In the next few weeks I am going to release an alpha test client for the game EPICA https://twitter.com/playEpica The idea is that the main plot evolves around sea level rise, taking place in a fictional game world.
The main game may be best envisioned when comparing it to World of Warcraft gameplay.
Outline
The world is heavily designed around an Ocean environment
Sea level rise as a culprit for enemy encounters, for instance goblins which are forced to migrate into regions inhabited by human settlements, in search for food. All this is driven by climate altering increases of heat trapping gases, primarily under the leadership of an evil overlord.
Features
Basically every game feature you would expect from an RPG fantasy genre game, player progress is stored on a server, and a global ranking offers a competitive layer.
Climate science
Quests include brief texts which will explain the world.
Some quest for instance will require that the player ventures onto a glacier and diggs a borehole to obtain an ice-core sample. While this will be part of the main story line, the majority of content is designed with gameplay in mind, like a traditional game with important key elements designed around climate change.
Another aspect for more realism in-game will be various effects of weather on the condition of the player. It may be necessary to equip warm cloths to sustain frigid cold environments.
Testing phases
At first there will be the alpha testing phase, people can play the starting zone, explore the region and level up to level 10, in hardcore mode.
The primary focus is to fine tune existing game mechanics and features.
The second phase, the beta testing phase will see publishing of the game as Early Access, possibly at Steam, GOG, or EPIC Games, and to take the story farther, to develop a rich game world.
Status
The game so far is basically complete when it comes to integration of functionalities. This week we successfully compiled the first gameplay client. If you find this interesting, you can follow the game progress https://twitter.com/playEpica or buy the Early Access version of Epica on Steam.
