Video game designers spread the world about climate change - South China Morning Post
Video game designers spread the world about climate change | South China Morning Post
Eye on the news
Video game designers spread the world about climate change
- Sam Alfred’s ‘Terra Nil’ is a strategy game that tasks players with rebuilding ecosystems instead of causing destruction
Video games about climate change can inform more people about the topic.
Video games about climate change can inform more people about the topic.
Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Game designer Sam Alfred is aware of the challenge he faces in trying to build a video game with climate change at its heart.
Bestselling games often push destruction and violence rather than constructive engagement with the environment.
Yet Terra Nil, a strategy game designed by Alfred, puts players in charge of rebuilding ecosystems. It has attracted 300,000 players, according to the publisher Devolver Digital.
“I’ve lost count of how many people have dismissed the game or made fun of the game ... because it’s a game which is not about shooting people or rampant expansionism,” Alfred explained.
With an estimated three billion people playing video games at least once a year, climate campaigners have been targeting them.
Even the United Nations has tried creating a climate game that it said reached more than six million people.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.