Venice: The Tide Traveler
It’s the year 2076. After more than a century of slow subsidence, started in the 1920s, Venice has completely sunk into the lagoon. Its inhabitants have now left, and all that can be seen is the top part of the Saint Mark’s Bell Tower. Some cruise boats still come by, selling the odd experience of watching the beautiful churches and basilicas through the water – which you can also snorkel to, like an odd coral reef.
You were born in 2053, on an artificial island in the Adriatic Sea, from a displaced Venetian family. Your heritage includes dukes, gondoliers, merchants, farmers, wood-workers, fishing workers, travelers, artists, but you have never seen the fabled city your family tells you about: Venice is now lost to the water.
Still, there is hope. You are part of the Tide travelers, a group of scientists and researchers tasked with the goal of preventing this disaster and saving Venice from sinking. On your first day of training, you meet one of highest-ranking officers, Marco Polo. Rumors say that Marco is now about 130-year old. You remember reading the narration of his travels to the four corners of Asia, but meeting him in person is really a great surprise, and a great honor.
He starts explaining that the Tide travelers have access to time travel, and he plans to send you back to specific key events in the Venetian history, so you can influence them and hopefully steer Venice’s fate to a better ending. And yes, he agrees with you that the name “the Tide travelers” is a bad water-based pun on “time”.
Goals of the game
In the game, you’ll have to try to maintain a balance between three key factors:
Tourism
- While tourism can destroy Venice’s soul, it’s crucial as a source of income, and to bring visibility (and resources) to Venice’s problems.
- In the worst scenario, where tourism fully overtakes any other concern, a cruise ship crashes into St. Mark’s square and destroys the historical Duke’s Palace.
- With no tourism, Venice is forgotten and disappears from the world’s map. There will be no resources for art conservation or to protect the city from the rising water.
Production activities
- Historically, Venice has been a harbor, hosting trade and commercial activities. Still today, the harbor in nearby Marghera is a site of chemical production. Other activities included naval construction, glass making, a flour mill, and a large production of wood matches.
- With production maxed out, there’ll be a large industrial accident, a fire or oil spill.
- With no production, all residents will leave, and Venice will become a theme park.
Environment, local residents
- Local residents keep Venice alive. Also, the lagoon and its delicate ecosystem must be protected.
- Politics supporting rent control can defend residents. Initiative to reduce pollution and manufacturing will preserve the lagoon.
- When this parameter goes to zero, larger and larger tide events will keep covering Venice, slowly destroying its building.
- When this goes to max, tourism and production are badly impacted, eventually reducing the available resources.
Key events (to be researched)
Key events (to be researched)
- Older historical events?
- Opening of Porto Marghera, and the beginning of the chemical industry (1922)
- Closing of Molino Stucky, the flour mill (1955)
- Closing of Saffa, the wood matches factory (1950s?)
- Great tide of 1966.
- A channel for large tank ships to Marghera is dug (1980s?) affecting the water flow.
- Venice relaxes restriction to open up hotels, booming of hotel industry (1990s)
- The Fenice Theater burns down (1996?)
- Venice opens up to cruise ships (2000s?)
- Loophole found in the laws about artisanal activities, booming of mask and glass shops (2000s)
- Beginning of the construction of the mobile dam MOSE to prevent high tide (2003)
- Venice relaxes restrictions to open up new restaurant (2010s)
- AirBnb, explosion of available housing for tourism (2008)
- Tide events of 2019.
- COVID pandemics of 2020
- Some made-up future event?
Game dynamics
You can choose to travel to specific time events and steer them in the right direction. It’s not all butterflies and rainbows, you will need to compromise and maybe tolerate cruise ships.
Puzzles and time paradoxes
Time permitting, I’ll incorporate a few puzzles to collect key information to complete your task and change the events. For instance, you can prevent the tide in 2019 if you can figure out how to start the MOSE dam (light switch puzzle). You’ll also go through the maze of the crypt in St. Mark’s basilica. Why? I don’t know yet, but I have the code 
I’ll let users choose the complexity level and/or make the puzzles fully optional.
Given the time travel component, I’d like to build in some time paradox. E.g. you find a note with some information, which you use when you go back in time. But you are the one that wrote the note, after you did what was suggested in the note itself!
Game development
This is a large project, and I want to make sure this goes somewhere.
I think I’ll start with a tracer bullet implementation. You can go back to all those events, choose yes or no, and see what happens. Each event will alter one of the three key factors, and there will be a few different endings for some of the configurations.
I’ve enlisted a friend, who will help with some research, and I will use that to flesh out some of the episodes described in the game.
Well, I’m still at the very earliest stage. Let me know if you have ideas and suggestions. Down the line, contributions to writing would be also great! Have a great weekend.