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THE SEVERN RISING 2222

There is no doubt that climate change is happening,

but what are the implications of climate change for our futures?

Severn Rising 2222 is an ambitious imagining through gaming, of what the City of Worcester, might look like 200 years in the future, where Worcester has been flooded, humans have left, and the city is consumed by nature.

Dominated by the River Severn which flows through it, Worcester is already at the mercy of nature, and regularly experiences flooding which leads to residents and wildlife alike, modifying their lifestyle. The Severn Rising 2222 project, challenges the residents of Worcester to learn more about climate change, pollution and the direct impact it will have on their community.

The Severn Rising 2022 game, mixes animation with illustration,

encourages conversation and creativity, and pushes boundaries of gaming as art.

The game brings together beautiful, vibrant depictions of nature and Worcester’s landmarks by artist Sarah Millin, with the game design skills of Andy Round of Paradise Multimedia. The game was developed through a series of creative workshops held in heritage, cultural and environmental venues, across Worcester during 2022. The workshops encouraged participation from a wide demographic of Worcester residents and explored environmental impact through art. Learn more about the workshops, project partners and how the game was developed here.

Sarah & Andy developed the visual look of the game together, taking inspiration from the community workshops, Sarah did the illustrations and Andy saturated the colours and added reflections creating a psychedelic visual language.

The team were keen to make the game as simple as possible, to allow anyone to play it. During the game the player guides Swan and Duck, the two central characters, as they explore a vision of flooded Worcester. Using interactive techniques, the player navigates characters inspired by the natural world as they seek to solve puzzles to unlock the mystery of what happened to the humans and find out where they have gone.

Learn more about the artists here and how their used their individual skills to bring together gaming, art and environmental awareness here.

Thank you to our funders

The Severn Rising 2222 project has been made possible through generous support of the Arts Council England, Elmley Foundation & Worcester City Council. Grant funding support of £33,125, has allowed the running of ten community workshops, employment of local artists and specialists to develop and create the game, support a tour of the game around ten Worcester City venues and raise awareness of climate change in Worcester.

Do you want to experience the Severn Rising 2222 game in person in Worcester? During 2023 the game will be on tour around the workshop hosts. See a full list of tour dates and learn when and where you can play the game here.

There will also be an online version of the game available to play which you will be able to play either in browser or download.