Link from Global Warming Videogame

This is a suggestion for a video game based on global warming.

If possible it should use a real climate model, although an approximation would do if a proper sim is too CPU-intensive.

We'll need to render a high-quality earth image and remove the Arctic, and generate a plausible landmass for Antarctic without ice. Re-render ice at poles using fractal landscape generator with input parameter being ice coverage area from climate model. Similarly we would modify the land and sea colours slightly to reflect temperatures and vegetation coverage. We could also superimpose animated cloud coverage and ocean currents. The NASA 'blue marble' image at high res would be the ideal starting point for the graphics.

We then give the player a set of parameters that they can tweak - industrial output, oil production numbers, jet aircraft flight hours, energy conservation measures in homes on a national scale, coal/oil vs nuclear vs wind power generation etc etc etc

Once set up, they run the sim which shows all the effects on the globe - the ice pack retreating, desertification, rising sea levels etc.

Almost every scenario should lead to disaster... saving the world has to be difficult, not just a case of a few hippies switching to CFL lights or hybrid cars.

The game is meant to be simple but addictive. There's no complex UI, just a few parameters to tweak (iconically); the only feedback being the beautifully rendered image of the Earth. Any educational benefit should be incidental.

An obvious hook for this would be the "Sims" series - maybe call it "SimEarth II - Global Warming Edition", or if they're not interested, "Kyoto". (There actually was a 'SimEarth' in the 80's but with somewhat different goals)

Once you've saved the world from a climate disaster, the sequel could take place on a longer time scale, covering ice ages, meteor strikes, global pandemics etc - using real probabilities and time scales. In this one, humanity could even be allowed to die out and be replaced in the very long term. This version would be called "SimEarth - Gaia", and would end when the sun explodes. (Actualy that's a little closer to the original SimEarth; I had forgotten all about that game until checking for 'prior art' as I was about to post this. Also I checked HalfBakery for similar ideas and the nearest I can find is 'AfterHistory'.)

This should be a relatively easy project for two people - one being a climate modeller and the other being a videogame hacker.

A potential deveopment of this could be a physical game, using an actual globe, which you manipulate by warming it up (eg standing it in front of the fire, or shining a bright light at it; you could even put it in the fridge to see what happens - mothers would hate it, which means that kids would love it :-) ). With such a simplified interface there would have to be fewer tweakabe parameters. The globe could be translucent, and the feedback generated by lights inside it. In fact you could use the old 'persistence of vision' trick by having a spinning semicircle inside the globe which scans a row of LEDs around the inside, to allow lighting up any part of the globe, and then using red or blue LEDs to indicate temperature. Might even be able to simulate clouds that way too. Cheap and fun.