Green Media Mediography – Utrecht University

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

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".

Rain World

Rain World might look a bit different than more prominent ‘ecogame’ examples but exhibits a few design decisions that stand out among other digital games and raise pertinent issues: Destabilizing anthropomorphism. The game exclusively features non-human protagonists and antagonists; moreover, while the in-game creatures are inspired by real-world counterparts (e.g. spiders and birds), they are

Pom Poko

Pom Poko (1994) is set in the Tama Hills on the outskirts of Tokyo, in the late 1960s, and it is focused on a tribe of shape-shifting raccoon dogs who are threatened by a massive suburban development project. Pom Poko highlights the fact that the natural world can be exploited with the aim to promote urban development at the expense of nature.

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

FernGully is the story of the magical fairy inhabitants of a rainforest, who attempt to protect the forest from logging and polution. It portrays the intersection of transnational activism, corporate environmentalism, and technologies that accelerated and globalized the production process.

California Sea Lion Plays with Mask (World Press Photo 2021)

This photo of the Breakwater dive site in Monterey, California, won the first prize in the World Press Photo competition 2021 in the category "Environment, Singles". It demonstrates interdiscursivity as a discursive strategy by combining the pollution of the oceans with the face mask as an iconic image of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Princess Mononoke

This Studio Ghibli film tells the story of the young prince Ashitaka who finds himself caught in a war between the old forest gods and a mining colony. The film discusses the negative implications of destroying nature for the sake of economic gain.

The Lion King (1994)

The Lion King tells the story of Simba, a young lion who is to succeed his father, Mufasa, as King of the Pride Lands.

WILD: Serengeti

WILD: Serengeti is a board game inspired by the endless plains of the Serengeti. With the appealing animal meeples, the game arguably taps into the 'bambi effect' to make (especially) players emotionally invested.

Save a Rhino

Save a Rhino lets the player play as either an elephant or rhino. The game tries to teach players about the current situation involving the sales of ivory on the black market and how it is detrimental to the numbers of rhinos and elephants out in the wild.

Rescue Polar Bears

Rescue Polar Bears is set in the year 2045. With increasingly serious global warming, the last area of ice on land at the North Pole is melting and all the polar bears are homeless. Players in this game will be a team formed by all nations to save them.