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Against the Tide: Stories of Kiribati's Climate Resilience's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Use of Themes | #1 | 4.615 | 4.615 |
| Overall | #3 | 4.123 | 4.123 |
| Polish & Release | #4 | 4.077 | 4.077 |
| Aesthetics | #4 | 4.308 | 4.308 |
| Gameplay & Mechanics | #6 | 3.769 | 3.769 |
| Writing | #6 | 3.846 | 3.846 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Artistic Statement / Use of Theme
Against the Tide is a hidden object game that explores the impacts of rising tides and a changing climate on the low-lying island nation of Kiribati. The project aligns with the themes of the jam by emphasizing climate disasters in Kiribati, environmental injustice and the disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-lying island nations. The game draws inspiration from documentary storytelling, aiming to create awareness and push for further action.
Explore the real-world impacts of rising sea levels on the island nation of Kiribati, where changes to the climate has threatened homes, livelihoods, and cultural heritage. Through hidden object gameplay, players are invited to learn more about how Kiribati is being impacted and how the community is coming together to build climate resilience.
Development Summary
The biggest change was a change in narrative that occured around halfway through development. We changed our area of discussion from Kiribati sinking to climate resilience methods in order to give our game a more hopeful tone. This was a necessary change, but it did delay our production by a few days while we finalized what we needed to create for the new narrative! We also had to cut a level due to time and artist constraints.
Our team consisted of 11 talented jammers! We also had the pleasure of working directly with a climate advocate from Kiribati, who helped us by fact-checking our game and sharing climate resilience methods with us.
Release Plan
Because hidden object game assets take a lot of time and effort to create, we aimed to release 2-4 levels. We were able to create 4 fully-functional hidden object levels, which we're very happy about. Ideally, these levels would be populated with more objects to increase the challenge of the game, so that would be a possible area for expansion in the future. We had to scrap a planned 5th level about Impacted Livelihoods, so I would be interested in continuing to work on the game to add that in. I'm also interested in possibly getting youth in Kiribati involved with the creation of this game in the future, or the creation of another original game.
Topic Tags
Sea Level Rise, Low-lying Island Nations, Resilience Methods
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Comments
This is a really beautiful and educational game on how climate change really affects below sea level areas like Kiribati. Beautiful music. Very informative. The gameplay is simple and very polished. The matching mechanics and the UI are really good. The zoom can be a bit finicky and can be improved. This is hands down one of the best ones. More challenging puzzles would make the game whole.
Very simple and easy to play which while can be a tad boring at times makes it quick to play and super accessible for non-gamers. Which also makes it a very good quick educational tool that keeps peoples attention. I didn't know anything about what was happening in Kiribati so this was a good game for informing me on what was happening there. It also has a link to resources that you can go to to help which is a nice addition.
One of the most thoughtful game concepts. People can play and learn about nature, climate, and disaster at the same time. Very satisfying gameplay and mechanism. Love it!
This is a really nice little hidden object game! The gameplay is clean and makes sense (good job on the tutorial/how to play section!), the art is very good, and there is a lot of good information in the game. The only thing I would change is maybe try to strike a better balance between climate information and gameplay. You don't want to overload the player with information and the pop ups after finding each item got in the way a little bit. Still the game is quite good and you guys should be happy with it!