Digital Game – Green Media Mediography test

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

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

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

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

Luna’s Fishing Garden

From the game’s Steam page: “Luna’s Fishing Garden is a short, cozy fishing and building game. Become a part of a fairytale, catch fish, trade with the fox spirit, and create the garden of your dreams by planting new trees, placing water objects, and bringing animals to the archipelago.” The developers encourage slow and paidic

Pokémon Go: Sustainability Week

Pokémon Go is an AR game for mobile devices, where players catch Pokémon by travelling through the real world. The developer Niantic organises an annual Sustainability Week to promote local non-profits and sustainability efforts.

Terra Nil

From the game’s website: “Terra Nil is a reverse city builder about ecosystem reconstruction. Turn a barren wasteland into an ecological paradise complete with different flora and fauna. Then clean up, leaving the environment pristine. Subverting the builder genre, Terra Nil is about the restoration of a ravaged environment.” “Terra Nil, from eco-warriors Free Lives

Frostpunk

The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle Expansion Pack

The Sims 4 is the fourth entry in a series of games known as The Sims. In these games, the player is able to simulate daily life by creating individuals, known as sims, and making decisions for these sims. This way, each player can completely customize their sims and the lives they live. The Eco

Skábma: Snowfall

From WIRED magazine: Skábma: Snowfall “tells the story of a Sámi reindeer herder reconnecting with the ancient ways of his people. […] At the start of Skábma: Snowfall, Áilu lives a blessed life. Under the watchful eye of his adoptive uncle, he tends to a herd of reindeer in a remote Arctic village, dreaming of

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is an open-world adventure game developed by Ustwo Games. The game focuses on exploring the world and conserving the wildlife. On the website, the game is framed as re-creating the sense of wonder and relaxation of a child’s summer holiday and focusing on positive feedback loops as a “feel-good game about running around and doing

Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village is a survival horror game, where the 'T-Virus' has resulted in a zombie plague. The game follows an eco-hero, while warning for viruses and bio-organic weapons.

Red Dead Redemption Online: Naturalist

Red Dead Redemption 2 is Western themed action game. Its online mode features various different roles you can take on in the wild west. One of these roles is the naturalist role, where the player plays a conservationist storyline.

SimCity BuildIt

SimCity BuildIt is a city-building simulation and strategy game. This mobile game is the latest version of the SimCity franchise. The game challeges users to build their own city that gets more and more complicated. For one, playes need keep their citizens happy, and thus need to reduce pullution and build green parcs for example.

Pollution in Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine is a 3D platforming game that came out on the Nintendo Gamecube. In the game, Mario and his crew go on a vacation, but Mario is falsely accused of polluting Delfino Island. Along the way, Princess Peach gets kidnapped. The only way for Mario to leave the island is to clean up

Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines is a city building game released by Paradox Interactive in 2015. The player is challenged to build, maintain, and control or manage a city. In Cities: Skylines, the theme of sustainability plays an important role. Cities: Skylines makes the player an ecological citizen. You are an ecological citizen when you as an individual

Surviving Mars: Green Planet

“Build a sustainable colony in space.” The premise of Surviving Mars (2018) is simple, but the challenges presented in the game are not; the Red Planet is unforgiving and full of dangers. Your colonists are only safe in glass domes; both oxygen and water have to be gathered, refined and stored in metal structures; food

ECO inc. Save the Earth

Save the Earth is not an average eco-game. Players can develop modern green projects and the game helps you to find out the right strategy to avoid climate change. There are five different scenario’s a player can choose from when playing the game: Save the Earth, Seaspiracy, Climate strike, Crying animals and World’s water crisis.

The Elder Scrolls

The Elder Scrolls is primarily a fantasy video game series. The franchise has an active modding community, which is a site for discourse and debate over environmental and ecological issues.

Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is a video game series where the player moves into a village populated by animals, where they are encouraged by the inhabitants and biodiversity to display pro-conservation behaviours and attitudes.

Timberborn

Timberborn is a beaver city-building game with a unique architecture system, wooden machinery, dams and water physics. By labelling the game an examples of "lumberpunk" (supported e.g. by the title), Timberborn taps into the current trend of differentiate -punk movements, communicating topicality and a larger world view than just one game.