RIZK by Playerthree: the Science Museum's climate risk game

RIZK is a free online strategy game made by the London studio Playerthree for the Science Museum in London. It was made to promote Atmosphere, a new museum gallery about how the Earth's atmosphere works and how it is changing. The game belongs to the museum's Climate Changing program, a three-year run of exhibitions and installations about environmental conservation. Its job is to raise awareness of the science behind climate change.

The Atmosphere gallery has five zones: how the atmosphere works, the history of climate research, greenhouse gases, the carbon cycle, and adaptation to climate change. Casson Mann designed the space, and the digital interactives came from Nick Bell Design and All of Us. A central console lets visitors change a gallery world that shows how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere.

Shell and Siemens were principal sponsors of RIZK and the Climate Changing program. Bank of America Merrill Lynch was a major sponsor, the Garfield Weston Foundation a major funder, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs added support.

RIZK is a tower defense game with a twist on risk. The setting is an alien landscape, and the goal is to grow a mother plant. Players place collectors that gather resources, and each type of collector gathers only one kind. Quick, cheap resources raise the chance that nearby threats release spores that damage the plant. Defenders protect it, and coins pay for repairs and upgrades.

Every action moves a risk level. If resources are drained too fast, environmental defenders attack the plant until gathering slows. When the plant is fully grown it produces a seed that carries the player to the next level, and the game has 20 of them. If plant health reaches zero, the game is over. Resources get scarcer and threats get more dangerous as play continues.

Playerthree's creative director, David Streek, said the look drew on science-fiction posters of the 1950s and 1960s. He also explained that the side-on 2D view lets enemies move along more varied paths than in a standard tower defense game, and that no single strategy works for all 20 levels.

Playerthree is still working. Its website calls it an independent digital production company in London that has made games, interactive learning and branded content from 2001 onward, and its menu includes a Serious Games section. The home page does not mention RIZK or the Science Museum.

RIZK was built as a Flash game, and no current page offering it was found on the studio's site or elsewhere among official sources. The games directory lists its status as not confirmed.