Dev Blog 8! Poverty in Earth Rising
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 03:14:29 PM

Hey everybody! 

I know there's usually more of a lead in, but due to personal circumstances I'm going to have to save general game news for the next update. 

A lovely warm welcome to all our new backers lately, with your help we're almost at 170% funded!

Please enjoy the Dev Blog, and I'll catch you again on Sunday!

Meeple and Poverty; A poor overview

Today we’re going to take on the heavy subject of poverty. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of positive parts to this! ;)

Earth Rising recognises that poverty is a major barrier to a sustainable world, and that tackling it is a necessary step in transforming our world away from the unsustainable state it’s in today. But why? After all, industrial processes have a far greater impact on our world than any single person, in poverty or otherwise!

Absolutely - and yet poverty has many meanings. It isn't just homelessness, but also refers to people who have so little economic freedom that they're at the mercy of the cheapest option. 85% of the world live on less than $30 per day, two-thirds live on less than $10 per day, and every tenth person lives on less than $1.90 per day. (In each of these statistics price differences between countries are taken into account to adjust for the purchasing power in each country.) The people within those brackets have less access to essential aspects of basic living - food, water, energy, education and opportunity.

When considering this, remember that there are very nearly eight billion people on our planet (7.8 at the time of writing this!), making over 6 billion people dependent on less than $30 per day ($10,950 per year). I’ll raise my hands here in honesty folks, I’m one of them!

But it used to be a lot worse!

It was only a few generations ago that almost everyone would have fit within the $1.90 bracket, known as “Extreme Poverty”. As our technological capabilities and production have increased, so too has our economic capacity, lifting much of the world out of extreme poverty and into a better state. So, that’s great, right?

Yes, it is! Or, at least, it was. But the truth of it is that the modern world has the economic capacity to uplift everyone out of poverty. Our developed societies have everything they need to provide support and insurance of a quality of life for everyone within it. The very few developed countries that still have extreme poverty within them are those that have the highest income inequality, showing that it isn’t simply a case of a country getting richer (as is the assumption with GDP focused governance) resulting in an alleviation of poverty, but a question of ensuring access and fair wealth distribution within that society.

Sounds good, what’s the problem?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic news that poverty has been declining at an exceptional rate since the 1960s! Clearly we’re getting there, even if it’s taking longer than we’d like, right?

Unfortunately, reports from the UN and World Bank have shown thatin the last few years, and increasingly so since the pandemic of COVID-19 (but beginning as far back as 2017), poverty is on the rise. Estimates from across the world expect between 119 and 124 million new people forced into poverty this year, and warnings that if we don’t increase “shared prosperity” within our nations and instead continue to focus on short term solutions, the quantity falling into poverty will only get higher with each passing year.

Poverty is not something we can afford to sit back and ignore, and as our climate crisis causes increasing troubles in the form of disasters and shortages, inequality is only set to rise further.

Except it isn’t the poor that are the real cause of the Strain produced from poverty

The wooden meeple within the poverty hole in Earth Rising represent all three tiers of poverty, but more than that, they’re a representation of the wealth inequality present within the society that Earth Rising represents.

The truth is that the global poor don’t actually cause the Strain causing climate change, but they do suffer the most from it. All the way back in 2015, Oxfam released their Extreme Carbon Inequality Report, stating their findings that the richest 10% of the world produce more “Strain” (in Earth Rising terms) upon the planet than the poorest 50%. Meanwhile,whenever the poor get poorer, the rich get richer, even (perhaps especially) during times of crisis. As wealth inequality grows, so too does our harm on the planet. The wooden people you see on your board aren’t the primary causes of the Strain, but they certainly are the biggest victims!

I know this has been a long (and heavy) one, so if you’re still with me, thanks for reading along! Earth Rising has so many complex subjects embedded into it, I hope these summations of my research and learnings are interesting!

See you next time,

~Laurie & the SDR Team

So close to 160% funded! ⚫✨ Glass Strain Tokens Unlocked! Dev Blog 7!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 09, 2021 at 01:59:38 AM

Hello everyone! We are about to hit 160% funded today and that is very exciting! We've just hit the half way mark, so it's looking very possible that we might even hit our 200% final stretch goal! Whoa!

The news on everyone's lips today is that we've unlocked Glass Strain tokens! 

These beauties are incredibly shiny, and and feel so smooth and sleek as you move them around the board. They really increase the quality and impression of Earth Rising, and what's more, these 84 Strain tokens come with a cloth bag to hold them in!

Each one has a flat underside so they sit nicely on the board, but their sleekness allows you to slide them around easily. If you're anything like me, your friends will tell you off for fiddling with them while you play, making little clinking noises...

We wanted to use this Add On to showcase how sustainable materials can add some serious pizazz to a game, as glass is not only sustainably produced, but also requires no harmful chemicals, causes no harm to the environment if lost or thrown away, and is infinitely recyclable.

Speaking of awesome things, we've added a new pledge tier to our campaign, this one allowing a backer to get... basically everything! Rather than needing to deal with lots of individual add ons, this new ALL-IN ULTIMATE EDITION features the Core Game, Educational Booklet, Glass Strain Tokens, the 2040 Handbook AND a donated copy of the game! All together, this would come to over £90, but we're offering the complete haul for £80. Want to really jump in to Earth Rising with both feet? Check out this tier! It may end up cheaper than what you've already pledged!

Phew, that was a lot of brand new stuff! I think it's time to get back to the Dev Blog, since this week we're getting to know the Activist!

The Activist: Making Change One Protest at a Time 

Today, also by request, we learn about the Activist!

The Activist is the specialist of the Culture sector. They are able to place ‘Protest Tokens’ on any Unsustainable Practises across the board, allowing other players to flip the Practice to become sustainable, rather than having to disband and implement a new Practice. This really speeds up the team’s ability to head towards sustainability, and thus reduces strain and prevents Ecological Collapse! 

What is Culture, and why is the Activist its specialist?

How we live is determined, at its core, by how we think. The concepts and ideals we hold dear create the framework for how we act, and our actions perpetuate our ideals. We do this by standing up for what we believe in, by treating others in the ways we believe appropriate, and by discussing with those around us how we move forward. This becomes our culture, and these are different in every society. 

Yet a healthy culture is not one that is dominated by a prevalent mindset, but one that adapts as it comes across new and better ways of being, growing and evolving through education, empathy and awareness, rather than at the mercy of our unconsidered reactions. Because culture has such an impact on what and how we think, it’s important for us to do our best to remain open-minded. Providing civics education, moving towards ethical fashion, and implementing media watchdogs are three simple ways we can make our culture more supportive toward future focused notions. 

The Activist is the Specialist of the Culture sector because activism is the foremost driver of social and people-focused change in any society. There are lots of well used phrases about our voices being louder together, but the truth is that every great step forward in social change that brought about the end of damaging Practices in the developed world (be it slavery, rights for women or minorities, abolishing child labour, the adoption of the eight hour work day, minimum wage or many, many other examples) were all built on the back of many years of activism, swaying the minds of those who believe that the world can, and should, be better than it is. Did you know that nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change?

It is our hope at SDR that climate activism will one day be added to the list of successful activism that has created worldwide change, and with the response to the IPCC report, we’re already seeing success across multiple fronts.

As with all sectors, of course, Culture cannot work alone. The network of support created by all six sectors is necessary for change. 

What We Say Can Change The World

Representing the Culture sector is the team behind the documentary 2040, who not only have supported and encouraged us from very early on in the project, but were also the direct inspiration and seed for Earth Rising. Without their efforts to spread their message, Earth Rising wouldn’t exist. This more than anything is proof that no matter who you are or what your message, the society we live in today provides us with the tools to not only reach others with our passions, but also to inspire them to create their own works. Will Earth Rising inspire other game designers to make sustainable, future-focused and hopeful games? We can’t say for sure, but the possibility is there!

Our game has come a long way since we played with them in February 2020, but their support has been strong ever since, and we’d like to take a moment to thank them for their support, guidance, and for sharing their own research and knowledge they used to make their film with us, so we could make Earth Rising a realistic representation of what the Culture sector needs to function sustainably, and encourage other sectors to transition to a better future.

 Before we go, why not read about the incredible journey the Activist went on through their design, and the community driven guidance we received to make them stand for more than we ever expected? It’s all detailed in our blog post: Lessons Learned From The Activist!

We’ll be talking this Friday about Poverty, and how it’s represented in Earth Rising, but after that we’ll be discussing another character! Why don’t you pick for us who you’d most like to know more about? 

The Climatologist⛅, Ecologist🌱, Grassroots Politician⚖️, or the Innovator⚙️?

Let us know in the comments!

See you Friday,

~Laurie and the SDR Team

150% Funded, Live Q&A and Dev Blog 6!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Sep 06, 2021 at 11:02:18 AM

Hello wonderful Earth Rising backers! It's me, Laurie, and I'm back to let you know that we are (at the time of writing this) a mere £71 away from unlocking glass strain tokens! I'm sure you'd love to know more about those right? Their shiny, smooth surfaces. Their sustainability credentials! The exceedingly reasonable price we're offering them for!? 

Well too bad. We haven't unlocked them yet so you'll have to wait.

In the meantime, we're doing a live Q&A tomorrow at 2pm BST over on our Instagram!

Will we answer questions about glass Strain tokens? Probably! And a whole host of other things, so if you'd like us to answer a particular question but aren't sure if you're going to make it, post a comment beneath this post and we'll be sure to discuss it!

Before we do our next Dev Blog, did you know you have unlocked a phenomenal 🌲42 trees🌳!?! (That will make 882kgs of carbon absorbed per year once fully grown! Amazing!)

You've all done such an amazing job sharing and supporting us, and we wouldn't have managed to get this far without you. I haven't said it in a while so once again, thank you everyone for your incredible support!

Well enough about your support! It's time to learn how to support those little people you're all going to be getting!

Practices Supporting Meeple; it isn’t just about employment!

A crucial part of success in Earth Rising, and indeed to our real world sustainability goals, is reducing poverty. There’s a lot of different ways we can do this in the real world (the most effective and vital being wealth redistribution) but a very common misconception is about the way Earth Rising represents how Social Practices support people within its sustainable borders.

What’s the purpose of our Practices?

When we look at the essential parts of what makes our society work, we have to ask ourselves, why is it vital? Such questions have been raised much more often in light of the recent pandemic, which saw certain professions labelled as “key workers”, many of which turned out to be low salaried positions. If such vital work isn’t valued, why is it that we need it?

While this isn’t the place to argue whether salaries should be raised for professions of societal importance, the fact is that these Practices provide value in ways beyond the fiscal. Agricultural Practices provide food, and support our people through a varied and healthy diet. Infrastructure Practices provide high quality homes, drinkable and usable water to those homes, or reliable access to energy, internet, healthcare and roadways. Energy Practices produce stable and reliable quantities of power, both for homes and businesses, while Political Practices allow our government to function and ensure oversight over these means of production and distribution.

Rather than go through all of them, I’d like to encourage everyone to take time to look over the Earth Rising Practices, either while playing or through the booklet, and consider how each of these sectors, and the Practices within them, provided an essential and necessary service more important than the financial return of their production. 

 During a game of Earth Rising, every one of these Practices placed upon the board provides support for two people within the circles. Most people are a little hazy on what exactly it is that each Practice is providing to the two people it supports, and the answer most come to is “employment”. Money is, after all, the classical and most direct form of support a person can receive!

Yet, the concept of people being supported by their jobs first and foremost, and access to employment being the primary means of support for people in real life, is fast becoming an out-dated concept. With the rise of automation, more efficient work systems, along with cheaper and faster methods of producing goods, less people are required to work the jobs they used to. Whether or not it’s a good thing ultimately depends on whether people have access to other means of support.

Diversity, as ever, is the key to success!

The truth is, however, that the meeple figures used in Earth Rising are representative of a portion of our society’s populace. As such, it isn’t that they’re receiving direct benefits from the singular Practice supporting them, but that they are gaining benefits from ALL the Practices on the board, all at once! The countries in real life that provide the highest quality of life all have robust social support networks to ensure that nobody is short on life’s necessities, regardless of whether they’re in employment or not.

Just like in real life, it doesn’t matter much if you’re working at a supermarket or at a hospital, either way you still need both food and medical care! In much the same way, Practices and the support they give aren’t a direct provision of that single thing to those specific individuals. Instead, they increase the amount of people able to be sustainably provided for across the board, regardless of their source of financial support. We keep the support those Practices provide within their sector borders to allow for an easier means of keeping track of how many Meeples your society can support, and better representing that sector’s “contribution” to the overall support for your society’s populace.

A sustainable society is able to provide all its citizens with everything they need from a diverse range of sources, all within the boundaries of what our planet can accommodate. Can you accomplish this, within twenty years?

In two days time we'll be talking about the Activist ✊, so tune in then for some insight into the incredibly bumpy ride we had designing them!

In the meantime, don't forget to drop any questions you want us to answer in our Live Q&A tomorrow in the comments below!

See you then!

~Laurie & the SDR Team

145% funded! Stretch goal #3 unlocked 🧑🏿‍🤝‍🧑🏽, and Dev Blog 5!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Sep 06, 2021 at 02:16:48 AM

Welcome back folks, the Earth Rising Kickstarter is still going full steam ahead! 

We are 11 days into the campaign today, and we've hit over £20,000 and our third stretch goal! I'd just like to say what a phenomenal moment this is for us here at SDR, as this stretch goal is the final one that upgrades the game and turns it into everything we wanted Earth Rising to be. You made that happen, Backers! So when you receive this game you can enjoy it knowing that it's even better than it would have been thanks to your support.

So this final upgrade, custom meeple, what does it mean?

Basically there are a few designs of meeple (a board game term referring to small wooden figures shaped like people (the word comes from 'my people')) that are standard within the industry. They're churned out and require no effort on the part of the manufacturer, so they're cheaper than having figures shaped specifically to your desires. What's more, as standard these meeple come painted. Take our prototype for example; the meeple in that are red since there was no option for unpainted figures. 

Earth Rising isn't about keeping things cheap for the sake of it, it's about giving a positive representation of a real problem we need to approach, and the custom meeple will not only make the game more unique (and less comical, those standard meeple are chunky bois, unlike our prototype ones) but by having them unpainted it'll better create a "natural" populace. No paint means no decision of colour on our part - these people may come in lighter or darker tones, we have no choice over whether there will be discolourations in the wood, or small imperfections in their surfaces. Does it make them less effective as game pieces? Absolutely not. But we think it sends a subtle message to anyone playing the game that our societies are made up of all sorts of people, and that doesn't change the fact that they still deserve a place within it, supported and happy.

The added bonus to this upgrade is that we also use less "stuff" in our production. No paint, no varnish, no tossing away slightly discoloured figures. Earth Rising seeks to show that we can have a great time with high quality games, but it doesn't need to be identical to every other copy. 

Right, that's enough about figures! 🌳We've gained another tree in our microgoals🌲, thank you everyone who became additional Board Game Geek fans! Everyone jumping on has led to us now only being two fans away from another tree! 🌲🌳

What's more, our Facebook post is only one share away from also gaining another tree!🌳🌲

Okay! Onto the Dev Blog! Today is all about those pesky little tokens burdening our planet!

Strain; the burden we place upon our world

One of the questions we get asked a lot is; what does strain represent? The most common assumption is that it represents CO2, but the fact is that the burden we place upon our planet isn’t as simple as measuring and reducing CO2.

The uncomfortable truth is that there are many other ways we damage our planet:

- Methane production; pumped into the air largely by animal agriculture and oil/gas extraction & use, causes more damage as a greenhouse gas than CO2, even though it doesn’t last nearly as long.

- Freshwater usage; draining our natural water supplies in order to irrigate our fields and fuel our industry (only 10% of worldwide freshwater usage is due to domestic use) destroys ecosystems and leads to droughts, habitat destruction and land degradation.

- Chemical and Plastic pollution; impacting our land, oceans and air, these can permeate into any ecosystem, resisting breakdown and being consumed by fish and wildlife, with devastating long-term effects. Even aside from the world at large, humanity itself is suffering from chemical pollution.

- Biodiversity Loss; overfishing and hunting of specific species, along with habitat destruction contributes to the extinction of animals across the world, interrupting and breaking food chains and ecosystems, and breaking million-year old cycles that helped our Earth self-regulate and heal itself.

- Land Conversion; deforestation, wetlands draining, city expansion, and the increasing desertification of over-worked land leads to more and more of our planet being stripped of its natural coverage to make way for commodification.

Each of these issues are linked, and in many cases, one will be the cause or effect of another. For example, as chemicals increase the degradation of our land, we convert more natural space to replace it, leading to biodiversity loss and draining new and different freshwater sources.

That’s a lot to keep track of!

In the early stages of Earth Rising, we experimented with the idea that each Unsustainable Practice would contribute a type of Strain that reflected that particular practice’s real life damage. Overfishing would add Biodiversity Strain, while Synthetic Materials added Chemical Pollution Strain, and so on. Meanwhile their alternatives, the Sustainable side, would reduce that same Strain type.

Sure enough, it was just too difficult to keep track of, not to mention that there quickly became glaring implications that certain practices would need to contribute to multiple types of Strain (deforestation, for example, would damage biodiversity, land conservation, and increase CO2!) which made for the wildly complicated process of working out which practices added which strain types from certain sectors and… yeah, it quickly became apparent that if this game was going to be fun, it first needed to be simple enough to actually play.

Ecological Burdens keep track so you don’t have to

While originally our Ecological Burdens around the board were effectively just places to collect different Strain types, we ended up adding the different forms of Strain around the board, strategically placed to represent the ways in which the different sectors added Strain. With this in place, we could simplify the counters to become the non-descript “Strain”, allowing players to distribute the effects of each sector easily with simple calculations.

Better yet, through the overlapping of Ecological Burdens with sectors, this makes no single sector responsible for an Ecological Collapse. While in reality this might be more possible (we’re looking at you, real life Agriculture sector) we found through our playtests that it was important for co-operation that a single player was not blamed for the effects of those disasters.

Just like in the real world, we all share the brunt of Ecological Collapse, and pointing fingers rather than working together to solve the root of the problem will ultimately be our undoing.

Through this, we felt Earth Rising embodied through its mechanics and play the very attitude we need, alongside the cause and effect nature of our Climate Crisis!

Try Earth Rising for yourself online and leave a comment below; do you agree we struck that balance right?

We'll see you in two days time (Monday) with our next update: Practices and Supporting Meeple

Catch you then!

~Laurie & the SDR Team

135% funded, Stretch Goal #2 unlocked ⚫, and Dev Blog 4!
over 2 years ago – Sun, Sep 05, 2021 at 10:54:47 AM

Welcome everyone who's joined us, with your help we've unlocked Stretch Goal #2: Wooden Strain Tokens! ⚫!!!

In the image above I am holding one of Earth Rising's Strain tokens, a small punchboard circle that represents a portion of the pollution and destruction we're placing on our planet! How fun!

While playing the game you are constantly moving these around, taking them off and adding them to different burdens. Now they will no longer be small, cardboard circles and instead be small wooden circles!

Why is this great? Well the added production may have made them a little more expensive to produce, but the wooden circles will be much easier to pick up. This is, to me, really important as they're the second most interactive element on the board! Earth Rising's Strain tokens could at times be a bit of a pain to pick up and distribute, and I'm very pleased to say this will no longer be a problem. These tactile counters will raise the quality and enjoyability of the game to a whole new level!

Also, I don't know if you've noticed but... at the time of writing this we're just £150 away from hitting our third Stretch Goal: Custom Wooden Meeple! The team have made me promise not to do an extra update outside the usual schedule, so I'll expect to be gushing about them on Saturday!

Finally, our quantity of trees unlocked has risen to a whopping 🌲37 trees🌳!! (That will make 771kgs of carbon absorbed per year once fully grown! Go us!)

We are literally one Board Game Geek Fan away from making that number 38. Just saying... 😉

 Check out our other micro-goals too and see how you can help us plant even more!

And now, by popular demand (7 votes across Twitter, Discord and comments), we learn about the Eco Investor!

The Eco Investor: The Means to a Beginning

The Eco Investor is the specialist of the Infrastructure sector. His ability lets him draw extra cards and give them away to other players, or put them at the bottom of the Social Influence deck. As with other abilities, the more Sustainable practices within his sector, the more cards he can draw and give away.

What is Infrastructure, and why is the Eco Investor its specialist?

The Infrastructure sector is the means through which our society functions - the roads we travel upon and how they’re planned, the water pipes and electrical lines, the internet speeds and accessibility, along with what these things are made from. Of course, the foremost part of any society is that it is where we live, and so the quality and design of our infrastructure is what directly determines our quality of living.

The Eco Investor is the specialist of this sector because, while our financial system remains as it does, no project of any kind is able to be built without considerable financial backing. Yet despite assumptions, the Eco Investor is not necessarily a private investor, but represents investments from all origins: Private, Not-for-profits, governmental and even public fundraising!

These are the means through which our Infrastructure is funded, and in turn enable us to put into place positive, long lasting solutions that serve the public interest. It’s when these investments are focused on short-term monetary gain with no concern for longevity that we find ourselves with overpriced services, low quality housing, failing water supplies, intermittent power, and low speed internet.

By implementing practices such as rent control, helping expand and conserve natural infrastructure (such as wetlands and forests which create natural temperature and flood protection), and ensuring everyone has access to the amenities they need would guarantee that we could create a high quality of life, without costing the planet.

A Fresh Start for an Uncertain Future

The fascinating thing about investments is that they are an enabler, nothing more. Money can be given to any venture, and money can be lost if those ventures are mismanaged. An investment into a project is a seed, but ultimately does not determine the end result. Any regular Kickstarter backers will know just what I’m talking about! 😉

Due to this, we felt the Eco Investor would be perfectly suited to an ability that passed cards to other players. By giving Influence cards out at a greater rate than usual, and to people of their choosing, the Eco Investor becomes a powerful ally to other sectors, allowing them to make use of their own sectors cards in their turn, rather than relying simply on what they’ve drawn, or the more limited ability of other specialists to pass them cards. In this way, the Eco Investor facilitates the transformation of our society through other players, far more than through their own turn.

Beating the Status Quo at Their Own Game

The other way that the Eco Investor excels is by taking Status Quo cards that are drawn during their “investment” action and being able to place them at the bottom of a deck. This generally evokes a cheer from around a table, which we feel to be a very valid response to stopping a Status Quo Strike in its tracks, but a common and understandable question is: Why can the Eco Investor do this?

Simply, we felt it was great to have a small way in which players could “beat the Status Quo at their own game”. Just as they use their own vast sums of capital to influence the board, the Eco Investor is able to counteract their efforts by placing similar sums in counter-campaigns, or using their own influence to scupper their plans before they’ve begun. It can be hard to remember sometimes, but those who use their money to manoeuvre the levers of power are human too, and what they can do, we can do. It just takes the right kind of influence!

Before we go, we’d like to put out a big thank you to Leo Horn-Phathanothai of the World Resources Institute for helping us with this sector of the game! His knowledge and explanations of what is an incredibly complicated sector were invaluable, and we wouldn’t have been able to portray it correctly without him.

Thanks for reading today’s update about the Infrastructure sector and the Eco Investor! As with all sectors, Infrastructure cannot work alone. The network of support created by all six sectors is necessary for change, which is why throughout the campaign we’ll be doing more specialists and their sectors.

This Saturday we’ll be back with a more complicated update: Strain; The Burden we place upon our world.

Until then, let us know in the comments: How many reusable travel cups do you think the Eco Investor has? ♻️🥤

Catch you Saturday,

~Laurie and the SDR Team