"It's all fun and games until somebody detonates a warhead."
Unless you've been living on the moon, you'll know that nuclear energy is currently a hot news topic, what with Iran's nuclear programme getting the US hot under the collar and all.
Greenpeace have always been against the use of nuclear power, and required an online device which in a fun and engaging way would "promote action against the US war plans to nuke Iran, and be added to banners and pushed out across a number of channels the couple of weeks around the Chernobyl anniversary (24th April) as well."
So, with Kaius on board again to weave the trademark pixel magic, we created Flash game Duke AntiNuke.
The game itself is an homage to old 8-bit video games in the same way that Eco Quest is, except this time we opted for the tried-and-tested "platform game" format. The gameplay is simple and immediate: run and jump around the four levels (each of which is a nuclear power plant or missile silo, set over several screens) and decommission them by activating cordon points. But you're not alone! The security guards are looking out for you, terrorists are digging their way into the plants, and toxic waste is leaking from some of the barrels... |
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Once levels are complete, the nuclear power plant or missile silo is converted to a renewable energy source, and the world becomes a happier and safer place.
To drive home the horrors of nuclear power and educate the player, a number of "fact" icons are scattered around the levels; collecting one will reveal an anti-nuclear or pro-renewable energy fact. Some of them are real eye openers.
Under the bonnet, almost everything in the game is controlled by XML: the numbers and layouts of screens, the positions of all in-game objects, their graphics and behaviours (where applicable), the random order of fact icon facts... Although it needed a lot of "testing"(!), it meant tweaks could be quickly and easily made with a text editor.
UPDATE 27/04/2006: Greenpeace have just let us know that Duke Anti-nuke is currently in the top ten of pages visited at the Greenpeace International site, and the 42nd most visited page in the ENTIRE greenpeace.org domain (including national office sites)! Yikes!
Play Duke AntiNuke here. Flash 6. Finished: 12/04/2006
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