Embark on the H2Mare game “Offshore” adventure! Around a year and a half after its release, the video game is becoming a floating exhibit and sails through Germany on the MS Wissenschaft for an entire summer.
The IWES team of the H2Mare hydrogen flagship project was eagerly awaiting this late summer day two years ago. About five months of intensive tinkering and testing were necessary before the video game “Offshore” could be “handed over” to the public in September 2023. Since its release, the game has not only given thousands of gaming fans their own (virtual) offshore wind farm, but may also have whetted the appetite of some for a career in energy research.
In “Offshore” curious players can produce green hydrogen and trade various power-to-X products. It enables young researchers to engage with future technologies for hydrogen production on the high seas. The game was developed in collaboration with scientists from H2Mare. Figures and research data from the project were incorporated to ensure scientific quality. Everything was implemented by a creative agency.
From an online game to an exhibit hit
After the online game traveled as an exhibit with the hydrogen flagship projects to the Hannover Messe and Achema trade fairs in 2024, H2Mare also presented the game at the world’s largest gaming trade fair, Gamescom in Cologne, in August 2024 – establishing itself as a flagship for innovative science communication.
In the Science Year 2025 – Energy of the Future organized by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology an Space (BMFTR) and the organization of science for science communication in Germany “Wissenschaft im Dialog”, another highlight is now following: Since mid-May, the H2Mare game has been part of the exhibition on the MS Wissenschaft, a floating science center where visitors can try out and participate in various exhibits. From Berlin to the Ruhr region and from Saarland to Bavaria, the ship will make 29 stops in Germany, with a total of 80,000 visitors expected. The grand opening took place on May 14 in the heart of the German capital in the presence of the German Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär.
The game was adapted again for the exhibition and made suitable for the ship. The standard playing time was reduced from ten minutes in the original version to around four minutes, while ensuring that the game works without an internet connection. The finished exhibit consists of a touchscreen monitor mounted on the wall, where visitors can play the game, and an information board with a description of the exhibit.
H2Mare’s threefold presence
In addition to the H2Mare Game, there are two other exhibits on deck of the MS Wissenschaft that make H2Mare research visible and accessible to the public. The exhibit “Hydrogen and Sustainability” illustrates the contribution of climate-neutral green hydrogen to achieving the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using a large pie chart. The interactive map “HyVision” also visualizes current research results from all three BMFTR hydrogen flagship projects as the basis for a future hydrogen economy. The complete list of all exhibits and lenders can be viewed on a virtual tour.
When the MS Wissenschaft anchors in southern Germany for the last time in late summer 2025 – just in time for the second anniversary of the H2Mare Game – H2Mare will have completed five hopefully successful months of the “offshore” mission.
H2Mare is one of three hydrogen flagship projects of the BMFTR and makes an important contribution to achieving the goals of the National Hydrogen Strategy and the associated ramp-up of the German hydrogen economy.
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