Help Marty Get to Work! : Policy Communication for Boston Climate Change Actions

Communication Design | Communication Prototype for the Mayor’s Office of City of Boston (2020)

As part of the development of new communication strategies for the City of Boston’s Climate Action Plan, "Help Marty Get to Work!" is the alpha prototype of a game aimed to highlight the need to create infrastructures that help reduce individual travel footprint and dependency on cars. In the game, the player is tasked with driving Marty to a meeting under a time constraint. However skillful, the player will discover that his/her driving speed will not exceed much beyond Boston’s inner-city 11mph average for cars (INRIX study).

The 8-bit style for graphics is chosen with the aim to engage the Boomers and Gen Xs who are more habituated to driving and the idea of "car ownership” than the younger generations.

The game, accessible through mobile and desktop browsers, can be further developed to include vehicle choices (e.g. bike, bus, etc) and to have Marty undertaking new challenges related to other policy objectives of the city.

Try the live demo here (https://beat-traffic.netlify.com).

Special thanks to: Ting-Kai Chang (game engine) & Gordon Cyrus (music)