Rizk

RIZK was created for the National Science Museum to promote Atmosphere, their new exhibition space. The exhibition and game were designed increase awareness of, and to educate visitors about the science behind climate change.

Rizk takes place on an alien landscape, the objective being to grow your plant using the resources you find. How you source energy and defend your plant awakens the resident plants, which threaten your plant’s health.

Playerthree won a tough competitive pitch to secure the work. It was a fascinating and challenging project and possibly the most unusual briefing session we’ve experienced. In the Science Museum’s own words, they wanted something totally original to try and highlight risk, one of the key factors in understanding the impact that climate change has on the planet. The last thing they wanted was another carbon cycle simulation game.

We aimed to create an original game with broad demographic appeal using elements of strategy, planning and action to challenge the player over 20 levels.

Playing Rizk demonstrates the delicate ecological balance of our planet, and how advancing our own external goals can disturb that balance. As the user plays, resources become more scarce,and threats more dangerous.

The key to success is to assess where the risk is based in a level and plan how your impact on the environment will affect your chances of survival.

Rizk has also been very well received by the international gaming press, including very positive reviews on Kotaku, Indie Games and JayIsGames:

“By the time it really hits you that flash-based tower defense game Rizk is actually teaching you about climate change, you might be enjoying yourself too much to care.” – Kotaku

“RIZK, without sounding overtly ‘in your face’, rather neatly encapsulates the antagonistic relationship man’s technological progress has with Mother Nature.” – Indie Games

“…one of the better edu-games around” – JayIsGames

Seeded on Miniclip, Kongregate, Newgrounds, e4.com and other popular games websites, Rizk had exceptional results in its first 3 months online:
• 3.8 million games played
• 877,698 Absolute Unique Visitors, with an average 15 minute dwell time

“Playerthree responded to our challenging brief with creativity and enthusiasm. At every step of the process they listened carefully to our requirements, pushing back where appropriate and solving problems quickly and without fuss. From concept development through to visuals, technical and post-delivery they consistently kept the standard high and it has been a pleasure to work with them.” – Alex Hendry, Project Manager, NMSI Web Team