Capture Carbon: A Playdate Game

Capture Carbon is a satirical climate crisis game made by Adam Procter for the Playdate and its unique controller interface, the crank.

In response to the Global Game Jam 2025 theme "Bubble", this core game play loop revolves around you using the crank to capture carbon dioxide molecules, represented as bubbles, you must balance capturing carbon versus the increasing energy demand this technology requires, trying to keep the carbon in the atmosphere below the threshold.

As players get better at the game they enter a mindful state of continuous game play as they realise there is no end to the need to capture carbon, when you don't come up with ways to put less carbon into the atmosphere, something that is not possible in this "game"

Game Mechanics

• Use the Playdate's crank to control carbon capture equipment
• Monitor and maintain energy levels below 100 units
• Balance carbon capture efficiency with energy consumption

This concept ties together environmental science with game design by incorporating real-world challenges of Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology, which requires significant energy input to function effectively and the fact that removing Carbon is only one part of the solution, putting less Carbon into the atmosphere would make this technology redundant.

To load this game onto your playdate please follow the playdate guide after downloading  - https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/

https://gitlab.adamprocter.co.uk/adamprocter/Bubble - game sourcecode

 https://play.date/ - playdate