from their objects or else lose their tint. Furthermore automatic updates to the engine can completely destroy object grouping and flowchart assignments.
Patrick Cooper
Junior at UNM. Triple majoring in Philosophy, Applied Math, Film Production. Works as software engineer at Tau Technologies.
