This Was Water, The Ocean Disappeared: to all the dried up lakes and seas and rivers; to those bodies of water that are drying; and the restless salt of the future was created for the 32bit jam 2022 from 29th - 30th October 2022. The optional theme I chose was "The Ocean", but in this game the ocean is absent, only present via the sounddesign. The player explores a deserted area, interrupted by ads reminiscent of privatized water. On the right-hand side of the screen there is some stock video footage I found via pexels. (Initially I wanted to use some actual news coverage of drying bodies of water, but couldn't find any that would've been easy to use and suitable.)

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The short visual art essay starts with a quote from This is Water by David Foster Wallace and continues to quote from the following articles, mainly in the news ticker at the bottom of the screen:

Berwyn, Bob (2019): Global Warming Is Hitting Ocean Species Hardest, Including Fish Relied on for Food
Brian, Sullivan K. (2022): The World’s Rivers, Canals and Reservoirs Are Turning To Dust
Gibbens, Sarah (2019): Ocean heat waves are killing underwater life, threatening biodiversity
Perkins, Tom (2019): The fight to stop Nestlé from taking America's water to sell in plastic bottles
Rosen, Julia (2021): A Billion Sea Creatures Cooked to Death
Schonfeld, Zach (2022): Five weirdest things exposed by drying lakes and rivers.

additional art assets from the unity assetstore: Free Desert Plants by Lemuria & Photoreal Stones Pack Demo by Kanistra Studio

This Was Water, The Ocean Disappeared screenshots