This is the first time in a series that we have partnered with UNEP’s Playing for the Planet Alliance (P4P), which examines the various ways in which our industry is improving for the benefit of the environment.
Playing for the Planet Alliance was launched at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during the Climate Change Summit in 2019. Since then, members including Sony, Microsoft, Tencent, Niantic and others 42 have made a commitment since lowering their temperature to combine green sports activities.
We start this series with the latest, and the fastest growing corporate industry: The Green Game Jam.
In a nutshell: Jam, break up and fix your games to include environmental themes that your players can integrate.
Aim: Empower your players to transform their world with the games they know and love.
Space Ape CEO John Earner threw the idea into a think tank after the birth of P4P. Everyone was angry and wanted to do more. The question was: how can we make the most competitive studios in history move in the same direction?
A spirit of collaboration, not competition
Using that competitive spirit in the jam was the answer, but it was not a tradition that focused on producing new games that could be announced for years down the line. Read also : 10 Violent Video Games You Can Beat Without Killing Anyone. Instead, the focus was on designing games that already had a captive audience that we can reach now.
Earner and Sybo Director Matthias Gredal Nørvig himself shook incessantly and put in the first studios to take part. The competitive spirit of our industry gave Green Game Jam its start, but it was a collaboration that gave the first heart of the jam, and made it stick.
Since the onset of the epidemic in 2020 with 11 mobile studios and bad environmental goals, the jam has grown to include computer, PC and AR heads, and has improved and confirmed goals related to the effect of environment annually. The experience and heart of the participating studios remains an integral part of Jam, which this year has included about 40 studios from around the world, covering all the planets.
With a network of more than one billion integrated players, this year the studio re-imagined some of the most popular sports in our industry to encourage their community to protect the world’s forests and to create a shift towards sustainable food behavior.
So what does good look like?
For us, it comes down to three things: Read also : USFL Championship Game odds: Gambling patterns, lines, graphics.
The 2022 Award Winners
The winners were announced last week. Read also : 10 Sad Video Games With Happy Endings. You can view all items included in the Playing for the Planet website.
Best Food and UNEP Choice Award: Hay Day (Supercell)
Supercell walked away with two awards this year for their green performance in the agricultural game, Hay Day. For the 10th anniversary of the game, one of the longest episodes taught players about innovative farming through a game event and a digital cookbook.
Players had to reach the public goal of the Global Truck Event to open a donation to the non-profit Rodale Institute, which will help train real-life farmers in innovative farming practices. Thousands of acres of land will be converted into permanent systems as a result.
The Hay Day Cookbook included a two-page advertisement on renewable agriculture and daily behaviors that players can take, as well as a recipe from a sixth-generation regenerative farmer.
Best in the Forest: Imagine Earth (Serious Bros)
Serious Bros has won the Best Forest Award for installing Steam Success on Imagine Earth, a game in which the player must stop world development on a single planet from falling into a climate crisis. Players are now planting real trees through their game actions.
They held a Steam Sale all week and 10 trees were planted for every game sold. The audio track available for purchase also links to the tree planting project and donation. To date, they have planted about 15,000 trees through the Eden Reforestation Project.
Player Choice: June Journey (Wooga)
The players have spoken, for two consecutive years. Last year’s effort was a huge success with 25,000 trees planted by Wooga Ecosia partner. The studio staff loved to help the environment and asked for more.
Wooga also ran the same event, for a long time, with new tree decorations, and a very high purpose. This year, 200,000 trees have been planted around the world in a process that took place on June 5th: World Environment Day.
In addition, Wooga has invited the public to submit questions on forests where they can learn more about environmental issues. Finally, the studio encouraged players to launch the Ecosia search engine, which helps to plant trees with all the research.
Media Selection: Riders Republic (Ubisoft Annecy)
This was a new group of awards presented this year. Ubisoft Annecy’s Riders Republic is a great multi-player love letter to some of the US national parks. Early next year, the game will promote strategies to reduce the frequency and severity of wildfires and is intended to affect players emotionally in terms of their consequences.
This event will immerse players in fires that appear on the edge of the map when you start the game. The sky will be orange and smoke / smoke from the fire will be present throughout the game to force players to wear a gas mask. Part of the map will not be available due to non-breathing air. The whole game will be “awake” with a special costume for the public game. Players will have to join in the effort to save the Sequoias from the fire by identifying the most damaged areas of the park (using a photo mode that will show real data) and they will have to reduce the risk of fire spread.
Participant Selection: TerraGenesis (Edgeworks Entertainment)
So what have we learned over the last few years?
Selected by the studios, Tilting Point’s Terragenesis incorporates food and forestry into their operations, providing players with an endless “Tree-derboard (board of leaders) and Carbon Impact game details.
Most Popular: Brawlhalla (Blue Mammoth Games, Ubisoft Studio)
The idea that participants think could be used in other games was Brawlhalla’s implementation of “The Brawlhalla World Tree Initiative” by Ubisoft’s Blue Mammoth Games. Their proceeds from the game go to tree planting and through the charity they will announce and administer other grants.
First Implementation: Carbon Island (Tencent)
China’s largest sports firm has won the fastest performance award for two consecutive years. Last year, it was Tencent TiMi, this year by Tencent Games and Carbon Island: an environmental game for promoting the idea of neutrality.
Players will play a volunteer role in the game to help rebuild and transform a poor carbon island, and ultimately achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. In this event, the game will introduce a carbon-blue-carbon version, which will teach players about the depth of carbon dioxide. Every time players watch an ad, they will not only receive a lot of prizes, but the game team will contribute a cent to the social welfare projects.
1. Every player community is different and each studio needs to understand where their players are on their environmental journey. This means that they will have a better chance of changing their hearts and minds over time.
2. Find ways to integrate raw materials into the game universe, making sure it fits the report and is not forced into the player. Create a green experience in a familiar environment.
Where are we going next?
3. Make the effect in the real world from game events and features as clear as possible.
4. Work with your players instead of asking them to give all the money or take all the action. Connect with your athletic community and educate and encourage making a difference. Show them that you go through the language and support your green operation with a strong environmental commitment like a studio.
5. Collaborating with raw activations will not only motivate your players, but will also change the culture of your studio. This work brings people together, either to close the gap between co-workers and different teams, or between your studio and its players. Working well together makes sense and creates a good work ethic.
