Daybreak is an epidemic maker’s new board game about climate change.

Matt Leek, designer of the hit board game Universal epidemic, Is working on a new project. It is called a cooperative board game Dawn, And it will model real-world battles against climate change. Working closely with a new collaborator, Italian game designer Matteo Menapes, the move will balance fun with the desire to normalize conversations around our warming planet.

The game, which is still under development, will be published by CMYK, a company behind Hit. Monikers And Wavelength. No release date or price has been set.

For fans of Leacock’s previous work, Dawn Must feel familiar. Before it was blown up in an elaborate campaign Epidemic legacy, Real Universal epidemic Used a relatively crude model of the disease to great effect. A deck of cards matches groups of infected people, and drawing from that deck spreads many diseases on the world map. There are many epidemics hidden in that deck, each of which carries too many cubes of infected people on the board at once. Cooperation and careful winning are the keys to the event before the last pandemic card comes into play, and even then victory is not always possible.

Leacock and Menapace told Reporter Door they would use a similar mechanic to drive in action Dawn.

Photo: Matteo Menpasse

Players will play the role of either China, Europe, the United States or a collection of other countries called the in-game Global South. When game Dawn As it begins, the Earth’s temperature will be relatively low. Then, in the same way that the disease cubes started to pile up Universal epidemic, Temperatures will begin to rise worldwide. Crises will also begin to arise – drought conditions will arise, forest fires will be extinguished and sea levels will rise – and high global temperatures will worsen the intensity of those crises.

“Each of these powers has different abilities,” Leacock said. “America can be very good at research and development. China can have direct control over its economy – direct control – etc. […] You have got this global responsibility on how to contribute in some way. If you don’t, if one of these players has too many people in crisis, you all collectively lose the game. “

Together, players will need to divide their energy between mitigation and adaptation. On the one hand, quenching will remove carbon from the atmosphere, which will lower the Earth’s temperature over time. Adaptation, on the other hand, will be more about the loss of strict infrastructure and society that will cause the rise in global temperature.

Menapes used the example of a national water purification system as an adaptation. While this will not make the planet cooler in any way, it will allow a country to have a dry season and keep its overpopulation out of crisis. On the other hand, geoengineering represents a very harsh form of mitigation. By spraying sulfur into the atmosphere, researchers believe that we can significantly reduce the temperature of the planet. But the impact of geoengineering on the lives of plants and animals – and the human populations that depend on them – is unknown. Mainpiece stated that the game could be shown to be at risk by drawing more cards from the crisis deck at each turn.

Of course, sitting down for a game of Universal epidemic It was very different in 2007 than today Dawn Should one be able to have the same breakout success when dealing with something immediately after climate change? Leacock and Menapace believe it will happen.

Photo: Owen Duffy

“I want people to take it seriously,” Leacock said. “But, first and foremost, I want people to play it and enjoy it. I really want to be clear about that. We are not trying to make a vitamin. This is a tabletop game that we really want people to play and enjoy. And then, as a knock-on effect, if they understand the climate stuff better, it’s amazing. I think people don’t necessarily want to play this thing if it’s all preachy. “

And how about those who directly deny climate change, or who oppose research claiming human activity? What would happen if those pundits and politicians opted to attack the game? “We should be lucky to get a lot of attention,” Leacock said.

Menapes’s response was more terrible.

“I think if we get some kind of backlash, maybe it will be a good thing in the beginning,” he said, “because it would mean we’re making fun of someone or something where it hurts It will be a type of support, in a roundabout.

Photo: Dylan Nolte

Board games are not the most ecologically friendly product. There is a certain irony in creating a tabletop game about climate change, when those games will be manufactured overseas from paper and plastic, and then shipped thousands of miles on huge cargo ships to consumers in the US and Europe. Leacock and Menapace are very aware of this, and they are working hard with their publishing partners at CMYK to come up with solutions. With luck, they hope that Dawn Greenery could be the beginning of a new chapter in board game production – and only in public awareness of climate change.

In fact, this is partly where the idea for the name of the game came from.

“There’s apocalyptic coverage out there,” Leacock admitted. “We want the game to show how important the problem is. It’s not easy, and when you play the game, you can lose. This may sound very serious. But, there are ways ahead, and we want the name to be positive. It is like this inflection point, this new day, this new way of moving forward. Sunrise, not sunset. ”

You can sign up for Dawn Newsletter on the official website.