Icebergs off the western coast of Greenland. (Photo: Lela Cooper)
Distraught looking polar bears, melting ice caps, and drifting sea ice; we have all seen images like these along disheartening headlines about climate change. For most of us, the Arctic is a very distant landscape, yet something we see discussed globally on a regular basis. The polar regions and the charismatic animals that call these frigid landscapes home have become icons for the climate movement in many senses, but the reality and severity of Arctic climate change can be more difficult to accurately grasp, without visiting the Arctic and trying to view the impacts of climate change in real time.
As most of us are trapped inside, and possibly having run out of things to do as our quarantine baking phase has passed, here are some fun games to help you explore the Arctic from the comfort of your own couch, while learning more about the greening of the Arctic and its impact on the region’s communities and creatures.
Greenland Melting
With the advent of VR technology, immersing players in far away locations is easier than ever. Greenland Melting, a VR experience created in collaboration with Blueplanet VR, PBS Frontline, The Emblematic Group, Realtra, NOVA, and NASA, provides an immersive view of Kangilerngata Sermia, a glacier in west Greenland. Working with NASA’s Ocean’s Melting Greenland (OMG) project, Greenland Melting provides an unprecedented view into both the world of NASA scientists and the dramatic scenery of Greenland. Throughout the game players tag alongside two NASA scientists who explain their work, as well as why the Greenland ice sheet is retreating. Together, the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets contain an estimated 99% of the planet’s freshwater. With climate change, the Greenland Ice Sheet is now melting faster, and if it melted completely, it would lead to roughly 20 feet in sea level rise. The changes the Greenland Ice Sheet has gone through in the past century are not always easy to visualize, allowing Greenland Melting to help give an immersive understanding of Arctic climate change. Greenland Melting can be found for free here. Additionally, for more information on the NASA OMG Project, global sea level rise, and Greenland’s melting ice sheet, visit the OMG Project website.
Video games also provide the ability to see the human implications of Arctic climate change and environmental changes, from the eyes of Indigenous people in the region. One such game,Rievssatallows players to play as a willow ptarmigan (riekko) flying over its Sámpi homeland, a region of Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, and the home of the Sámi people.
Through Rievssat, players are faced with eight environmental challenges as the seasons change, and humans interfere with the environment the birds depend on. As the game designers reference, this scenario of increasing environmental hostility makes it almost seem as if the riekko no longer belongs in its own homeland. With increasing development in the Arctic region alongside climate change, other creatures, including other Arctic birds also face increasing difficulties to survive. Some species of birds across the Arctic are experiencing stresses involved with both foraging and reproduction, especially as some of their prey such as arctic cod, snowshoe hare, and lemmings are experiencing population declines. Rievssat was created alongside other great games exploring Sámi culture as part of the 2018 Sámi Game Jam in Utsjoki, Finland.
A visual from Rievssat, giving players a view of the human-imposed struggles a willow ptarmigan faces in its native habitat in Northern Finland. Image source: https://zhamul.itch.io/rievssat
A Caribou’s Tale
The changing climate and increasing human development in the Arctic not only impacts the animals that call the region home, but also pose threats to the people that rely on these ecosystems for their way of life. Arctic Indigenous people, living in both coastal and terrestrial environments face risks to their traditional livelihoods. Reindeer herding is important to many people in the Arctic, including the Sámi, Yakut, Inuvialuit, and many more people across Eurasia and North America. As the Arctic is greening, threats on species such as reindeer/caribou can be seen through changing vegetation, more pesky bugs, and increased rainfall, making the lichen that caribou like to eat even harder to find. For the people that rely on reindeer and caribou, either as a food source or source of income, these environmental changes pose both risks to their well-being, but also preservation of culture and traditions.
Gameplay from A Caribou’s Tale, where players learn about the greening Arctic and the daily difficulties of a caribou.
Indigenous communities across the Arctic have found new ways to preserve their traditional cultures, amidst a history of oppression, and some more recent climate-imposed risks to traditional ways of life. One such game, Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna), released in 2014, was the first video game created in conjunction with an Indigenous people. Players play through the eyes of Nuna, a young Iñupiaq girl and her Arctic fox sidekick to try and solve the mystery of an endless blizzard endangering their local community. Produced by the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Never Alone was created through integrating generational storytelling passed down through Alaskan Native communities, allowing players to experience an immersive cultural story through both a video game and documentary approach. Never Alone, and its expansion, Never Alone: Foxtales provides a glimpse into Arctic Alaska Native culture, while being both educational and entertaining.
Another great game giving players an opportunity to learn about Arctic Indigenous culture and mythology is Inuit Uppirijatuqangit, created by Pinnguaq Association, a non-profit STEAM learning organization located in Nunavut, Canada. InuitUppirijatuqangit gives players the opportunity to virtually explore Nunavut, from the town, local terrestrial landscape, and seaside. As a hidden object game, players get the chance to explore their surroundings, uncovering Inuit myths, and gaining a better understanding of Inuit culture, and what living in the Canadian Arctic is like.
Gameplay from Inuit Uppirijatuqangit, where players get to explore the world of Nunavut, Canada and learn Inuit myths along the way. Image source: https://pinnguaq.itch.io/inuit-uppirijatuqangit
For more projects exploring STEAM learning, as well as Inuit culture and language, check out Pinnguaq Association’s game and app development here.
Left: Game play from Todd Little’s BeeCycle, Upper Right: Michael Ren’s Night Flyer, Lower Right: Chelsea Brtis’ Local Goods
EarthGames was thrilled to work alongside the rest of the Games For Our Future team and IndieCade this past April to put on the Climate Game Jam in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Game jams are hackathon style events, often taking place over several days, with ‘jammers’ working next to nonstop at the venue, before eventually submitting their final game. However, this was the first entirely online game jam EarthGames has worked on, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Despite some uncertainty and last-minute changes, the online Climate Jam proved to be a huge success, with international game submissions from as far away as Ecuador, England, and more! To hear more about the process of a game jam, and what inspired the game designers to keep working on their games even after the Climate Jam was finished, EarthGames caught up with three jammers, Chelsea Brtis, Todd Little, and Michael Ren.
The Climate Jam attracted a broad range of participants across the globe, from first time jammers to veteran participants, all connected on their passion for games and the environment. Chelsea Brtis received her Master of Fine Arts with a focus in game studies and explained that during her time at the University of Texas-Dallas, “I had one professor who really drilled in why we were there and the role of video games beyond just entertainment. During this time, I reflected on my childhood and the time I spent in nature which inspired much of the work I did, exploring how the environment is represented in games”. From there, Brtis focused on designing games that focused on global environmental problems. Despite Brtis having a background in game design and environmental games, this happened to be her first game jam, and her game Local Goods won the jam’s Most Adventurous award.
Above: Game play from Brtis’ Local Goods. In the game, players can learn through character customization how their individual consumption choices have different environmental impacts.
Similar to Brtis, Todd Little also pulled on his own background as both a UX Design Engineer at FairWorlds and his undergraduate experience in the natural sciences for the Climate Jam. At FairWorlds, Little works on creating VR and AR experiences for clients such as the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “The experiences range from the invisible threat of methane with the Methane CH4LLENGE, to the plight of the Monarch Butterfly and its loss of habitat with the Monarch Effect”, Little explained. However, his path to game development wasn’t necessarily conventional. “On a personal level, I’ve had a life-long passion for imaginative play. In college, one of my roommates was a computer science major and opened my eyes to indie game development. After college, I didn’t know what to do with my natural sciences major, so I started teaching myself how to code”. Little also explained that participating in previous solo game jams like Ludum Dare, helped him develop his skills as “the time constraint really forced me to pick up skills and techniques quickly”.
Michael Ren is also a longtime game jammer and an Asian-American indie game developer currently living in Shanghai, but originally from New York City. He has been working in the video games industry for approximately six years and has worked in AAA games at Ubisoft and mobile games at Perfect World Entertainment. Ren explained that “Game Jams are an awesome outlet for creativity and I’ve been doing them ever since college. Even today, I enjoy doing a game jam once or twice a year to test my own abilities”. Similar to the sentiment shared by Little, Ren emphasized the value in the fast-paced nature of jams. “The short amount of time really pushes you to think about what you can make, the scope of it, and it’s a great way to learn new skills. I’d highly recommend anyone who wants to make video games try to participate in a game jam!”
Despite the participants’ diverse backgrounds and experience with game jams, they all shared similar sentiments when explaining what drew them to this year’s Climate Jam. Brtis explained, “I was interested in the Climate Jam because of the opportunity to work with others and see games with the shared environmental experience. Reflection of the environment in games is not always emphasized, so I wanted to participate in an event addressing that”. Little shared that his own passion for the environment led him to the jam just as it had last year, “I’m passionate about climate change activism, but usually I don’t feel like I can make a difference, so this felt like a great opportunity. I also participated in last year’s Climate Jam with an AR experience called Seed Our Future”.
Ren shared that his passion for social impact projects and the environment led him to the Climate Jam, but is also a consistent theme in much of the work he does in his free time. “My games have ranged from air pollution in Hazy Days: A Breathing Simulator, to complex racial issues in Yellowface: A game about being Asian in America.” Ren shared that this year’s jam themes of Adapt, Engage, and Protect were especially inspiring to work with.
These themes guided all the jammers as they created a diverse set of games focusing on a plethora of topics from wildfire, climate politics, deforestation, and more. These themes influenced jammers in many different ways as they drew on their own inspirations, often based in their individualized experience with the environment and environmental issues. Brtis took a direct, personal approach with her submission, that is accessible yet poignant to many players, as her game explores individual consumption choices and environmental impacts. “For Local Goods, I wanted to show how humans effect the environment in a simple way that mimics what happens in reality. I wanted to highlight the production cycle of our individual choices that we may often feel detached from on a day to day basis.” Brtis has a hope that “players will have a reflection of how their own consumption is impacting the environment, and how to make smarter choices and be more mindful”.
Little’s BeeCycle, also came from personal interests, despite being a completely different topic: the importance of bees. “I had two big influences: My dad and the VR game Fujii. He’s a master gardener and climate change activist, so naturally I consulted with him on this project. He and my mom actually helped out on the initial research. The family home has a wonderful garden in the back. My dad had just ordered mason bees so we wanted to understand the benefits of having mason bees in our garden.”
Little’s love for Fujii especially played a strong role in the development process, “Fujii is a magical VR adventure gardening made by Funktronic Labs. If you haven’t played it, it’s very whimsical and delightful. When I first played the game, I wanted to blend both being in a real garden, but also playing the VR game at the same time. I strapped my phone to my Oculus Quest and captured this experience of playing Fujii in our backyard“. This inspired Little to use the family backyard as the setting for BeeCycle. “My hope is that players will have an increased appreciation for mason bees and the natural world. I also hope players consider raising mason bees in their backyard”.
Ren chose to take an approach that focused on current events, specifically the coronavirus outbreak and its connections to environmental topics, for his game Night Flyer. He explained that misinformation and misrepresentation of bats and their potential connection to COVID-19 was the main inspiration for his submission. “This misrepresentation has led to under-informed communities targeting bat populations for extinction and a general fear-mongering towards bats. However, the truth is far more complicated. Human actions in deforestation and illegal wildlife trading is putting us at risk.” Specific to the game itself, Ren was inspired by Game Boy Color games to give his game an old-school feel. “The mechanics are also very simple to play and I was really inspired by a mixture of Vlambeer’s Luftrausers mixed with Dong Nguyen’s Flappy Bird. I wanted to give it an Oregon Trail, edutainment-like vibe, hence targeting the game for kids and adults alike”. “I wanted to capture the exciting life of a bat by providing players a fun and simple way of exploring their world. Through hooking players in the mechanics and narrative, then the game can begin to educate players on the role of bats in natural ecosystems”. Ren’s main goal was to show deforestation as a serious issue caused by humans, and have players live through it. “By associating the player with deforestation up-close, I hope that its effects, specifically lack of food and protection for animals native to an area, can resonate towards positive change”.
Above: Game play from Ren’s Night Flyer. In Night Flyer, players get to see the world through the life of a bat, and the many challenges they face. Players also learn facts about bats and conservation efforts in the game.
While game jams require jammers to submit a game under very short time limits, many of the jammers were further inspired by the Climate Jam to continue working on their games after the event concluded. Brtis has already done some refinements and expansion on Local Goods for IndieCade after winning the Most Adventurous award, including updating some of the audio and music. She hopes to continue working on the game further, and her goal is to make a mobile version of Local Goods in the future that can be accessible to a broader range of users.
Similarly, Little has expansions in mind for his submission Bee Cycle stating, “there’s something to the snapping your fingers mechanic to planting seeds. I also want to make it even more immersive like making a much better photogrammetry scan of the backyard, add plant physics, and giving the user an opportunity to change scale to mason bee size, so they can sit atop the Bee House and watch the mason bees at work”.
Above: Game play from Little’s BeeCycle. In BeeCycle, players use VR to learn about the role of mason bees, and the importance of protecting their habitat, through planting wildflowers.
Ren states that he hopes to continue working on the narrative of Night Flyer as well. “There are many future ideas I’m developing right now, specifically looking at the long narrative arc. As the game’s name implies, it’s a Bat’s “Journey” and I hope the journey will be interesting for all players”. Additionally, since his final submission to the Climate Jam, Night Flyer has been localized into four different languages, thanks to helpful bat researchers he connected with through this project.
After submitting the project, scientists and educators around the world contacted Ren about using the game in their educational outreach programs. From this network, Ren was introduced to the World Bat Twitter Conference in May, where he shared Night Flyer. “The conference was amazingly fascinating and inspiring to watch. I learned so much cool information about bats that it really pushed me to rethink the game’s scope”. Ren also gained valuable connections in the bat community, which proved to be especially meaningful. “I was connecting with people around the world, who reached out either with feedback, suggestions, or just positive comments. For many people in bat research and conservation fields, I feel this game was exactly what they were looking for. I’m really glad to have made something that can be useful to others”.
Beyond the jammers’ own deep dives into their respective game topics, the Climate Jam prompts a broader dialogue on the intersection of games, art, storytelling, and the sciences. While educational games like the Oregon Trail series have been around since the 1970s, educational gaming continues to grow and educate broader groups of people, in an increasingly diverse range of issues, including climate change. Brtis explains that with indie games becoming more mainstream, that she hopes educational games will also follow the same path. “Educational games often have a reputation as being ‘less fun’ or only for people already interested in the topic, but really, it’s not like that. Hopefully educational games can reach more people and make a broader impact in the future”. Tying back to her passion for making games that serve as more than just entertainment, Brtis shared, “I think games can bring awareness to any type of global issue. Games are a great way to educate people but often are overlooked by the public and framed poorly by the media, so I hope this will change moving forward”.
Similar to Brtis, Ren wants to see educational games reach new audiences as the technology grows. He stated, “as technology improves and people have easier access to digital environments in the palm of their hands, I think the interactive nature of video games will provide a great way for players to experience new emotions. This emotional attachment to playing games can be leveraged to create more immersive educational experiences that help to educate and entertain in new ways we haven’t seen before”.
Little also would like to see educational games improve their approach, specifically through more open-ended games with multiple creative potential solutions to a problem. Pulling from his experience as a UX Designer Engineer working in VR and AR, he also hopes to see more educational game designers taking advantage of these technologies.
While this year’s Climate Jam faced some unprecedented challenges, the current state of affairs and complex global challenges we face served as a source of inspiration for jammers as they created games centered on the importance of protecting our planet. As Little shared, “I think in the last few months – we all have been shaken by how fragile our political and economic systems are with climate change looming in the background. We only have one planet, so we should use all the tools we have to protect it. That’s why I think we should be simulating, playing, and designing resilient and adaptive systems using both science and games”.
To learn more about the work of Brtis, Little, and Ren check them out here:
For many, education and video games are not things that seem to go hand in hand. Sure, games can have educational aspects or themes, but how could video games possibly be used to teach subjects as complicated as climate change? Yet at the same time, it cannot be denied that gaming connects with people, and effectively captures our interest, with an estimated 2.5 billion gamers worldwide. EarthGames is on a mission to provide the best of both worlds in terms of learning about complex, sometimes near intangible environmental topics in a fun, simple way, through video games.
Making climate science accessible and engaging is key to addressing the climate crisis, and EarthGames is proud to help contribute to this need. The interdisciplinary work of EarthGames has also caught the eyes of others and is featured in some of these recent press articles.
EarthGames and Deal: A Green New Election were recently featured in Western Digital as an example of how games can not only raise awareness of climate related topics, but also spur positive social action.
Additionally, as both a form of interactive art and storytelling, games can prove particularly useful at making complex realities more understandable. The award-winning game, Climate Quest has been featured recently in Science News for Students and Artists and Climate Change, for doing just that: making climate science accessible, interesting, and eye-opening. As explained in both articles, Climate Quest allows players to experience aspects of climate change that perhaps don’t directly affect most of us or seem like distant threats, highlighting the potential video games have to better connect with players.
EarthGames was also featured in Current Affairs to discuss the gamification of education, and how video games can help us to understand climate change in a way that perhaps a textbook falls short. While EarthGames helps to educate on the issue of climate change, many of the games also have an optimistic ending. As explained in the Current Affairs article, facing the challenging realities of the climate crisis means it can take players many times before they succeed. Yet, there is a way to win, helping players retain hope and realize that as daunting as global environmental problems are, they do have solutions.
These are just a few of EarthGames’ recent press appearances, for more check out the Press page!
Educational games are far from new, and many of us are probably familiar with playing games like The Oregon Trail in our childhood classrooms. However, educational gaming has changed greatly since the nostalgic days (and misadventures) of clicking through the journey of mid-19th century emigrants on digital ox-drawn covered wagons.
EarthGames is making it even easier to integrate educational gaming in the classroom, with our free to download climate and ecology centered games and corresponding resources for teachers. We are happy to announce that we now have new Teacher’s Guides for Life of Pika, A Caribou’s Tale, and Infrared Escape!
These Teacher’s Guides provide educators with an educational overview, and the Next Generation Science Standards for each game. From experiencing the journey of a caribou facing the odds against climate change, to the mission of an infrared light beam avoiding greenhouse gases as it escapes the atmosphere, students will be exposed to a variety of valuable climate and ecology centered topics in a fun, engaging way!
All of the new EarthGames Teacher’s Guides can be viewed here:
Additionally, information on all of these games, as well as the other wide variety of climate-centered games EarthGames has to offer can be found on this page!
From games about bats facing habitat destruction, climate revolutions, wildfire management, and finicky fornicating pandas on the mission to ensure the survival of their species — the 2020 Games for Our Future (GFOF) Game Jam had it all. This year’s event in collaboration with IndieCade, allowed game jammers from across the country (and planet!) to create games focused on the theme of ‘Community, Nature, and Resilience in the Face of Global Crises’, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The event from April 17th – 23rd drew over 150 game jammers who submitted a total of 49 diverse games, all centered around pressing environmental issues, in just 5 short days.
This was the 3rd Annual GFOF Game Jam, and despite last minute adjustments due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, shifting the event online allowed for many slightly unexpected benefits. The Game Jam had research mentors and speakers virtually participate from across the world, including keynote speaker, Dr. Elizabeth LaPensée, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, and award-winning writer, artist, and Indigenous game designer.
Dr. LaPensée provided an insightful talk centered around Indigenous ways of knowing, and how we can better address our collective actions for the future. In her talk, Dr. LaPensée described how despite the climate crisis we are all living in, “There is hope. How, then, can we look to those who came before us to help inform our actions right now with hope for the future?”. Through her own involvement in developing games, Dr. LaPensée explains her experience witnessing a rapidly changing climate, and the Indigenous ideology carried throughout the games she creates, such as reciprocity, balance, and traditional ecological knowledge, while retaining optimism for the future.
Dr. LaPensée’s keynote presentation is available to watch here, along with all of the other great research mentor talks, discussing matters such as the intersection of queergaming and the environment, building emotional connections with the non-human world, and much more.
Left: Art from Dr. LaPensée’s keynote presentation, from her game “Thunderbird Strike” Right: An image from alpinist/filmmaker Graham Zimmerman’s talk on using storytelling in climate advocacy
With the inspiration and guidance from the event’s research mentors, both beginners and long-time game jammers were able to create a wide variety of games in a fast paced, yet positive, encouraging, and accepting environment. Game jammers across the world produced a GFOF Game Jam record of 49 total submissions, in a broad range of genres including adventure, simulation, strategy games, and more!
Additionally, none of this would have been possible without all of the community members involved with GFOF, the IndieCade team, and the dedication of our research mentors:
Dr. Elizabeth LaPensée, Michigan State University
Dr. Jennifer Atkinson, University of Washington
Dr. Sara Jo Breslow, University of Washington
Dr. Elizabeth Chang, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Edmond Chang, Ohio University
Crispin Freeman, anime and video game voice actor
Dr. Dargan Frierson, University of Washington
Dr. Elif Sürer, Middle East Technical University
Graham Zimmerman, alpinist, filmmaker, and climate activist
As well as the event’s other sponsors including:
Niantic, Riot Forge, Global Game Jam, Seattle Indies, AIE, Indie Game Collective, IGDA Victoria, The University of Texas, and Pacific Science Center
EarthGames 