Spielregeln fürs Klima

Climate policy can be hard to picture.

Percentages, targets, legislation. Most voters know it matters but can’t connect the policy levers to real outcomes. The brief from Co2 Abgabe e.V. was to change that before the election.

The game let people see how policy choices could affect the 2030 target.

Twelve websites, fourteen conversations.

We analysed 12 existing German climate websites, mapping how they guided users, where they lost them, and what made them feel credible or inaccessible. Then 14 qualitative interviews with people aged 14–28, about climate as a political topic, not just an environmental one.

We aimed to make the issue clearer to people who were still undecided.

Quiet enough to let the illustrations breathe.

We helped the client choose a name and built a minimal brand around it: reduced, but distinctive enough to carry the campaign.

• A

  Type

  Poppins SemiBold, friendly and legible at every size.

• B

  Colour

  A white-to-green palette anchored on #3CC5A5.

• C

  Illustration

  A system of illustrated characters that made the game world feel alive.

You’re the MP now.

Players set policy sliders across sectors like transport, energy and agriculture, then see how their choices change Germany’s projected CO2 savings by 2030. The map is the centrepiece: the canvas where the consequences of your decisions land.

Illustrations keep it warm. The stakes keep it serious.

Two rounds, two big fixes.

First, 10 users in 1:1 video calls using the cognitive walkthrough method. Then a focus group of 5 who explored the prototype together.

• A

  Icons alone confused people

  Navigation relied on icons only. We added labels.

• B

  Science language created distance

  We rewrote for clarity without losing accuracy.

A result people wanted to pass on.

• 4 in 5

  Users wanted to share their results with friends. Not a nice-to-have: that’s the product working.