Radical Alternate Futurescoping: Solarpunk versus Grimdark
A design and research workshop at Academic Mindtrek 2023 to explore radical alternate futures of climate action
Intelligent Games and Games Intelligence (IGGI) PhD researchers Prasad Sandbhor and Sarah Masters invite you to participate and co-create mock-ups of play experiences dealing with eco futures and climate action in solarpunk and grimdark themes.
When?
3rd October 2023 (9.30am – 5.00pm EEST, 7.30am – 3.00pm BST, 6.30am – 2.00pm UTC)
Where?
In-person at Academic Mindtrek 2023 Tampere University, City Center Campus, Pinni B 4115
Online on an invite-only Discord+Zoom set-up
The workshop is aimed at game designers, researchers, students and anyone enthusiastic about creating solarpunk and grimdark play experiences!
Seats are limited for both in-person and online tracks. Register here.
If you are attending in-person then in addition to filling this form, you also need to purchase yourself a ‘Workshop Pass’ (29€+VAT 24%) from the Academic Mindtrek website.
Read further for more information about the workshop and the organisers.
About
Designing social and political futures through an ’eco’ lens is becoming popular in the media with movements like solarpunk and genres like grimdark. However, there are fewer studies that explore their potential in designing critical games and play experiences for climate change education, communication and engagement. Solarpunk and grimdark are two extreme ends of the spectrum of alternate climate futures. While solarpunk presents a hopeful technological utopia, grimdark uses a more nihilistic setting.
In this workshop, we plan to bring together people with diverse backgrounds to collaborate and co-create mock-ups of play experiences following solarpunk and grimdark themes. The workshop will take its participants through a series of exercises enabling a critical, rebellious and radical approach to their design processes and conclude with a critical reflection session. We believe that it will be a novel opportunity to explore and investigate the potential of playful and rebellious eco-envisioning or ’ecopunk’, artefacts in terms of their aesthetics, rhetoric and emotions as they get created side by side.
Organisers
Prasad Sandbhor, Serious Game Designer and PhD Researcher
Prasad Sandbhor is a serious game designer and researcher. He studied Toy and Game Design as a part of his masters degree in Design and went on to work in the industry for 8 years. He has designed digital, tabletop as well as hybrid serious games in diverse areas such as education, healthcare, entrepreneurship, social safety, accessibility and sustainability. He teaches game design and user experience design at Universities in India and England. Prasad is presently pursuing a PhD at The University of York and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (IGGI). His research explores the potential of group- based games as tools for sense-making of climate action among young adults.
Sarah Masters, Artist, Indie Game Developer and PhD Researcher
Sarah Masters is a post-graduate researcher with The University of York and the ESPRC-funded IGGI (Intelligent Games, Games Intelligence). They are an active part of the games community, with an MA in Indie Game Development, which explored eliciting anxiety and hope for climate change reflection in games. As an artist, writer and person who makes games, their research focuses on aesthetics, emotional experiences and critical game design for climate change engagement, reflection and creative activism, exploring the punk in game design with grimpunk, mosspunk, lunarpunk and other emergent storytelling methods.
Schedule and Details
Note for in-person participants – Coffee and water will be available free of charge at the Academic Mindtrek 2023 conference. Participants will have to plan and fund their own lunch. There is a cafeteria at the venue, and other options are available nearby.
Schedule in-person in Tampere EEST
Phase 1 – Introduction
- 09:30 to 09:45. Arrival of participants, introductions and sharing workshop agenda and design brief.
- 09:45 to 10:00. Introduction session about speculative design, solarpunk and grimdark with examples
10:00 to 10:15. Coffee Break
Phase 2: Conceptualisation
- 10:15 to 10:30 Group Formation and prompt distribution: Firstly, the participants will be divided into two large groups viz. solarpunk or grimdark, then they will be asked to form groups of three or four each.
- 10:30 to 11:15. Triadic Game Design Exercise
- 11:15 to 12:00. Brainstorming using the Design Box method
12:00 to 13:00. Lunch
Phase 3 Mockup Jam
- 13:00 to 13:15. Sharing of broad concept ideas, target audiences and platforms by groups
- 13:15 to 14:15. Concept detailing using various tools
- 14:15 to 16:00. Mock-up creation time
15:00 to 15:15. Coffee Break
Phase 4: Critical Reflection and Discussion
- 16:00 to 16:30. Group-wise mock-up showcase
- 16:30 to 17:00. Critical reflection and discussion session
Schedule for online participants UTC
Phase 1 – Introduction
- 06:30 to 06:45. Arrival of participants, introductions and sharing workshop agenda and design brief.
- 06:45 to 07:00. Introduction session about speculative design, solarpunk and grimdark with examples
07:00 to 07:15. Coffee Break
Phase 2: Conceptualisation
- 07:15 to 07:30 Group Formation and prompt distribution: Firstly, the participants will be divided into two large groups viz. solarpunk or grimdark, then they will be asked to form groups of three or four each.
- 07:30 to 08:15. Triadic Game Design Exercise
- 08:15 to 09:00. Brainstorming using the Design Box method
09:00 to 10:00. Break
Phase 3 Mockup Jam
- 10:00 to 10:15. Sharing of broad concept ideas, target audiences and platforms by groups
- 10:15 to 11:15. Concept detailing using various tools
- 11:15 to 13:00. Mock-up creation time
12:00 to 12:15. Coffee Break
Phase 4: Critical Reflection and Discussion
- 13:00 to 13:30. Group-wise mock-up showcase
- 13:30 to 14:00. Critical reflection and discussion session
Information and Games
What is Solarpunk?
Solarpunk is a literary, artistic and activist movement pursuing the dreams of a sustainable earth where humans and nature cohabit in a harmonious way. As the Solarpunk Manifesto [1] speculates a “post-scarcity, post-hierarchy, post-capitalistic” world that prioritises “environmental sustainability, self-governance and social justice”.
Solarpunk Games
Solarpunk Futures a storytelling boarg game where you imagine new solarpunk worlds
Games with Solarpunk traits currently in development…
Currently in development Spilled, clean the waters from the oil leak and see updates from game developer Lente on Twitter!
Currently in development Synergy, a survival city builder!
Currently in development ReFresh, restore your town in this cozy game!
What is Grimdark?
Grimdark is a pervasively bleak, brutal and nihilistic setting, but the genre offers opportunities for an introspective kind of future envisioning.
Eco-Grimdark Games
Frostpunk What will you do to survive? A 4X strategy where you need to build in frozen wastelands.
Death Stranding Deliver hope by connecting the last of the survivors in the sixth and final extinction event (arguably Hopepunk but on the grim side)
Grimdark Games
Warhammer “In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war”
Darkest Dungeons psychological stress, paranoia and a turn based RPG
Contact
Prasad Sandbhor at The University of York with iGGi at [email protected]
Sarah Masters at The University of York with iGGi at [email protected]
Registration
Click below to register!
References
[1] A. Flynn. 2014. Solarpunk: Notes toward a manifesto. ttps://hieroglyph.asu.edu/2014/09/solarpunk-notes-toward-a-manifesto/2014/09/solarpunknotes-
toward-a-manifesto/
Data Policy Statement
This workshop is run by researchers at the University of York, UK. The University of York adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018. More details regarding this can be found on the University of York Data Protection Policy Page.
The registration data collected will only be used to co-ordinate the organisation of the workshop and will be deleted after the completion of the workshop.
If you are dissatisfied with the treatment of your data, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer. In line with the University of York charter, which states that we advance learning and knowledge by teaching and research, the University processes personal data for research purposes under Article 6 (1) (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).