15 | Life on Land – Green Media Mediography test

Rain World

Rain World might look a bit different than more prominent ‘ecogame’ examples but exhibits a few design decisions that stand out among other digital games and raise pertinent issues: Destabilizing anthropomorphism. The game exclusively features non-human protagonists and antagonists; moreover, while the in-game creatures are inspired by real-world counterparts (e.g. spiders and birds), they are

Half-Earth Socialism

Based on the book of Troy Vetesse and Drew Pendergrass, Half-Earth Socialism is a free videogame in which you are tasked with governing the world, reducing humanity greenhouse gas emissions, protecting biodiversity, and reducing the temperature to 1 degree above industrial levels at the year 2100. To reach that objective you’ll have different policy proposals

The Endless Forest

The Endless Forest is a multiplayer online game PC by Tale of Tales, in which players represent deer in a peaceful forest without goals or the ability to chat. Pictograms above registered deer’s heads represent their names. Players communicate with one another through sounds and body language. From the wiki: “During ‘abiogenesis’, every deer runs

Meadow (computer game)

From the wiki: “Meadow is Might and Delight’s latest release; a massively multiplayer online sandbox that allows players to interact as animals would. Described as a ‘forum in games’ clothing’, this online fable experience lets fans – old and new – come together and experience a peculiar world.” With its focus on nonverbal communication, the

As Far As The Eye

As Far As The Eye is a resource-management roguelike in which the player guides a tribe of anthropomorphic animals of diverse shapes that need to travel to the center of the continent to avoid a flood The game is strongly impregnated on the cultural narratives and practices of the tribe. As the flood is a

Tree

Tree is a VR installation directed by Milica Zec and Winslow Porter that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2017 New Frontier Program, in which the theme was climate change. This virtual experience transforms participants into a rainforest tree. The experience begins with participants planting a real seed given to them by one of the Tree‘s

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a 1984 Japanese animated movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his 1982 manga. One thousand years have passed since the Seven Days of Fire, an apocalyptic war which destroyed human civilization and most of the Earth’s original ecosystem. Scattered human settlements and tribes survive, isolated from

Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing is a 2022 book adaptation directed by Olivia Newman. It dives into the story of Kya Clark who got abandoned by her family from a very young age. She survives in the marshes of North Carolina by herself—living off selling mussels to a local store—and acquires the name ‘marsh girl’ from

Our Planet

Our Planet is a 2019 British nature film series, directed by Alistair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, Colin Butfield and Sophie Lanfear, and narrated by sir David Attenborough. The eight-episode film series aims to inspire its viewers to understand the natural world and to raise awareness about the human footprint on it. This is done through showing the

Walden; or, Life in the Woods

Walden (first published in 1854 as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance. Walden details Thoreau’s experiences over the course of two years, two

Our Planet Live In Concert

Featuring favorite scenes and highlights from the Our Planet series, Our Planet Live in Concert tours international arenas. Hosted by the series composer and Academy Award®-winner Steven Price, the show features spectacular visual and sound effects and on-screen narration from David Attenborough. The magnificent series score is performed live by a 44-piece orchestra. This specially-curated reimagining of the Netflix

Surviving The Aftermath

In Surviving The Aftermath, you manage a colony of refugees in a post-apocalyptic world where natural disasters, bandit attacks and radioactive pollution are constant threats. The resurgence of a modern industrial civilization in your colony is necessary to protect it against a potential future cataclysm. The game reproduces the logic of city builders of increasing

A Life on Our Planet

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future is a 2020 book by documentarian David Attenborough and director-producer Jonnie Hughes. It follows Attenborough’s career as a presenter and natural historian, along with the decline in wildlife and rising carbon emissions during the period. Attenborough warns of the effects that climate change and biodiversity

A Life On Our Planet

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet is a 2020 British documentary film narrated by David Attenborough. Attenborough describes this film as his “witness statement” on the current state of the planet due to humanity’s impact on nature and his hopes for the future. He shares his concern from Pripyat, a town deserted after the nuclear Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986, and intersperses his

Symbiosis

Symbiosis (Polymorf, 2021) is a performative, multisensory, multiuser and multi-species-storytelling VR experience. It offers a speculative world set 200 years in the future on the ruins of the Anthropocene after climate disaster has changed the world beyond recognition. This installation offers blueprints for the creation of new family relationships between humans, animals, plants and AI. On the verge of extinction, symbiosis between and the redesign

All That Heaven Allows

All That Heaven Allows is a 1955 Hollywood melodrama directed by Douglas Sirk starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. Cary Scott (Wyman) is a well-to-do fortyish widow in the town of Stoningham, in suburban New England, who becomes interested in Ron Kirby (Hudson), a nurseryman who takes care of her trees. Ron, content with his simple life outside the materialistic society in which they live, has

My Neighbour Totoro

My Neighbour Totoro is a 1988 fantasy story aimed primarily at children. Satsuki and Mei—a pair of young sisters—move to an old house in the countryside with their father Kusakabe as their mother recovers from an illness. The girls explore their new house and the surrounding forest, forming a secret friendship with a large forest

Rio 2

Rio 2 is a 2014 American animation film directed by Carlos Saldanha. It tells the story of Blu, Jewel and their three kids. They are Blue Spix Macaws, which is a rare species of birds thought to be almost extinct. The family decides to go to the Amazon rainforest after hearing there might be more

Plant Girl

From the Gamefound page: “Plant Girl Game is a tabletop roleplaying game about a family of plant children working together to prevent ecological disaster in their small town.” The designers describe the player’s role as follows: “You don’t have to be a girl, but you do have to be a plant. Your character’s gender is

Soulframe

Soulframe is the spiritual successor to the live-service game Warframe, and was announced at Tennocon in July 2022. While Warframe already had anti-capitalist and -consumerist undertones, particularly in the form of the exploitation of natural resources in the Orb Vallis region of the game and the environmental damage this causes, the ecological sensibilities of Soulframe

Earth (board game)

From the website: “Earth is an open-world engine builder for 1 to 5 players with simple rules and countless strategic possibilities. With its encyclopedic nature and a near-infinite number of tableau combinations, every single game will allow you to discover new synergies and connections, just as our vast and fascinating world allows us to do!

Everdream Valley

The protagonist in the game only spends the summer holiday on the farm with their grandparents, i.e. this time is framed as an ‘interlude’ (rather than an alternative way of life) that should be savoured as much as possible Ties in with the genre of slice-of-life popularized e.g. in anime series; the references to anime

Ruth’s Journey

Evolution: CLIMATE

Evolution: CLIMATE is a stand-alone game for 2 – 6 players in the Evolution product line of board games, sharing the core systems with the original title. From the website: “In Evolution: CLIMATE, players adapt their species in a dynamic ecosystem where food is scarce, predators lurk, and the climate can swing between scorching hot