A mixed-reality game exploring how everyday food choices contribute to climate change — turning environmental impact into an immediate, shared and playable experience.
Around 1/3 of global greenhouse-gas emissions comes from the food industry.
The Warming Table is a mixed-reality experience in which players work together to make food choices while balancing survival and environmental responsibility.
The table represents our daily grocery choices — creating a direct metaphor between the food placed on our tables and the impact placed on our planet.
Survive the week. Preserve the island. Waste nothing.
Players are invited to spend a week on a beautiful, biodiverse island. Their task is to survive while protecting the natural world around them.
The catch is that the water rises as their carbon footprint increases. Every item of food has an expiry date, and players must decide whether to eat, freeze, share or waste it before time runs out.
They cannot consume everything at once, so survival depends on careful planning, communication and resource management. Rather than presenting climate data as an abstract statistic, the experience makes the consequences of collective decisions visible in real time.
Careful food choices keep the island balanced, biodiverse and above water.
Waste and higher-carbon choices raise the water and place the ecosystem at risk.
The highest footprint transforms the landscape and pushes the island towards collapse.
Four people sit at the table and take on four different roles. Each player can see and do something the others cannot, turning climate responsibility into a collective challenge that can only be solved through communication and teamwork.
Can see the carbon footprint of every food item and reveal its environmental cost to the group.
Can pause expiration by freezing food, but only three items can be frozen at any one time.
Can see the expiration countdown for every item and warn the group before food becomes waste.
Can see every player's health bar and wellbeing status, helping the group balance survival and nutrition.
Four people. Multiple disciplines. One shared vision.
The project was developed by a team of four in response to a client brief from UAL and UNIT9 as part of our curricular work. I took on the role of project lead, guiding the work from research and concept development through to the functional mixed-reality prototype.
Following submission, the project was taken forward for further development and put forward for the Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards. The interdisciplinary process brought together creative direction, game design, XR development, real-time interaction and 3D animation.
Meet the four-person team behind The Warming Table.
Research and creative direction.
Research and creative direction.
Research and creative direction.
Research and creative direction.