10 Games to Play for Earth Day
Alenda Y. Chang & Edmond Chang,
Guest Contributor & Contributing Editor
We think every day is a good day to play environmentally intelligent games, but if you’re looking for something new, quirky, or thought-provoking to play for Earth Day, here are some titles that we’ve played recently. They range from relatively short (Aurora, A Child’s Journey) to potentially endless (Eco); some have been out for a year now (Beyond Blue), while others have just been released (Cozy Grove)--one is still in alpha (Among Trees)! Whatever your gameplay proclivities, you’ll find something to love in this broad spectrum of mechanics and art styles.
Many of these titles were brought to our attention by groups and events like the IndieCade Climate Game Jam and the IGDA Climate SIG (International Game Developers Association Climate Special Interest Group), the last of which is even offering its own Earth Day Humble Bundle for a limited time: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/earth-day-bundle.
Have fun!
#1: A Short Hike
Adam Robinson-Yu’s A Short Hike (https://ashorthike.com/) is the unlikely and humor-filled story of a family of anthropomorphic birds that decides to go camping, seen from the viewpoint of laconic teenage daughter Claire. Claire just wants to get to the mountain peak so she can get service on her cell phone, but along the way learns to enjoy time with her family and other curious animals she encounters. She can fish, swim, glide, and climb, search for treasure, and learn more about the island’s denizens and history.
#2: Alba, A Wildlife Adventure
Alba, A Wildlife Adventure (https://www.albawildlife.com/) is a modestly-sized game set on a Mediterranean island near Spain. You play as a young girl, Alba, who visits her grandparents on the island every summer vacation, only to find this year that the island’s famed wetlands nature reserve is due to be bulldozed for tourism development. Alba and her friend Ines join forces to catalog the island’s biodiversity (essentially a photography mini-game), save its animals and their habitats, and rally the townspeople against a corrupt mayor. ustwo games proudly describes itself as a B corp and plants a tree for every copy of the game downloaded.
#3: Aurora, A Child's Journey
Aurora, A Child's Journey (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1438440/Aurora_A_Childs_Journey/) is a very short adventure puzzle platformer by Luski Game Studio. You play Aurora, a young girl armed with only her determination and imagination, who must find her way through a dilapidated seaside village, escape a shadowy pollution monster, and try to discover the cause of a massive explosion at a nearby factory. Inspired by true events--a massive fire in 2015 in the Sao Paulo region of Brazil caused by an explosion at a chemical facility--Aurora, A Child’s Journey is atmospheric, emotional, and provocative in its environmental message.
#4: Beyond Blue
Beyond Blue, from E-Line Media (publisher of Never Alone), is an underwater diving game based heavily in scientific practice and environmental learning. You play as Mirai, a marine biologist who, with the help of remote specialists and a snazzy near-future submersible, studies different habitats in the ocean and surveys their populations. Scientists like lead advisor Mandy Joye advised the E-Line team during the game’s production, and the game is meant to feel like a cross between BBC natural history fare and a more fantastical ocean game like Abzȗ (Giant Squid’s new game The Pathless could easily have been on this list, by the way).
#5: Cozy Grove
Recently released by Spry Fox, Cozy Grove (https://cozygrovegame.com/) is reminiscent of Don’t Starve but is less about survival than simulation. In it, you play as a young Spirit Scout on a mission to earn badges and renown by camping on a haunted island and helping the local animal ghosts come to terms with their pasts. Despite the name, Cozy Grove breaks usefully from the comfort molds of Scandinavian hygge, or Cottagecore, because it challenges us to find coziness in the outdoors and with other species.
#6: Eco
The easiest way to describe Strange Loop Games’ Eco (https://play.eco/) is as “sustainable Minecraft,” but it’s really so much more than that. Like Minecraft, Eco has been around for years but hasn’t gained as much of a general following, perhaps because it largely caters to K-12 educators. Based on the biomes of the Pacific Northwest, the game incorporates sophisticated environmental dynamics (mining, for instance, produces toxic tailings that can contaminate the water table, and backpacks can’t hold a ridiculous amount of stuff, meaning you need to build space-consuming stockpiles instead), but it also features a complex system for multiplayer (server-based) legislation--yes, you heard us, legislation. In that way, Eco dares to bridge the social and the environmental in ways that environmentalism often fails to attempt, aided by the optional in-game threat of a world-destroying meteor!
#7: Among Trees
Among Trees (https://www.amongtreesgame.com/), still in early access through the Epic Games store, is the first release of the design studio FJRD, which describes itself as “a micro game studio settled in the deep forests far away from society.” Think of this as a kinder, gentler The Long Dark, where you can play in a “Zen”-mode free from aggressive bears, and even on an easy level where food is plentiful. In Among Trees, you can have a tidy cabin built before nightfall on the first day. Although the game is still in development, expect to actually enjoy the process of surviving--hunting mushrooms, unexpected encounters (like buzzing beehives), and gorgeously cool-toned scenery.
#8: Even the Ocean
Even the Ocean (https://www.eventheocean.com/) by Melos Han-Tani and Marina Krittika (the duo that forms Analgesic Productions, creators of Anodyne I and Anodyne II) is a narrative-driven puzzle platformer set on a post-apocalyptic world that runs on Light and Dark energies. The game features a main character of color and a diverse world. You play as Aliph, a power plant technician working for Whiteforge City, who discovers something has gone awry with the city’s energy grid. At first, Aliph is tasked by the mayor of Whiteforge City to repair the failing power plants, but she soon discovers that the fates of her home, the city, and the environment are at stake. She must learn to balance Light and Dark energies in order to save the world. Even the Ocean features two different difficulty and accessibility settings, allowing for story mode or challenge mode.
#9: Night Flyer
Night Flyer (https://mikeyren.itch.io/nightflyer) is a short game by Mike Ren developed for the 2020 IndieCade Climate Jam. You start the game as a young bat flapping about a forest of light and dark greens, looking for fruits and bugs, searching for a mate, and trying to survive. As the game progresses, the bat’s natural habitat is slowly destroyed, deforested. Though only a few minutes long, the game is thoughtful, poignant, and pointed as to the role humans play in environmental degradation. The game includes informational pages about bat biology, the roles bats play in pollination, pest control, and reforestation.
#10: When Rivers Were Trails
When Rivers Were Trails (https://indianlandtenure.itch.io/when-rivers-were-trails) is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Elizabeth LaPensee in collaboration with the Indian land Tenure Foundation and Michigan State University’s Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab. The game features contributions from Indigenous writers, artists, musicians, and designers. When Rivers Were Trails is set in the 1890s and follows an Anishinaabeg who has been displaced from their traditional lands in Minnesota and forced to travel west to California due the General Allotment Act of 1887. The game encourages players to learn and explore; to meet people from other Indigenous communities; to hunt and fish and maintain a relationship with the land; and to survive forced migration, conflict, even violence.
For more articles on games and the environment, read Nate Schmidt’s introduction to our “Green Screens” series and Christian Haines on NieR: Automata, wilderness, and the future of planet Earth.
