Rising is a cooperative survival experience that places participants in the roles of key societal stakeholders—Working Class, Middle Class, Upper Class, Business Owners, and Policymakers. As a team, participants navigate a timeline toward the year 2042, attempting to stave off the submergence of New York City through a series of increasingly difficult policy and lifestyle decisions.

• Asymmetric Action Decks: Each participant possesses a unique deck of “Action Cards” specific to their class. While cards describe actions, their environmental and personal impacts remain hidden, forcing players to rely on intuition and limited communication.
• High-Pressure Decision Windows: Each round features a 15-second “Action Phase.” Participants must tap their physical cards onto RFID sensors to commit to a choice. This brief window simulates the urgency and chaos of real-world climate crisis management.
• Systemic Feedback & Review: After the timer expires, the “Review Phase” reveals the systemic consequences: a summary displays the collective progress in slowing global warming versus the individual socioeconomic impact on each player’s class.
• Ambient Visualization: The game’s state is physically manifested through an LED array integrated into the installation tent. These lights rise toward the ceiling in real-time as sea levels increase, creating an immersive, claustrophobic atmosphere that visually communicates the team’s failure or success.

The session concludes successfully if the team reaches the year 2042. However, the game ends immediately if the mathematical model determines that NYC has been submerged, signaling a collective failure to balance class interests with environmental preservation.