Optimistic playable future scenarios
Tapping into aesthetics like Solarpunk, games can use bright, vibrant color palettes, and optimistic (though ideally not unrealistic/naive) plotlines to inspire interest in and engagement with hopeful real-world developments like community-driven technology alternatives, renewable energy production or permaculture initiatives.
On that note, it is important to acknowledge the need to keep iterating on narrative, aesthetic and procedural aspects of these ‘hopeful futures’ – which are increasingly visible in commercial games – to prevent them from becoming formulaic and ‘stale’, in which case they might have the opposite effect of fueling cynicism and framing sustainable future narratives as artificial and dishonest.
Additional games
Loftia, Sable