Game mechanics
Earth2.0 is not supposed to replicate earth's climate. Instead, it is a platform to explore wild, fictional scenarios. In doing so, we can better understand relationships between organisms and their environment.
Even simple relationships can give rise to complex behaviours. John Conway's game of life (click the example below) uses four rules to decide whether a particular cell lives or dies in each generation, creating an interesting automated population of cells.
Earth2.0 will use a similar generation-based game design, where simple rules tell each individual whether to move, consume resources (turn vegetation into no vegetation), multiply, or die.
The population will have basic requirements for land, water and food. On top of this, they can only tolerate a particular set of environmental conditions, which influence their demographic behavious.
The world that our population inhabits is not static either. Basic rules will simulate the transfer of energy across grid cells (like those above and below) to determine climate. The population alters its environment via vegetation consumption and gas emissions.
The main component of the interface will be a scalable web map, consisting of a small number of 'climate cells', which regenerate monthly. These cells are further divided into 'population cells', which regenerate daily.
Players will have control over how the population organises over time, where it develops and how it consumes resources. Players will have to manage trade-offs between population hapiness, productivity and survival to keep things afloat!