Green Media Mediography – Utrecht University

Whisper of the House

Whisper of the House is one of those cozy games that immediately pulls players into its gentle rhythm. Similar to the popular title Unpacking, the core gameplay revolves around unpacking, tidying and decorating the interiors of various houses. However, Whisper of the House expands on this gameplay by adding a range of charming townspeople, each

FathomVerse

FathomVerse is a free mobile game that invites players to contribute to science. By playing mini-games and interacting with ocean imagery, gamers contribute to identifying ocean animals and training AI models design to help discover and understand life in the ocean. Players tackle minigames to view imagery collected by researchers and discover ocean animals. The

Eternagram

In order to measure individual propensity to climate communication, a team led by the City University of Hong Kong created a text-adventure game that allows players to explore a non-Earth world guided by a ChatGPT-based in-game character. The researchers collected in-game dialogues of players conversing freely with the character, and player choices from designed game

Hollow Knight: Silksong

After almost eight years since the original Hollow Knight, the long-awaited sequel has arrived: Hollow Knight: Silksong. Blending Action, Adventure, and Indie elements, it presents a world shaped by detailed, hand-made 2D artwork that gives the game its unmistakable look. You play as Hornet, a former boss and reluctant ally from the first Hollow Knight.

Regenerate!

Regenerate! is a collaborative resource management game through which players navigate regenerative land stewardship, sustainable development, and systems design thinking. It was a project of the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch design challenge and was developed in collaboration with Land Art Generator, Tunnel Monster Collective, and Fly Ranch Project.

FutureGuessr

FutureGuessr is a compelling example of an ecogame that operates primarily as a tool for visual climate communication. Launched in June 2025, it takes inspiration from the popular GeoGuessr format but shifts the focus from geographical curiosity to climate awareness. FutureGuessr uses AI to generate images of familiar, localized landscapes (like Germany or Chamonix) as they might appear in 2100 (e.g., drought, dry riverbeds).

Warframe – Vallis Undermind Expansion

This entry is still work-in-progress. With the Vallis Undermind expansion, Digital Extremes added a content update to its live-service ‘looter shooter’ game that, while not having an overtly educational or environmental focus, clearly taps into a heightened sensitivity and receptiveness towards human/nature themes in popular culture. Pertinent design choices include:

Ocean Crisis (WIP)

In Ocean Crisis, players are the defenders of the ocean and will do whatever it takes to stop the formation of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a.k.a., the Ocean Waste Island.

The Sims 4 Enchanted by Nature Expansion Pack

The Sims 4 expansion pack "Enchanted by Nature" presents an idealized and heavily romanticized representation of rural life and living with nature inspired by the 'cottagecore' aesthetic and the British countryside.

Herdling

The game invites players to "head out on a grand alpine expedition with a herd of loveable beasts, as you ascend a mountain path, encounter eerie dangers and surprising obstacles, and forge your way to the mystery at the summit".

Grow Wild

Grow Wild is a cozy sandbox style game in which players can discover new plants, find bugs, and watch the world change around them. Players discover the natural phenomena around them and document the different stages of plants and animals throughout the year.

Mission Amazonia

Adapted from BGG: “Mission Amazonia is a strategic deckbuilding board game, in which players are part of a Brazilian team of rainforest protectors. From their headquarters (e.g. Pôrto Velho) they go on different missions north and south of the Amazon to curb the illegal exploitation of the rainforest. The poaching of exotic animal species, the

Garbage Country

The work-in-progress Steam page describes Garbage Country as “a post-apocalyptic exploration sim from the creator of Cloud Gardens and Kingdom: New Lands” in which players “drive across a handcrafted wasteland[,] repel waves of enemy bots in tense tower-defense battles [and] upgrade [their] car to travel further into the forgotten world buried under the dust”. The

Cloud Gardens

From the presskit description: “In Cloud Gardens the player overgrows lo-fi scenes of urban decay and manufactured landscapes. Plant your seeds in the right place to create small overgrown dioramas with hundreds of different items and progress through the stages in six chapters. Discover a dozen different seeds and learn how to make them thrive.

The Planet Crafter

The Planet Crafter drops you on a dead planet. No oxygen, no water, no food. Just rocks, sand, and a blinking oxygen meter. You are not fighting enemies here. The enemy is the environment. What makes it stand out is how much of the game is about building a livable world from scratch. You start

The Walking Dead

Telltale’s The Walking Dead is a narrative point-and-click game set during a zombie apocalypse, but honestly, calling it a zombie game does not do it justice. It is way more about the people, the choices, and the emotional mess you get thrown into. The story is super well written, the characters are complex and believable,

Posthuman Saga

Posthuman Saga is a post-apocalyptic adventure game where you take on the role of one of the last human survivors, sent out from the safety of the last human stronghold to explore the dangerous, mutant-filled world. You can play solo, go head-to-head with 2-4 players in a competitive mode, or team up in a team-vs-team

Catan – New Energies

Catan – New Energies gives the world-famous Catan a new challenge. Instead of just building roads and settlements, it puts players in a situation where they must decide whether to rely on fossil fuels for quick advantages or invest in renewable/cleaner energy sources, which take longer but would pay off in the long run. You

Community Garden: The Board Game

Community Garden is an easy-to-learn, strategic board game for 2 – 4 players that takes about 45-60 minutes to play. In the game, players will use Gardeners to gather resources like water and compost, and then they will play cards ranging from Dill to Strawberries to Butternut Squash. The player who has scored the most

Ōkami

Ōkami is one of those games that stays with you long after you have played it. You take on the role of Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess in the form of a white wolf, and alongside your tiny, loudmouthed companion Issun (who, by the way, gets far too excited whenever he sees a woman), you

Ark: Survival Ascended

ARK: Survival Ascended is an open-world survival game developed by Studio Wildcard. It takes place on mysterious, artificially created worlds known as ARKs, massive, space-borne habitats designed to preserve life after a catastrophic event on Earth. These ARKs are home to a vast array of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, many of which have been

Spilled!

Spilled! takes players to a captivating but polluted world that they need to clean up to watch it come back to life. It taps into the pleasure of frictionless ‘cleaning’ that a small but growing number of game are catering to, both with and without an explicit environmental subtext (like e.g. Powerwash Simulator). Spilled! is

Balance of the Planet

Balance of the Planet sees player balance global economic and ecological forces through taxation and expenditure, with each policy change having a runoff effect to other areas. For instance, clearing forests changes the level of CO2 in the air, which affects global warming.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a 2023 action-adventure game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. The game is part of the Avatar franchise, and was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on December 7, 2023.