HomeFeaturesAmong Ripples: Shallow Waters

Among Ripples' creative director on crayfish, capitalism, and 90s Star TrekA nice chat with Martin Greip

A nice chat with Martin Greip

Even though the demo was barely an hour long, I was still thinking about it days afterwards, so I got in touch with Martin Greip, creative director at developers Eat Create Sleep, to chat about it. We ended up in a long discussion of how management games can subvert capitalism, conservation in the Baltic region,Star Trek,BioShock, and (of course) crayfish. The best bits are below. And if you want to know more, Among Ripples has is going live with aKickstarterthis Tuesday, so you can join my unreasonable pressure campaign to have eels put in the game.

Bigger, actually! The backdrop is Earth around 2040 when we’ve cleaned up our attitude and, in desperation, banded together. The organisation inAmong Ripples: Shallow Watersis modeled on a supranational union of sorts, similar to the EU, or the UN. But imagine a UN that has some actual support behind it. So I guess the Federation from Star Trek might be a better example… ‘90s Star Trek, mind you! And the player is part of the “Freshwater Biome Restoration Divison”, which is just one of, say, 200 teams around the world. I know this sounds like fanfic at this point since it’s not really in the game yet, but we want the story to actually matter in the final game.

What kind of story do you want it to be?

A sort of sombre story, akin toKentucky Route Zero’s delivery. Not a hopeless one, though. The game is built on the mindset that the current economic systems just can’t support this kind of rehabilitation. If you tried to fix things under the current system, you’d just end up destroying them again before long, unless you also fixed the underlying systemic problems.

Act V of Kentucky Route Zero released at the end of last month

So… um, how do we do that?

We don’t aim to come up with a better economic or political reality through game mechanics - if we could, we’d be revolutionary leaders instead of developers.

Still, it’s good to see a game with a utopian vision for once, rather than another neon dystopia.

Several games have examined the problem of relying on endless growth on a finite planet, but mostly through narrative. I love the Oddworld game setting - especially Abe’s Exoddus. As an 11-year-old, dismantling industrial meat farms and bone breweries built on the exploitation of ancient burial sites, and seeing indigenous people fighting back, was eye opening, especially compared to most of the games I played as a kid in the 90’s. But as Chris Franklin (Errant Signal) touches on in thisfantastic talk, there’s only so much you can explore in ‘spatial’ experiences, like Abe’s Exoddus, compared to systemic ones.

I think different genres or ways of play are better suited for different questions, but since the management genre is systemic in nature, it lends itself to “systemic narratives”, like our problems with climate change and ecology. At Gamescom in 2017, I argued that BioShock would’ve been a much better critique of objectivism if you’d played as the manager of Rapture, having to build and hire people to sustain that place.

A better, alternative version of BioShock

One thing I noticed playing the demo, is that the use of money in the game feels a bit… arbitrary, given everything else it does to break away from conventional tycoon games.

The economy right now is pretty abstract, yes. As you can understand that has been the most difficult task, as the management genre is sort of entrenched in the capitalist/expansionist system. For the final game we will model the economy more on public funding, similar to how ecologists work in the real world. Depending on the performance of the player they’d receive different amounts of funding, reviewed each season.

Are you working with any scientists or orgs doing this sort of work IRL?

How complex do you want to get in terms of modelling different kinds of pollutants, and different water chemistry variables? It would be interesting to see nitrogen cycle stuff, for example, or algae blooms from fertiliser runoff.

I often argue conservation narratives shouldn’t just focus on “big name” environments like the Amazon etc; clearly they’re vital, but there’s so much that could be done if people looked to their local environments more as well. I’m guessing you agree?

I remember when I showed the first iteration of our prototype to Gunilla, one of the local professors in ecology. She just exclaimed “[…]people just want to save the cute animals!”. Actually, that moment really made me start thinking that the game shouldn’t just be about the animals themselves, but the ecologists on the frontlines. Their unique perspective is as interesting as any simulation, and it gives a much-needed human connection to this difficult topic.

How many species are you aiming to get in the game?

Will you be looking at smaller organisms - daphnia, insect larvae etc?

We have thought about it, but decided against it, since it’s going to be difficult to simulate it in a way where the player can actually see them and manage them. We made the decision to have the algae represent all of the “smaller” entities, instead making them more tangible. It’s a reasonable abstraction in my opinion.

I guess I can live with it. I mean, I can’t complain, given you put my beloved crayfish in. Crayfish are a big deal in Sweden, right?

Nothing but respect.

Bothculturally as cuisineand as a preservation topic, yes. Sweden used to have a healthy population ofEuropean crayfishor “Flodkräfta” (River Crayfish) as they are called here. People introduced the Signal crayfish here, however, which carried the Crayfish plague, so the local population of European crayfish has almost been wiped out. The ecologist we’re working with said that Gotland is actually one of the last safe havens for the European crayfish, which makes sense since it’s an island.

Exactly the same situation in England, actually - only our native species isaustropotamobius pallipes. Funnily enough, some lakes near me are also home to some of our last few resilient populations.

If there’s one thing I’d appreciate people understand from the game, it’s the crayfish situation.

Amen! Now: what is your personal favourite freshwater fish?

A perch, pictured in Among Ripples.

Believe me, I’ve heard the stories. Dad genuinely used to read me bedtime stories fromThe Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike. Have you ever seen a Gammelgädda?

Sadly, I have never encountered an ancient pike or any other pike.

You knew this was coming, but: are eels coming to the game? I will pay if I need to, in order to ensure their inclusion.

Go on Emelie, look at this guy. He needs to be in this game.

I’m living for it! What else is planned to go in, other than the eels that are definitely being included?

When Among Ripples: Shallow Waters is a thing, we want to expand the story to other parts of the world. We also want to do an ocean game, and a game with forest management as well, all in the same setting we loosely refer to “Among Nature”. There’s only seven of us at present, but when we’ve got some well needed funding we want to grow the team to around 10.

What do you hope to achieve from this game?

Fear is the Mind-killer. Thank you!