Artistic Statement / Use of Theme
Our game puts the player in the shoes of a powerful corporate figure whose choices can directly shape the fate of the environment. Alternating between playing a mysterious game on the office computer and a point-and-click section, the player will see the effects of their decisions in real time. We drew inspiration from titles like Inscryption, Slay the Spire, and Undertale, to design a narrative-based deckbuilder that challenges players to choose between preservation and exploitation. The visual style reinforces this contrast: the office sections use a dull, desaturated palette to reflect the sterile, morally gray world of corporate control, while the card game segments burst with bright pixel art This duality mirrors our core artistic intention: to confront players with the consequences of their actions and the moral weight of choosing whether to destroy or protect the world around them.

Development Summary
The first priorities of the 5 person programming team was to create a single playable round of Nevergreen. However, before we could accomplish this we had to work alongside the other departments to solidify a gameplan for how card combat would work, what types of cards we would have, and what types of resources would exist in the world of our game. This proved a little more difficult than expected, as everyone had a lot of great ideas, making it more difficult to choose one specific direction. Once we had a plan in place, the programming team got started on the prototype. Caleb was in charge of resource generation and use, Kimi was in charge card behavior (shuffling, adding cards to deck, etc.), Riley was in charge of attack logic and the card table, Guru oversaw the weighing scale (win condition), and Caitlin was in charge of the enemy AI. After we had a working prototype, we started handling the more complicated aspects of the game including: map generation, card abilities, and card deaths, as well as making the AI more advanced. Finally, the programming team added some final touches, including implementing the audio team’s assets, creating an opening cutscene, and finalizing our build.

Release Plan
The game is currently in early development when it comes to our release plan. The best way to describe it would be a playable demo for a future game that our team plans to work on in the future. We currently have 1 boss in the game and while it is fully fleshed out, our original idea included much more and so we have decided to keep working on the game post jam release. We want to fully flesh out the narrative, as well as the gameplay length and mechanics. Our hope is that we can get an early demo onto a platform like steam to gage interest in the game and then decide from there if we want to make this a full-fledged product. Our intention however is to continue the game.

Topic Tags
Greenwashing, Overconsumption, Flash Flood, Wildfire, Industrialization