Green Mediography

Silt

While often categorized by players primarily within the horror genre, the indie game Silt foregrounds environment and ecological systems as central components of its gameplay. Rather than treating the setting as a passive backdrop, Silt embeds ecological themes into its formal design structures, shaping player interaction through environmental constraints and engagement with nonhuman entities. Silt

Plastic Island

Plastic Island, developed by the Indonesia-based “Ecogames” collective, is an educational board game that thematizes combating plastic pollution. Participants clean and upcycle trash, enhancing the ocean’s health; the game (like every title designed by the Ecogames collective) is created by local artisans in Bali, at least partly from upcycled materials like recycled wood, canvas, and

Mulaka

Developed by the Mexican studio Lienzo, Mulaka is a 3D action-adventure game that focuses on Indigenous storytelling. Set in a poly-poly rendition of the landscapes of northern Mexico, the game draws from the mythology, culture, and worldview of the Rarámuri (Tarahumara) people. While players might approach it as a Zelda-inspired action game, Mulaka uses mechanics,

Future Energy

Future Energy, designed by Emanuele Ornella and published by Queen Games, is officially part of Queen Games’ Green Planet series, a line of games explicitly dedicated to themes of sustainability and ecological transformation. In most traditional resource-management games, players build factories on blank spaces or ‘extract’ resources from the in-game environment. Future Energy presents a

Canopy: Evergreen

While its predecessor, Canopy, focused on the lush, dense tropical rainforest, Evergreen shifts the focus to a temperate forest ecosystem. In a functioning ecosystem, plants and animals rely on each other to survive and reproduce. Evergreen models the interdependence of trophic levels via a mechanical pairing system between the forest habitat and its wildlife. Players

Circular City – the board game

Conceived and developed through a cross-border partnership between the municipality of Prato (Italy), the municipality of Taichung (Taiwan), and ARCO (Action Research for Co-Development) at the University of Florence, “Circular City – the board game” is an educational, non-profit serious game designed to model the real-world complexities of transitioning toward a sustainable future. Rather than

Habitactics

Habitactics is a ‘serious’ educational puzzle game developed by Zachtronics as part of the Amplify digital curriculum (https://amplify.com/). Rather than adopting Zachtronics’ traditional complex engineering or programming mechanics, for which the developer has accumulated a ‘cult following’, Habitactics uses a modified Match-3 puzzle mechanic to model trophic levels, food webs, and ecosystem stability. The game

Beyond Blue

Developed by E-Line Media, the creators behind Never Alone in partnership with BBC Studios, Beyond Blue (2020) draws heavy inspiration from the footage and eco-philosophies of Blue Planet II. The game frames its environmental representation through a near-future narrative starring Mirai, a deep-sea biologist leading a small, high-tech research team. Beyond Blue presents a relationship

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

“My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future”. The British filmmaker and naturalist, David Attenborough, has devoted his career to educating people about nature and, more recently, the climate crisis. The 2020 documentary David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet weights in on the climate crisis by aiming to subvert the traditional nature documentary

World of Warcraft (Ecological Succession activity)

“Ecological Succession” is a four-week-long activity during which players populate the Oasis with species from Azeroth, help these species thrive through storylines and daily quests, recruit three experts to assist in ecosystem management and earn pets, mounts, and achievements as rewards. This new world activity introduced in Patch 11.2 lets players collaborate with Ve’nari and

Last War (Greenification Mechanic in Season 3)

Greenification is the core mechanic for revealing Desert Artifacts in Season 3 of the mobile strategy game Last War. It is possible to greenify map tiles starting from day 3 of week 1 as soon as a city gets captured; captured cities will be surrounded by green tiles and selecting any location adjacent to those

Botany

As Victorian-era plant hunters, players travel the world in search of rare specimens to bring back to their estates. The game draws on a period of scientific curiosity and exploration, presenting nature as both fascinating and demanding, encountered through journeys and careful handling rather than simple collection. At its core is a system of expedition

Forest Shuffle

    Over the course of the game, each player grows a forest by placing different tree species and arranging other plants, animals, and fungi around them. The game ends once three “winter” cards are drawn, signifying the end of the growing season. At that point, the most ecologically “successful” forest wins. At the core, Forest

Mythwind

In the board game Mythwind, 1–4 players take on the roles of settlers arriving in a quiet, magical valley, working together to establish a new town within an already living and enchanted landscape. Rather than conquering or reshaping this environment, players gradually learn to live in it by building relationships with its inhabitants and adapting

STRATEGIES is funded by the European Union under grant agreement No 101094373 and the UK Research and Innovation. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or UK Research and Innovation. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them..