Since we finally publish Imagine the earth on Xbox One and Xbox Series X | SI began to remember what an adventurous evolution this game was for us. Martin and I have spent seven years working intensively on our world simulator, which combines urban planning and economic strategy, resource management and ecological survival on global planets in a very special way.
The game combines a lot of valuable game mechanics in a unique way, and we’ve wanted it to run on Xbox all along. So we optimized everything for gamepad control when creating interfaces and storytelling. An early version was already running on the Xbox 360 devkit, as the first prototype we made as students was a finalist at the Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals ’08 in Paris, where they had the game design category for the first time. As the game grew, we changed the game engine twice and redesigned the interface and character design more often than not.
I am sure that we were only able to continue this long development journey thanks to public recognition such as the Imagine Cup and of course the support of over 43,000 supporters in Early Access. Over the years the climate crisis has become more and more blatant and has arrived as a topic in the middle of society. The growing awareness of the topic gave us the confidence to work on an urgent issue and to incorporate the climate crisis as an authentic core mechanism into the gameplay.
Build your own civilizations on distant planets planet
Over time, Imagine the earth has become an economic strategy game with an environmental planet simulation. The job of a space colony manager is to build and maintain colonies on a global scale. The aim is to develop efficient manufacturing and space trade to thrive and prosper, but also to conduct research and development on new technologies to avoid disasters, sea level rise and global climate collapse.
To begin with, it’s a peaceful infrastructure building game as the use of weapons is forbidden in its futuristic scenario. First the players have to build parts of the city and supply them with food, energy and goods. Finding the best placement of each building is a complex puzzle, as they have many positive and negative influences on each other and there are different soil conditions and deposits on the fields. The goods or materials harvested can be used to make additional equipment or to offer more complex items for sale. In order to maintain the colonists’ quality of life, sooner or later a balance has to be found between growth and sustainability.
A race for unlimited economic growth in space
In addition, the game puts the player in the role of a global economic actor. The player has to compete economically against other corporations for supremacy in a globalized market. This includes stock trading and hostile takeovers, but you can even use terraforming and weather manipulation to crash your opponents’ stock prices. Form alliances or face all kinds of diplomatic battles.
At a certain point in planetary development, the factions could be forced to work together to preserve the environment as a common basis of life. The World Congress is a democratic loyalty that encompasses every faction on the planet. It makes decisions on taxes and subsidies, penalties and supplies. The political groups, brought closer together by the threat of climate change, are discussing emissions taxes and environmental funds or the ban on certain technologies such as fossil fuels and will hopefully find strategies and answers to preserve their home world.
The fate of whole worlds is in your hands
As I said, we started this project once as students and the way in which the prototype seemed to make the most threatening and urgent problem of our time playable in a simulation has thrilled and preoccupied us for so many years. The challenge of global climate change, which seems too abstract and unthinkable for the individual, should become tangible and treatable by giving the player responsibility for the fate of a global ecosystem.
The science fiction scenario that we have wrapped around this topic over time primarily serves to enable a thought experiment with an open outcome and to reduce ideological reservations and sensitivities that would have blocked a terrestrial scenario. In terms of storytelling and dramaturgy, we were repeatedly faced with the challenge of balancing entertainment and seriousness Imagine the earth shine as a game and still raise plausible questions without becoming moralistic or informative. Rather, it should make you inviting, motivating and curious. The light visual style is meant to increase the accessibility of the gameplay. It also celebrates the triangle, the smallest, universal component of all 3D computer game worlds, as a stylistic design element.
Imagine the earth
Serious brothers
$ 24.99
Planetary Colonization Imagine Earth is a real-time planetary simulation and building strategy game. Your job as a space colony manager is to explore and populate distant planets. Build thriving and profitable colonies on a global scale and trade resources and goods into space. Profit vs. Ecocide You will experience a massive conflict between the profit goals of the interstellar corporations and the need to preserve the living conditions of your people. Exhaust emissions and soil pollution affect the global climate as your colony grows. Rising temperatures melt the polar ice caps and your colonies are destroyed by the rising sea levels. Expansion & Research Awaken big cities and satisfy their appetite for resources by building power plants, farms and factories. Dig for Ideon Crystals, calm down riots, research technology and constructs, and maximize your growth while maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Allies, threats and enemies Prepare for threats like asteroid strikes, eddies, forest fires, volcanoes and rising sea levels. Fend off space robbers and alien investors. Coexist and trade with natives, merchants and enemy colonies. Capitalist Space Age In 2048, huge corporations divided the earth among themselves and largely exploited its natural resources. Now the discovery of Ideon crystals enables journeys into space, while technically and ideologically almost everything remains the same. The laws of the market spread throughout the universe. Competition and Economic War. Competition for economic supremacy breaks out on every planet discovered. In order to expand your colony as quickly as possible and defeat your opponents, you use the freely available fossil resources and minerals. Additional money will be provided by selling shares in your colony. Take over rival companies by buying up their shares. Resource and Technology Trade Traders and technology traders organize interplanetary trade and are happy to buy any minerals and resources you extract from your territory while selling expensive technologies. The same goes for cooperating colonies and alien tribes living on some planets.
