You could already have read some exciting news about the Terra Futura board game created by the „Game on! Do not let the climate change end the game!” project under the leadership of Czech partner, Na mysli. 

It is a game to address a wide audience that has been translated into all project languages — English, Bulgarian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, and Slovak — as well as French and Polish.

It is a game with the theme of climate change and its impact on Europe and the global South. The players are introduced to the economical processes and resources of the production of our elemental necessities as products of food, shelter, and infrastructure. There are 3x3 units of plots to operate with and sustain by the actions of resources and production. These actions are coming with certain emissions and since the pollution is paired with a penalty, there is a need to consider properly if the product is indeed necessary. 

Meanwhile, we are all waiting for it to be released  Hungarian partner MTVSZ has begun to organize game clubs of trials which were as well some fun and an opportunity to gain feedback. We already know that there is a huge interest in all of the Game on! partner’s country not just because of the eye catchy design, but the complexity of the engine-build strategy game that is offered to the players. The main characteristic of the experience of playing through the process is the real understanding that all of our decisions have valid impacts in several unexpected ways.

The Hungarian adoption of the Terra Futura added some new aspects to deal with the same problems that are highlighted to face in the original game as well. There were two new aspects included in the rules. One was the withdrawal of the possibility of emission sequestration, so the focus is directed toward limiting the consumption of products with pollutive productions. The other one was the creation of a common area of the game to rise the cooperative attitude among the players. This community aspect means that the players together have to complete a certain amount of product, but with each action there is a chance for the individual decision of the player whether to contribute to the common area or not.  Cooperation is lifesaving because the game will take over if the common aim won’t completed. Same plays for the pollution limits of the common area where participants - according to the rule - have to take care that they won’t reach the limit of pollution for the sake of their life. 

In the Hungarian version there is a plant of recycling to be able to turn polluting emissions to become a resource of production once again and extend the lifecycle of the materials. During one game session the plant can be used only three times, so we still can feel how recycling is also an end-of-pipe solution since there are still new resources and waste production coming along with the process. 

This thoughtful adaptation was created in a common process of the Hungarian partner, NSC – Friends of the Earth Hungary’s partner organizations. They all had trials of 5 versions of the game and after some changes they played new trials and finally crafted the whole game accordingly.  The name of the adapted game is true to its origin – Planet, the pure/clean game. 

The new aspects are fulfilling the wishes according to the feedback of the youth generation. The players can easily explore the value of the communities hence when one is in the winning series still has to count on all the parties and seek for cooperation to not lose it all at the end. It is all about the processes of present times and the capability of seeing ourselves to indicate the future.