Precipice
Humanizing climate change through interactive narrative
Precipice is a collaboration between the Centre for Digital Media and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that makes vivid future scenarios developed by the DOE related to climate change and environmental disasters. The experience takes place in a 3D narrative environment where the player is presented with a familiar scene set in the present day and a future scene set in 2032 that manifests the worst outcomes of the scenarios.
The environment is populated with a series of characters and narrative artifacts that the player is free to interact with. Through these interactions the player learns of the characters’ situations and perspectives on the environment as they relate to everyday life. The player is given the power to influence the characters’ awareness of their impact on the environment positively or negatively. When the player exhibits influence over a character, the future environment changes to visualize the consequences of the player’s decisions. The player can move between the present and the future as puzzles are completed to understand how the world reacts to her/his decisions.
Precipice was created and developed in 13 weeks by an interdisciplinary team of 6 masters students.
Credits
- Bryan Clarke, Technical Director, Content Integration
- Bryant Drew Jones, Game Designer, Interaction Scripting, Content Integration
- Matthew Schroeter, 2D Art, Music, Interface Design, 3D Modeling
- Patrick Bakerjian, 3D Modeling, Testing
- Ryan Nadel, Writer, Sound Designer
- Salvia Dhall, 2D Art
- Seth Marinello, Project Manager