EcoBoom

DATE: November 2013
ROLE: Research & Design
TEAM: Matt Lucas, Elizabeth McAlpin
SCHOOL: New York University
PLATFORM: Desktop/Tablet/Mobile

DESCRIPTION:
EcoBoom was a classroom assignment in a game design course. It was aimed at introducing new users to the complex system dynamics of a forested ecosystem.

By way of experimentation and strategic resource management, a player guides the fate of one of three select life forms (i.e. clover, rabbits, and wolves) with the initial goal of becoming the dominant population within a self-sustaining ecosystem. With success comes the emergent result of ecological collapse, driving home the importance of sustainability, the consequences of imbalance, and the delicate nature of living complex systems. Following level one, players are challenged to develop their own regulatory skills as scaffolding techniques add greater complexity to managing the stocks and flows of a greater system using stabilizing loops.

While EcoBoom’s main themes were that of systems and food-chain dynamics, the content of the game intended to make the subject matter fun and challenging—by giving each species a unique set of skills. Plus, the game was heavily rooted in theoretical frameworks, and covered ideas spanning cognitive apprenticeship, embodied cognition, contextualism, and affective design techniques. Please feel free to email me if you’d like to read the research behind our design.

MOCK-UP IMAGE:

EcoBoom_ScreenShot

NOTE: The temporary mock-up provided here was inspired by pixel art from various artists and titles including but not limited to National Geographic Society’s Plan It Green and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy V―all copyrights remain with their respective content owners. The thumbnail above is defined as “transformative” under fair use in US trademark law and does not intend to be used commercially or outside educational purposes only. Fair use policy specifies “low” resolution imagery; the above is 300 pixels wide.