Green Media Mediography – Utrecht University

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of the most popular Nintendo game series. You play as Link in the open world of Hyrule and try to find Princess Zelda, who mysteriously disappeared. Along the way, you fight enemies, solve puzzles, explore different regions, collect materials you find in the world to

Spirit Island

Spirit Island is widely recognized not just as a well designed cooperative strategy game but as a deliberate counter-narrative to the neo-colonial exploration and exploitation gameplay inherent in classic games like Catan. By shifting the player’s perspective from the colonizing “pioneer” to the island itself, the game presents human-nature relations in an unusual and inspiring

Blue Planet (TTRPG series)

Originally published in 1997 by Biohazard Games and recently revived with Blue Planet: Recontact, Blue Planet is widely considered a pioneering and successful example of ‘hard’ eco-science fiction in the tabletop RPG space. The game is set in 2199 on Poseidon, an alien waterworld that humanity has fled to following a devastating, 70-year ecological collapse

Climate Cooldown

Climate Cooldown is a cooperative educational board game designed for 2–4 players (though the game is scalable for larger groups in classrooms). Over the course of up to five rounds, players must coordinate their actions to slash global emissions, build green energy grids, and heal damaged ecosystems before the planet hits a tipping point of

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

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

Lumino City

Lumino City is a BAFTA award-winning puzzle game that addresses the topic of renewable energy. The game represents renewable energy as a functional necessity within the gameplay. To progress, the player must learn how natural forces like wind, water and the sun can be harnessed to power a small community. For example, in one early

Sustainability City (Minecraft Education)

The lesson pack “Sustainability City” for Minecraft Education frames sustainability as a process integrating elements like urban planning, consumer behavior, and responsible resource management. It does not fucs only on environmental protection, but on enhancing economic modes of production and quality of life by reducing waste and using renewable energy.The mod breaks down sustainability into

Compost Pests and Cultivation (Stardew Valley)

This mod adds three aspects to the game’s farming system that make both the in-game terrain (see Abraham 2024) and the representation of agriculture more realistic and immersive. 1) Pests like vegetable flies can infest the crops, which can then only be destroyed to prevent spreading. 2) Using the seed maker can give crops a

JNR’s Climate Balance (Civilization VI)

JNR’s Climate Balance frames the climate crisis as a high-stakes, delayed-impact catastrophe rather than the relatively quick and comparatively easily manageable gameplay cycle in the original Civilization VI: Gathering Storm expansion. It shifts the focus from immediate consequences to hitting later in the game but disproportionately harder, i.e. the window for prevention is wider, but

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

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.

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.

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.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a role-playing video game developed by Northway Games and published by Finji. The player starts the game as a ten year old, going through events that affect their colony on an alien planet until the game ends when they turn twenty. The game lets players spend their teenage years

Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds features an unnamed astronaut player character exploring a solar system that is stuck in a 22-minute time loop, resetting after the star goes supernova.[1] Thus, the player is encouraged to learn why by following secrets of an extinct alien race known as the Nomai, who previously visited the solar system thousands of years