Green Media Mediography – Utrecht University

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

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest

Released in 2020 by the Polish indie studio Different Tales (co-founded by former The Witcher designers), Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest is a narrative-driven visual novel RPG. The game’s setting is its most important feature: the real-world Białowieża Forest on the border of Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last

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:

Infest the Rats’ Nest

A thrash/heavy metal concept album by Australian band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. The album deals with severe man-made climate collapse, factory farming, class struggle, and more from a dystopian viewpoint.

Humanity’s Impact – How many plastic bottles do we produce?

Our planet is flooded with single use plastics such as plastic bottles. Did you know that globally, we produce about 1 million plastic bottles every minute? What does that number even look like? This Studio Birthplace production – made with CG partners Method and Madness – makes the invisible story visible, so we can better

The handmaids tale

Margaret Atwood’s dystopian tale has re-entered the public more than three decades after its 1985 premiere, thanks to a praised Hulu series. The red dress and white hat have become recognisable in resistance movements all across the world as a result of recent legal crackdowns on reproductive freedoms. However, Atwood’s story contains more than just