Venice 2089 takes us into a possible future where the effects of climate change have ruined Venice’s tourism and general comfort of living.
Playing as Nova, an apathetic young adult on vacation from school and exams, the player strolls around the now flooded and floating city of Venice. Trying to just kill some time and find something to do to rid themself of boredom, they complete tasks and requests of various citizens in the most desolate city. The citizens are mostly stoic people just trying to work and pass time in this city that is always sinking and suffering from higher tides. With their trusty hoverboard and drone, Nova tries to distract themself from the ordinary of life and their inner struggle of what Nova should do for their future.
Venice suffers from heightened tides and as a result, the game time is stretched into days that switch between low and high tides. This creates two types of environments for Nova to explore and traverse with their hoverboard to hopefully find something fun to do. Speaking with other citizens and occasionally having a funny joke or jab here and there seems to be a gem in this mostly dreary and possible future. Each character has their personality and view on how the rising tides are affecting their way of living in Venice.
Venice 2089 is played in a “2.5D” perspective, with 3D modeled settings and backgrounds along with 2D styled characters and objects. It sports a dynamic and ever-changing soundtrack following Nova’s activities throughout the game.
Venice 2089 is developed by Safe Place Studio and is currently in development. Previously known as Mentis Falli Team, development started with the team at Event Horizon School of Digital Art. It originally was available on the Event Horizon itch.io page. However, there now is an optimized playable demo available on Steam to try out.
