15 | Life on Land – Green Media Mediography

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (S01E09)

The Zom 100 anime is set in a zombie apocalypse scenario, with a group of protagonists roaming around Japan and trying to fulfill their ‘bucket list’ of life aspirations, which they were unable to act on under the conditions of modern-day Japanese society. In episode 9, the group makes its way to the protagonist’s parents

Dungeon Meshi

The Netflix anime series Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon) is unusual in that it constructs the dungeon, a common worldbuilding trope from role-playing games, as an ecosystem and as a metaphor for ecosystemic interactions.

Outbound

Outbound is a crowdfunded game project by Dutch developer Square Glade Games about building one’s own home on wheels and living sustainably off-grid by crafting workstations, sourcing energy, upgrading, customizing, and automating processes. Image source: https://www.gematsu.com/2024/02/open-world-camper-van-exploration-game-outbound-announced-for-pc

The Deep Forest

The Deep Forest is a free collaborative mapping RPG game that addresses several themes related to but often not directly associated with the climate crisis, in particular monstrosity, inhabiting non-human perspectives and postcolonial perspectives on human-nature relationships. The game’s website summarizes the premise as follows: “For a long time, our monstrous home was occupied by

When Rivers Were Trails

When Rivers Were Trails is a 2D point-and-click adventure game in which Oregon Trail meets Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. An Anishinaabeg in the 1890’s is displaced from their traditional territory in Minnesota and heads west to California due to the impact of allotment acts on Indigenous communities, facing Indian Agents, meeting people from different nations, and hunting,

Never Alone

Never Alone, or Kisima Inŋitchuŋa, is a game developed in collaboration with native people of Alaska, called the Iñupiat. The game is about a young Iñupiat girl and a fox, who are trying to find the source of a devastating blizzard that is threatening their world. Together they have to travel through the Arctic with

Dishonored 2

Dishonored 2 is the direct sequel of 2012 Arkane Studios’ awarded Dishonored. The story takes place a few years past the events of the first chapter, and lets the player take on the role of Empress Emily Kaldwin. Usurped of her throne by the Duke Luca Abele, she embarks on a journey through the southern

Dishonored

Dishonored is an immersive-sim game set in a fictional world that recalls the Victorian Era imaginary. The player takes on the role of Corvo, the Royal Protector and master of spies that is accused of killing the Empress. To redeem his name and save the princess, Emily, he makes a deal with a mysterious demigod

A Plague Tale: Innoncence

A Plague Tale: Innoncence is a narrative-driven adventure game in which the player follows the story of two brothers, Amicia de Rune and Hugo de Rune. Set in France during the Hundred Years War, the game depicts the horrors of war and epidemics, as the title suggests. One of the peculiar features of A Plague

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

Half-Earth Socialism

Based on the book of Troy Vetesse and Drew Pendergrass, Half-Earth Socialism is a free videogame in which you are tasked with governing the world, reducing humanity greenhouse gas emissions, protecting biodiversity, and reducing the temperature to 1 degree above industrial levels at the year 2100. To reach that objective you’ll have different policy proposals

The Endless Forest

The Endless Forest is a multiplayer online game PC by Tale of Tales, in which players represent deer in a peaceful forest without goals or the ability to chat. Pictograms above registered deer’s heads represent their names. Players communicate with one another through sounds and body language. From the wiki: “During ‘abiogenesis’, every deer runs

Meadow (computer game)

From the wiki: “Meadow is Might and Delight’s latest release; a massively multiplayer online sandbox that allows players to interact as animals would. Described as a ‘forum in games’ clothing’, this online fable experience lets fans – old and new – come together and experience a peculiar world.” With its focus on nonverbal communication, the

As Far As The Eye

As Far As The Eye is a resource-management roguelike in which the player guides a tribe of anthropomorphic animals of diverse shapes that need to travel to the center of the continent to avoid a flood The game is strongly impregnated on the cultural narratives and practices of the tribe. As the flood is a

Tree

Tree is a VR installation directed by Milica Zec and Winslow Porter that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2017 New Frontier Program, in which the theme was climate change. This virtual experience transforms participants into a rainforest tree. The experience begins with participants planting a real seed given to them by one of the Tree‘s

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a 1984 Japanese animated movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his 1982 manga. One thousand years have passed since the Seven Days of Fire, an apocalyptic war which destroyed human civilization and most of the Earth’s original ecosystem. Scattered human settlements and tribes survive, isolated from

Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing is a 2022 book adaptation directed by Olivia Newman. It dives into the story of Kya Clark who got abandoned by her family from a very young age. She survives in the marshes of North Carolina by herself—living off selling mussels to a local store—and acquires the name ‘marsh girl’ from

Our Planet

Our Planet is a 2019 British nature film series, directed by Alistair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, Colin Butfield and Sophie Lanfear, and narrated by sir David Attenborough. The eight-episode film series aims to inspire its viewers to understand the natural world and to raise awareness about the human footprint on it. This is done through showing the

Walden; or, Life in the Woods

Walden (first published in 1854 as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance. Walden details Thoreau’s experiences over the course of two years, two

Our Planet Live In Concert

Featuring favorite scenes and highlights from the Our Planet series, Our Planet Live in Concert tours international arenas. Hosted by the series composer and Academy Award®-winner Steven Price, the show features spectacular visual and sound effects and on-screen narration from David Attenborough. The magnificent series score is performed live by a 44-piece orchestra. This specially-curated reimagining of the Netflix

Surviving The Aftermath

In Surviving The Aftermath, you manage a colony of refugees in a post-apocalyptic world where natural disasters, bandit attacks and radioactive pollution are constant threats. The resurgence of a modern industrial civilization in your colony is necessary to protect it against a potential future cataclysm. The game reproduces the logic of city builders of increasing

A Life on Our Planet

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future is a 2020 book by documentarian David Attenborough and director-producer Jonnie Hughes. It follows Attenborough’s career as a presenter and natural historian, along with the decline in wildlife and rising carbon emissions during the period. Attenborough warns of the effects that climate change and biodiversity

A Life On Our Planet

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet is a 2020 British documentary film narrated by David Attenborough. Attenborough describes this film as his “witness statement” on the current state of the planet due to humanity’s impact on nature and his hopes for the future. He shares his concern from Pripyat, a town deserted after the nuclear Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986, and intersperses his

Symbiosis

Symbiosis (Polymorf, 2021) is a performative, multisensory, multiuser and multi-species-storytelling VR experience. It offers a speculative world set 200 years in the future on the ruins of the Anthropocene after climate disaster has changed the world beyond recognition. This installation offers blueprints for the creation of new family relationships between humans, animals, plants and AI. On the verge of extinction, symbiosis between and the redesign