Climate Game: Design students are preparing us for a changed world

Next year, students from the Institute of Visual Design will work to visualise a future with a changed climate. The project is a team effort with Navigating 360, a network of Denmark’s leading climate researchers, supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

How do you translate crucial, complex material like the latest UN State of the Global Climate Report into a language and format that directly and accessibly engage the public – particularly young families?
Design students from the Institute of Visual Design have been tasked with this very project in collaboration with Navigating 360 supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. 

The project is entitled ‘Klimaekspeditionen’ (The Climate Expedition) and will present narratives and visualisations about the climate crisis developed through computer games, films, interactive installations and exhibitions that combine speculative design and world building. 

Computer games to make climate change understandable

The students are already well under way with the first part of the project. They are working on developing computer games which let users immerse themselves in a not-so-distant future that has been altered by climate change and offers completely new living conditions.

“We’re thrilled to be part of this project together with Navigating 360 and to have an opportunity to create game worlds that can help make climate change more understandable, and perhaps even prepare users for the future. Games and stories have an important part to play, even when it comes to climate issues," says Jakob Ion Wille, Head of the Visual Game and Media Design programme. "There’s actually an emergent genre called ‘eco games’.  The games appeal to emotions and empathy and can create imaginary scenarios depicting the future. We’re involved with future scenarios that may seem dystopian, but our purpose is also to include some hopeful content which can contribute to forming a new view or approach to the future.”

Erik Rasmussen, initiator and founder of Navigating 360, attended the initial presentations of the games. “It was very inspiring and promising to see the students’ initial ideas of how to take an innovative approach to climate-related narratives, such as how games can renew and reinforce an interest in getting young people involved in the climate struggle, " he says. "Just imagine if we made the climate crisis into the most important game in the world. The students have laid the first tracks and demonstrated the potential.”

A multi-stage project

The Climate Expedition will unfold in several stages. The first stage is the computer games, which deal with issues such as how rising sea levels will impact our future. The initial presentations will take place during an open event for the sector hosted by the Institute of Visual Design on 20 June. After that, the games will be fine-tuned before being premiered at the opening of the Danish Architecture Centre exhibition ‘A World of Water’.

In the autumn, the project will focus on interactive exhibition design, and next spring the students will get involved with young people and social-media narratives. The entire project will conclude with an exhibition.