My dad designed a game when I was pre-teen. I remember riding along in the front seat of his yellow AMC Javelin. We were going to pick up an order of little plastic injection molded ships on the east side of Detroit. My dad drew the playing board out by hand since there were no graphics art software packages in the late ‘70’s.
Environmental awareness first entered into my consciousness after a few years into University: the mid ‘80’s. Nuclear and ozone were environmental topics most discussed in my circles, LGBT circles.
Ozone was successfully addressed by an agreement of all nations. That condition found a place on the game board of my two-player co-operative game: Climate Change 2030: Running of of Time. Ozone is presented in this board game as a dangerous global condition that we, as humans, have collectively resolved through mutual agreement.
The board game I’ve moved furtherest along the development track is a two-person cooperative game. Set matching is the central mechanic. The sets are used to remove/replace blocks on a circular grid. The circular grid is actually a doughnut where players try to stay in a ring
away from the centre of the doughnut, but not too far away from the centre: the sweet spot of the doughnut.
What makes a game fair? Cards are random. Dice are random. Sometimes even the choices other players make are random. How do I know if the win/loss scenario at the end of the game is appropriate for random outcomes along the way?
The Inspiration
Climate change affects the planet in many ways and is known to have been caused by human activity. In 2012 Kate Raworth, a scientist at Oxfam, published a way to graphically show both the environmental ceiling that defines an habitable planet and a social foundation that supports a just living space for humanity.
