Video Game Designers Battle to Depict Climate Impacts

AFP/APP

Paris: Game designer Sam Alfred is well aware of the challenge he faces in creating a video game centered around climate change.

Best-selling games often focus on destruction and violence rather than constructive environmental engagement. Despite this, Alfred’s strategy game “Terra Nil,” released in March last year, has attracted 300,000 players, according to publisher Devolver Digital.

“I’ve lost count of how many people have dismissed or mocked the game because it’s not about shooting or rampant expansionism,” Alfred said. “The environment was the focus of the game. The goal was to show players, other game developers, and people that it’s possible to build a strategy game without exploiting the environment.”

True to his mission, the 30-year-old South African asks players of “Terra Nil” to undertake tasks such as decontaminating radioactive zones with sunflowers and saving the Great Barrier Reef. Alfred is not the first designer to incorporate an environmental message into their games, nor is he the first to face criticism for it.