Carbon City Zero - our new card game

A deck-building card game where players race to create the first zero carbon city.

We created a card game to get people talking (and learning) about the choices our towns and cities need to make to take action on climate change. We launched it on Kickstarter in September, and people loved it! We reached our funding goal in just 20 minutes, and we’ve now raised 14 times that amount.

For £200, you can nominate your own town or city to feature as one of eight special cards in the game. So far, Manchester, Brighton, Sheffield, Calderdale and Bristol have been nominated, leaving three spots to be snapped up. The artist Tony Pickering will illustrate each town, and the cards will have their own special rules that can be used in the game.

We worked with games experts at Manchester Metropolitan University to create the game, with the aim of getting people talking about cleaning up our energy system. That means taking the carbon out of the electricity we use in our homes, schools and workplaces, as well as the heat we use to warm our buildings.

As a newly appointed city mayor, you’ll be tasked with creating a carbon neutral city. It sounds easy, but you'll soon discover that your carbon budgets are hard to balance. Can you hit the zero carbon target before your rival city mayors? 

Carbon City Zero is a deck-building game for 2-4 players (or 4-8 if you play in pairs), taking you on a journey to a new, sustainable city; whether you’re battling fuel poverty, setting up green mortgages, lobbying national government or raising public awareness (our office-mate Steve swears by a strategy of building large factories, we’re not sure he’s quite got it yet...). As city mayor you begin the game with limited resources and heading for a climate catastrophe. Each turn you will develop your city's infrastructure by selecting new pathways for development. Your mayorship will not be easy, in building your city of the future you must contend with local opposition, bad press, funding cuts, and fossil fuel lobbyists. 

The race to become the first zero carbon city is on... 

Get a copy

You can get your hands on a copy of Carbon City Zero by backing our Kickstarter before 19 October. Extra money raised will help us send free copies to schools and local climate action groups around the country.

For more information, contact neil.jones@possible.org