The game Lichenia was created by game designer Molleindustria (aka Paolo Pedercini).
Lichenia’s mission is to “reshape the natural and built environment, recycle abandoned cities, and develop sustainable cities” by placing strange blocks on polluted and destroyed landscapes. The player does not know the purpose of these blocks, as the designer wants the player to be able to observe the dynamics, rather than interpret the visuals in the most direct and prescriptive way. The bottom of the screen tells us a mythical story about death and rebirth and reveals some basic parameters that allow us to “play” the Lichenia. It’s “a series of magical realist alternatives to SimCity.”
Lichenia utilizes Everest Pipkin’s Mushy tile set, a visual that depicts mushy seas of pixel art. Most cubes would duplicate themselves after being placed on the canvas. They would also “interact” (replace, mix, disappear) with the previous cube and produce positive or negative effects. The connections between different cubes reflect the more complex code-based implementation of logical judgment.
Lichenia is a critique of the classic game SimCity. It reflects the contemporary context of climate change by depicting an old, polluted world. By emphasizing trial and error and the uncertain relationship between action and effect, the game prompts players to think critically about the difficulty of human development. It encourages participants to immersively overcome various natural disasters and rebuild their homes in the post-urban wasteland of the future and prompts us to reflect on the long-term consequences of today’s human overuse and destruction of natural resources.
CCLab explores concepts such as interactive art, game design, and creative coding. Lichenia aligns with these concepts as it combines game design and interactive elements to allow players to participate in reshaping the environment. The game’s use of neural networks to generate visual effects also reflects the fusion of art and technology.
Lichenia exemplifies the potential of games as a medium to explore complex social and environmental issues. Further exploration of alternative ways to stimulate interactive experiences prompts us to think about the educational significance of games beyond entertainment. It inspires us to create our own games or interactive projects to explore social and political themes.
I am very interested in game design and trying to find a way to express my ideas and thoughts because I personally think that interactive art or games are like building the stage for participants to act as performers. This game gives me a calm, good mood (as a game) and lets me think of natural environmental problems (as an artwork) at the same time. During this game’s playthrough experience, I found that this game is the direction I wanted to work for because this is absolutely more than entertainment and also not as strong as a declaration of the creator’s mind. I gained a lot from this research.