October 5, 2023

One Planet, a Climate Strategy Game

Project Announcement

For the last year or so I've been working on One Planet, a grand strategy game about navigating the world through an impending climate disaster. I’ll be reporting upon my journey as I go through the development process, my inspiration for the game and any new updates here.

The Game

One Planet is a diplomatic grand strategy game where you lead a nation and attempt to avert a climate crisis on an Earth-like planet. You'll need to maneuver politics, international negotiations, and the transition to a green economy to execute your vision of a post-crisis world.
The game will incorporate elements of the grand strategy and 4x genres, heavily inspired by games like Stellaris and Victoria 3. I'm excited to focus on new takes on diplomacy and politics and create a dynamic world where no particular outcome is guaranteed.

Economy

Balance the need to expand with the need to reduce harmful emissions. The longer you wait, the more disasters and civil unrest will occur. Will you decommission fossil fuel plants or focus on researching cleaner energy sources?

Diplomacy

Saving the world is a joint effort. Unite with like minded nations to accomplish greater things, and sanction those who are holding things back. Negotiate high-stakes agreements and shape the future of your planet.

Politics

Not everyone shares your ideas. Consolidate power by running shrewd election campaigns, join forces with other parties to achieve the best of both worlds, and wrest power from those whose inaction may doom everyone. If you fail, build a grassroots movement to surge back into power.

Brief History of the Project

I've been playing with this idea in various forms for at least 5 years, but in early 2022 decided to finally narrow my focus and began a prototype using the Bevy Game engine. I gave myself 80 hours (2 full-time weeks) to work on a prototype. Fitting in time around my day job, that wound up taking from May 2022 to the end of the year. At this point, I’m excited to have something to share and I'm ready to begin beta testing and show more as progress continues.

The Devlog

I'm planning on updating this devlog frequently with updates on development, thoughts on game design concepts, and technical deep dives into problems I've solved. Join the mailing list to receive updates directly!