Maybe we saved the world

Grand Prize Winner of Just Play: A Game Jam for Climate Futures!

“Maybe we saved the world” is a procedurally-generated narrative game of climate crisis and community action.

You play as a young activist, navigating a world which is different for every playthrough. Your journey is narrated in past tense by your future self — reflecting on this critical time from a future where the climate crisis has been solved, but much work remains to be done.

Gather glimmers or embers — hope, or righteous anger — so you can make change in your community, from joining protests to encouraging community gardens. But don't waste any time — you’ll need to be prepared for floods, droughts, and anything else the future might bring.

Each run is short — only five minutes — allowing for replay and variation. (This is a streamlined prototype, meant to leave room for expansion.)

Original music & sound by Winnie Liu. Design, writing, & programming by Aric McBay. Voice acting and proofreading by Leslie McBay.

Hints:

• Activating a change to the world requires 3 glimmers.  (Look for tables with orange flags for specific opportunities.)
• You can collect a maximum of 4 at a time.
• Glimmers (yellow) and embers (red) are interchangeable.
• The world is procedurally generated in real time. It will be different every time you play.
• Your choices directly affect how the world develops and changes.
• You will encounter climate challenges. You can’t avoid them, but your choices will affect how severe those events are.
• Each run lasts only about 5 minutes. You can’t do everything in a single run.
• You can play as many runs as you like to explore various events and possible futures.

This game uses some purchased assets to facilitate the prototyping process; these include the Ink runtime from Inkle Studios, Stylized Water 2 and Stylized Grass Shader by Staggart Creations, TopDownEngine by MoreMountains, Volumetric Fog 2, Shapes by Freya Holmer, and mesh and material assets from Synty, Polyperfect, and Unluck Software.