Access & Belonging
Whose survival matters? The project asks students to examine injustice and make room for people whose stories are overlooked.
Case study / P134
Characters of Consequence
A character artifact from a story world. A reason to care about what happens next.
Play the exhibition game- Year
- 2026
- Mode
- Project-based studio
- Disciplines
- Literature / Character design / 3D modeling / Packaging / Game design / Film
The project
Characters of Consequence connects post-apocalyptic literature to the worlds we build and the people who inhabit them. Students examine Parable of the Sower alongside questions of injustice, corruption, alternative history, survival, and community. They develop an original character whose personal struggle becomes a short story, a visual, a 3D model, a painted figure, a branded blister package, and a book, with a short film as the next step. Each artifact carries evidence of that world. Together, they ask how storytelling and design can bring empathy to commercial media and reveal the strength people find in themselves and one another.
04symbolic tools
03minutes to play
01teacher’s prototype
Step into the story
Earthseed / The Long Walk
Play the teacher’s prototype: a three-minute nighttime journey with Lauren Olamina. Gather a community, tend the roadside, and reach the first light together.
Begin the walk
Essential question
“How can a character’s struggle—and the things they carry—help us imagine a more caring world?”
Project architecture
- 01Read critically: investigate power, injustice, survival, and the communities people build
- 02Write an original character whose choices and struggle give the story consequence
- 03Translate the story into illustration, a 3D model, and a painted physical figure
- 04Design a brand, blister package, and book as evidence of the character’s world
- 05Let the character act: prototype meaningful game mechanics, then develop a short film
Learning made visible
Personalization
Each student develops an original character, conflict, visual language, and play mechanic connected to the story they want to tell.
Authentic Work
A connected collection of writing, design, fabrication, packaging, and interactive media invites a real audience to care about a character.
Collaborative Design
Critique, shared production tools, and exhibition playtesting help individual worlds grow through the community around them.
Exhibition
The exhibition pairs painted, packaged character figures with their stories and short playable experiences. Visitors can hold the physical artifact, read the world around it, and then make choices alongside its character. The Earthseed game and images shown here are Dane Wirtzfeld’s teaching prototype inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower; student-created characters will follow as the project develops.