Want to see what our community members have accomplished so far, or catch up on the conversations happening in the field? Check out the lists below to see our community and partners in action.
Developer Resources Published to Date
(Order by Release Date, Most Recent First)
NEW! The Environmental Game Design Playbook
Alpha Release 1.0
Authors: Clayton Whittle, Trevin York, Paula Angela Escuadra, Grant Shonkwiler, Hugo Bille, Arnaud Fayolle, Benn McGregor, Shayne Hayes, Felix Knight, Andrew Wills, Alenda Chang, Daniel Fernandez Galeote, and many more wonderful community members willing to lend their time reviewing!
Length: 84-page written report (Updates Log Coming Soon)
A groundbreaking landmark research paper that explicitly connects environmental psychology to best practices in game design for the purpose of co-creating a common design language for discussing climate action in games. Built by game developers for game developers, in partnership with researchers, climate activists, and people who love games, this initial release details 4 key predictors of pro-environmental behaviors and 19 design tactics.
Authors: Many! - including Paula Angela Escuadra, Catherine Flick, Grant Shonkwiler, Chance Glasco, Stef Rappenau, Hugo Bille, Benjamin Abraham, Guillaume LeBris, Arnaud Fayolle,
Felix Knight, and Cory Scheviak.
Length: 8-page written guide
A living record of ongoing community conversations related to the pros and cons of cryptocurrency, blockchain, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in video games.
Initially developed to inform IGDA’s Call to Action.
Authors: Many!
Length: 6-page written report
To define focus for 2021, we gathered feedback and guidance from 17+ game developers, game writers, game financiers, games and media researchers, climate scientists, teachers, higher ed professors, marketers, and video game enthusiasts. This document provides a vision for a climate positive and resilient future for the industry; the challenges blocking progress towards that future; and potential solutions that may enable us to get there.
Past Broadcasts
Doing Our Bit Podcast
(2020-2021 Episodes)
Author: Hugo Bille
Length: 1-hour episodes (10 total)
Looking for a great entry point into sustainability and gaming that you can listen to? This original podcast is a huge source of inspiration for our community! Doing Our Bit is about making games in the critical decade of climate action. It explores what roles gaming can play in a rapidly changing world, in conversations with a wide range of climate advocates from all corners of gaming who are all doing their bit to create a games industry fit for the future.
Presentations from Past Talks, Panels,
and Workshops
(in alphabetical order, by author)
Author: Ashley Fry, Charly Harbord, Paula Angela Escuadra
Event: Global Game Jam Cultural Heritage Jam 2021
Length: 1-hour video
A lively panel discussion about how the medium of video games can impact people's perception of the issues surrounding cultural heritage preservation and protection and lead to greater awareness and action.
Climate Game Toolkit for Content Creators
(Deck Coming Soon)
Author: Arnaud Fayolle
Event: Playing4thePlanet's Green Game Jam 2021
Length: 1-hour video
Yes, game developers can help solve climate change! But where to start? This workshop is a 360 overview at the solutions you can deploy as a game developer at any level, in any game, whether your expertise is in Aesthetics, Narrative, Gameplay or Technology.
Author: Chris Bennett
Event: Playing4thePlanet's Green Game Jam 2021
Length: 1-hour video
This workshop covers frameworks that can be used to leverage the current science in behavior design and neuroscience for your green game design.
Author: Clayton Whittle
Event: Playing4thePlanet's Green Game Jam 2021
Length: 1-hour video
This workshop covers concepts used by environmental psychologists and educators to empower effective environmental agents. These concepts will be tied to game design, highlighting the natural synergy of the two. Finally, attendees will have the opportunity to workshop simple game ideas and play with what they have learned in the workshop.
Author: Grant Shonkwiler
Event: Playing4thePlanet's Green Game Jam 2021
Length: 23-slide presentation (no video available)
This workshop covers a high level overview of the downstream effects of climate change - beyond the most common themes (like sea level rise). This includes mass migration, heatwaves, flooding, drought cycles, ocean destruction, food and water security, air pollution, and impact on financial institutions and systems.
So You Want to Make a Video Game to Save the World
(Deck Coming Soon)
Author: Marina Psaros
Event: UKIE Green Games Summit 2021
Length: 11-minute video
Marina Psaros, Sustainability Lead at Unity and author of The Atlas of Disappearing Places, talks about how to make a sustainable video game: what “green” games mean, why using real-world data for in-game narrative and mechanics adds value, and how to begin the decarbonization process from the very beginning.
Author: Paula Angela Escuadra
Event: Playing4thePlanet's Green Game Jam 2021
Length: 1-hour video
This workshop dives into the topics of behavioral transference and impact measurement. We will talk through how to define a theory of action, breaking down key mechanisms of attitude and behavior change (e.g., game design and game play) and connecting them to key questions regarding real-world action (e.g. player engagement).
Designing Games that Transform Players
(Deck Coming Soon)
Author: Trevin York
Event: Playing4thePlanet's Green Game Jam 2021
Length: 1-hour video
This session is for game designers who 1) want to make games that empower players to change their world, and 2) aren't quite sure how to design for that. We'll cover three design approaches for making lasting, positive impacts on players that carry over to the real world. We'll discuss how these approaches work and how games can be designed according to them, and examine some specific examples of these approaches in action.
(Recording Only)
Author: Dr. Trista Patterson, Dr. Joshua Aslan, Xiao Wang, and Daniel Jacobs
Event: UKIE Green Games Summit 2021
Length: 35-minute video
Dr Josh Aslan, Energy Policy Analyst at SIE, Xiao Wang, Programme Officer, at UNEP DTU Partnership, Daniel Jacobs, Senior Software Engineer and Gaming Sustainability PM at Xbox discuss planning for net zero: defining scope, capturing industry data and setting targets. Facilitated by Dr. Trista Patterson, Director of Gaming Sustainability at Microsoft.
Want to stay informed about upcoming community events, or share climate-related game industry events you want the community to join?
Check out more content from events we’ve attended or participated in
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United Nations Green Game Jam
The Playing for the Planet Alliance launched the UN Green Game Jam, bringing together the biggest names in video games across PC, mobile and console to educate and empower millions of players to act for nature.
More than 25 studios from around the world collaborated and committed to implementing green activations in and out-of-games, such as new modes, maps, themed events, storylines and messaging.
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UKIE Green Games Summit
The Green Games Summit will for the first time bring the international games sector together to share knowledge and discuss and shape the industry’s response to the climate challenge and sustainability. It is being delivered by Ukie, in collaboration with ISFE and UN Environment Programme’s Playing for the Planet Alliance. The event is sponsored by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
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Indiecade Climate Jam
Indiecade, in partnership with Games for Our Future, LabX, Georgia Tech, Riot Forge, Niantic, and EarthLab, hosts a yearly virtual jam on itch.io. In 2021, their theme was “Clean Energy Solutions!” - inviting experts and games focused on climate justice, clean energy jobs, solar panels on every rooftop, transportation, green manufacturing, climate policy, and/or solarpunk/speculative design.
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Global Game Jam Cultural Heritage Jam
In partnership with the Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF), part of the U.S. Department of State’s Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee, the Global Game Jam hosted a unique event to engage and challenge our community to create games that celebrate cultural art, artifacts, traditions, and places; disrupt looting, theft, trafficking, and destruction; reinforce the importance of protection of cultural heritage; and educate about the effects of climate change.
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Ecogames 2021 Symposium
Whether they are providing new spaces to practice alternative ways of living, or reproducing ecomodernist fantasies, videogames as well as player cultures are increasingly tuned in to the most pressing environmental concerns. Utrecht University hosted symposium in 2021 to discuss emerging questions and opportunities.