Aftermath

[The Experiential Game]

Launching a platform for giving back to climate refugees
with an interactive game that builds empathy with survivors.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW REALITY

Chances are, you don’t know how just how vulnerable you are to climate disaster. It’s hard to understand the gravity of the situation and how we let people fall through the cracks until you’ve seen it happen.

That’s why we created Aftermath, an experiential sim game.

STAY OR FLEE?

Aftermath builds empathy for climate refugees and disaster survivors by forcing the player to make a number of choices and balance the wellbeing of their family and their economic standing.

CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN ADVENTURE

Pivotal choices made during gameplay show the player the impact that recovery has on everyday life. We can use these sequences to teach players about the climate disaster safety net (or lack thereof).

INVENTORY

Aftermath has an inventory system. Depending on the player’s choices in the introduction, they have an array of items to sell for cash if money gets low.

A TWIST OF FATE

Random incidents will force the player into unfortunate circumstances. Think of Aftermath as Oregon Trail for the post-ecological collapse generation.

BANKRUPTCY

If money gets too low, the player loses the game. Aftermath is unforgiving, and its difficulty is meant to be illustrative of the experiences of climate refugees. Because the reality is, surviving the disaster doesn’t mean you’re out of the clear.

The game will progress with randomly generated incidents until the player loses.

YOUR JOURNEY

We’ll show players how their decisions aligned with other users, and connect them to members of the community who have experienced these events in real life.

VANTAGE POINT

We saw Aftermath as the perfect onboarding solution to a social network formed around climate disaster mutual aid.

Check out the case study here.

When we first created this project at VCU Brandcenter, I had no idea what climate disaster really felt like. I revised and updated the project following my own experiences with flash flooding in Middlebury, Vermont in 2023.

When the floods first hit Vermont, the damage was catastrophic.

Three weeks later, with no disaster officially declared in Addison County and mere hours left to qualify for FEMA relief, floods hit my hometown of Middlebury for a second time. In December, they returned for a third time, destined to be an annual occurrence as a result of climate change.

We envisioned Aftermath as a way to launch a social network for affected communities to create mutual aid networks. In its absence, you can learn how to help those affected by the floods here.

Produced as a student at VCU Brandcenter.

Wrote all game copy and concepted game storyline, mechanics, and integration of mutual aid CTAs.

Produced with
Grace Hudson (AD), Erica Mendel (CW), Jemimah Ekeh (XD), Andrew Krysinski (CBM), Shaunda Lambert (ST)

MICHAEL SHEA