My work of climate change fiction takes it inspiration from the classic 8-bit video game, The Oregon Trail. My goal with this project is to design a video game that is both fun to play, but also is informative, educational, and adheres to the constructed genre expectations that we created in class for Climate Change Fiction. For the purpose of the project, and due to my lack of drawing ability, I am going to focus more on the plot and setting as opposed to the gameplay and visuals. The game will hold true to its predecessor and be based on text commands in order to venture through the game.
I remember growing up and playing the Oregon Trail video game in elementary and middle school. I thought it was just a cheesy game that Oregon students played during their grade school years to help them better understand the Oregon Trail. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered that the game was widely popular all over the country and was considered a cult classic. This was an example of an educational video game that was popular. It was both fun to play and informative, which was my overall goal with this project. The original Oregon Trail game was released in 1971, and this could be an idea for an update that is both pertinent and helps educate the up and coming youth about climate change.
Brief Excerpt: My vision with this game, and something that will make it unique is that it will not be the same experience every time. You will start in the same location, the same year, and travel to the same location, but much like the weather and climate change, it will be entirely unpredictable. One journey you may face multiple horrific weather events that ravage your food supplies, caravan, and animals. Others you may experience various bouts of disease that once may have seemingly been things of the past. Bouts of smallpox, yellow fever, and other diseases run rampant in this world and medication for them is not cheap. You can’t protect yourself against them all, so you must make a wise prediction about what you may encounter.
I loved playing this game as a kid. One aspect I remember vividly were the “river crossings” where you had to decide as a player whether to pay for a ferry or attempt to ford the river (I usually tried to ford the river and usually something bad happened).
What seems interesting about this particular project is how it invokes multiple historical moments, and how it seems to speculate about how history might repeat itself (or a version of itself) in our climate changed future. One overarching question that occurs to me: will there be elements of the game that are “futuristic” or “speculative”? That is, will it be clear through details in the game that the journey is not taking place in the past (i.e. the 19th century) but instead is taking place in the future (albeit a future that looks a lot like the 19th century)? For instance, what are the “forts” like? Does one pay in money or in bitcoin, or by bartering? Or, can a player purchase a portable solar power generator at the general store before one starts the journey? Are the animals still oxen or are they some sort of genetically engineered hybrid? Are players trying to get to Oregon still, or are we trying to journey north because of the warming climate?
This sounds like an awesome idea (and one that you could actually market to game design companies) and I can’t wait to read more about it! Thanks for sharing.