Sunrise City

Are you ready to work together?

For years, scientists have been saying that the climate battle will be won or lost in the next decade. Substantial progress must be made to halve global emissions by 2030 to avoid catastrophe. Politicians and the media have picked up the message; some have taken it as a rallying cry. But is a fifteen-year goal realistic?

Playing as individual aldermen of a large metropolitan city, players must collaborate and cooperate to take the reins and curb the effects of climate change before it’s too late. Our team hopes to inspire positive changes in individual opinion by using real-world examples and scenarios to encourage lifestyle changes, activism and open minded forethought.

Where serious meets social

Sunrise City is a cooperative strategic board game for four to six players. Playing as the aldermen of a large metropolitan city, players must work together to invest in their city and halt the effects of climate change by the United Nations’ proposed goal of 2030, when the climate crisis will become irreversible. 

The game spans fifteen years, with every round of gameplay representing one year. Players will take turns investing in Sustainable Development Goals (Goals) for their city in order to achieve a sustainable society. While players invest in the Goals, various Disasters will occur at the end of each round to simulate the existing effects of climate change. In order to prepare for these disasters, players will also have the opportunity to invest in Protection cards: investing in infrastructure and public policy to mitigate some, if not all, of the damages caused by natural disasters.

If players do not adequately invest in Protection measures, they can lose progress on the investments they have made towards their Goals. This is more expensive in the long run and it decreases the effect that the city as a whole will have against global climate change.  Each individual player will receive their own budget that is distributed at the start of every year. However, cooperation is not only encouraged: it is expected. Working together is the only way to achieve the maximum amount of Goals met in such a short time frame. 

The game will end after ten turns have passed, with each turn representing one real-world year. We begin the game in 2015 and end the game in the year 2030, our last chance at halting the damage we have done to the climate. After the game has ended, points will be tallied up via a score card (with points for every Goal and Protection card invested in, and penalties for Goals ignored). Players can then consult a table to see how well they had handled their fifteen-year run, as well as what they can do in real-life to help accelerate the Sustainable Development Goal progress.

Anything else?

This page is currently a work in progress. Thank you for your patience!

Our background was drawn by vextok on Freepik.