Context of Practice 3: Back Story

As I knew now where I wanted my level to be set I wanted to start thinking about the back story to the game and I already had a good idea in mind when researching the SGSV. The seed vault was built to store seeds so that if there ever was a global disaster, like a nuclear war for example there would be a way to start growing crops again in the world. Having said this I wanted to start thinking about what disaster has happened to my game now in order to process with the story. I wanted it to be a disaster that would get rid of most people in the world and leave only a few survivors left that were maybe all in one place at the same time.

Nuclear War
I did some research into the effects of a nuclear war on the Earth and found some really interesting papers that scientists had published regarding their simulations into what would happen if 100 'small' nuclear bombs where deployed all over the world and the results really are frightening. The following below is taken from this website and this other website which I believe are talking about the same experiment.

'Life after a nuclear war revealed: Computer models reveal Earth would suffer a 20-year-long winter and worldwide famine

Researchers from Colorado studied the effects of nuclear conflict on Earth, they used climate models to predict what would become of the planet and their research looked at the detonation of 100 'small' nuclear warheads. In their paper they conclude humanity would have been affected for decades, there would be worldwide famine, deadly frosts and huge ozone losses and the results would be the death of hundreds of millions or billions.'

The effects that would occur would be:

'- Five megatons of black carbon enter the atmosphere immediately. Black carbon comes from burned stuff and it absorbs heat from the sun before it can reach the Earth. Some black carbon does eventually falls back to Earth in rain.- After one year, the average surface temperature of the Earth falls by 1.1 kelvin, or about two degrees Fahrenheit. After five years, the Earth is, on average, three degrees colder than it used to be. Twenty years on, our home planet warms again to about one degree cooler than the average before the nuclear war. Earth's falling temperatures reduces the amount of rain the planet receives. Year five after the war, Earth will have 9 percent less rain than usual. Year 26 after the war, Earth gets 4.5 percent less rain than before the war.

- In years 2-6 after the war, the frost-free growing season for crops is shortened by 10 to 40 days, depending on the region.

- Chemical reactions in the atmosphere eat away Earth's ozone layer, which protects Earth's inhabitants from ultraviolet radiation. In the five years after the war, the ozone is 20 to 25 percent thinner, on average. Ten years on, the ozone layer has recovered so that it's now 8 percent thinner.

- The decreased UV protection may lead to more sunburns and skin cancers in people, as well as reduced plant growth and destabilized DNA in crops such as corn.

- In a separate study, published in 2013, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War estimated 2 billion people would starve in the wake of a 100-A-bomb war.'

'Pictured is the abandoned city of Prypiat, which is still experiencing the negative effects of nuclear fallout from Chernobyl is a nice indication of some nuclear effects'

This article shows what would happen if 100 'small' bombs where dropped, what I want to produce for my game is the aftermath of more being dropped so that nearly all of the world is gone and still in this period of 20 years of devastation. I really want to use this idea for my game level so wanted to work out a story that could go with that and below is what I want the back story to my game to cover.

Back Story
What year is it: 2031

What year did the war end: 2027
Which countries where involved: The USA, The UK, China and Russia
Which countries are left populated: Only small islands are left and remote locations in larger countries, there is still bad air quality and the weather has been colder for years.
Estimated Population before war: 7,406,521,216
Estimated Population after war: 3,472,391
How many characters are there: 5
Where were the character when they met: When the characters first met they were the only 5 survivors of an airplane crash that was shot down in the air by Swish authorities which sent them down into Lake Geneva. There were able to swim to land and make it to a nearby apartment block and down into it's Nuclear Bunker to stay alive for the next 4 weeks, where they survived on the food that had been stored down there. The only times they had contact was from the radio down their as they did not go outside due to the radiation.
'Every inhabitant must have a protected place that can be reached quickly from his place of residence" and "apartment block owners are required to construct and fit out shelters in all new dwellings", according to articles 45 and 46 of the Swiss Federal Law on Civil Protection.'
Where do they plan on going: Svalbard
Why are they going: Over the last few months they have been running out of food and have no way of replenishing it since many of the animals are now dead and there is no world leaders ordering production. They have heard rumors from the military radio signals about a seed vault up in Svalbard that could be accessed and used to begin growing crops again in the right environment.
How will they get there: They will travel by any means necessary to get to the top of Denmark, by foot or car if they can and once there will take a boat up the coast of Norway and eventually sail onto Svalbard from there.
Where will they go after they have the seeds: South America, to find a suitable place to begin growing their crops where the weather is starting to get better.

'The route the character would take from Geneva in Switzerland to Svalbard'

Now I have a suitable back story for my game I wanted to look at the different characters that were going to feature in my game. I knew that there were going to be 5 main ones, maybe of which if I was going to make this a full game, they could be playable and you could pick which one you would play as. But for now I am very happy with the back story and think that it will work well as a games back story and even if it won't be fully present in the game, I can still use it to image the setting of Svalbard better.