Climate Gamers: How Developers Incorporate Climate Change Into Video Games

Amid the noticeable impact of climate change, it was observed that the climate movement has been infiltrating the gaming industry.

Extreme Heat Crisis

For one, there is this Minecraft game that is based on the extreme heat crisis that is prevalent around the world.

The design of the game aims to teach children about the risky effects of heat as well as to inculcate to children the prevention and mitigation efforts against heat. The measures include increasing hydration to establishing urban green spaces.

In Minecraft's Heat Wave Survival, the players must kill the heat dragon, which is a personification of too much heat. Those who designed it said that it was created to give extreme heat a feeling of being highly tangible.

Through the power of this game, the players will be able to learn some heat-resilience techniques. Further, throughout the game, they will also know how to recognize the symptoms of heat exhaustion as well as the heatstroke.

Meanwhile, the resilience techniques are recommendations from Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, which has been at the forefront of researching the heat. The research also includes appointing chief heat officers in different parts of the world.

At present, the team is developing a second game in its series in which the players will be in charge of building their own city supplied by renewable energy.

The players will then have the option to install heat-resilient infrastructure such as shade structures and establishments. It was said that the game is primarily for young students.

Sustainable Game Development

Earlier research has indicated that the gaming universe has been slow to recognize that creating and playing video games has also been consuming a lot of energy, which will later produce emissions.

These emissions will then have a negative impact on the present state of global climate change that has affected millions of individuals. In relation to this, the advocates for more sustainable game development have been arguing that video games must reduce their impact on the planet.

Experts said that while the video game industry has paid more attention to sustainability, only a portion of the gaming firms and companies have released data when it comes to the climate impact.

It was said that those game developers are not really ignorant of what has been happening in the climate realm.

Officials pointed out that some of the biggest companies have even set their sustainability targets.

To recall, it was at the end of 2022 when a report was released about focusing on the 33 largest publishers and studios in the industry that have set net-zero emissions goals.

It was found that 10 have ambitious plans to reach the milestone before 2030, including company giants such as Microsoft, Apple and Google, but also Ubisoft, Tencent and Riot Games.

Experts also noted that games help players to be more involved and engaging as it blends enjoyment with serious matters.