The role of games in promoting a greener future

The creative screen industries are made up of powerful storytellers. Storytellers who are able to build impactful narratives into the world’s that they create. For many of those working in the games industry right now this includes coming up with innovative new ways to weave climate content into their games in a way that has the potential to bring about real world change. Or, as Monument Valley 3’s game director Jennifer Estaris says: “Green games could trigger the social tipping point to save the planet, to save ourselves, all while having a healthy business.”

Estaris, founder of Estaris Works and sustainability and games consultant, explains: “Players are ready to take action, they want to. But can games facilitate that? They can but we need more innovation we need more surprise we need different types of play.”

But how do we do this? Well, Estaris, and industry advocates Louisa Keight, Laura Carter, Emily Brown and Jude Ower MBE have some ideas – and they’ve all been sharing them at two recent games events as part of the BAFTA and BAFTA albert Green Light season on sustainability in the industry…

Making the case for including climate content in games narratives, Estaris shared statistics that showed 80% of players are open to changing their habits after playing green content. Given some 3.4bn people were expected to play video games in 2024 that’s a huge captive audience.

The game director and climate activist highlighted that one way to capitalise on audience interest is by including green activations where “basically you add environment content into an already existing live game and we encourage players to take action in the real world.”

Echoing this Louisa Keight, project manager at Playing for the Planet Alliance, which has helped encourage hundreds of games activations through their yearly Green Game Jam event, says it’s about working with the game and thinking about interesting new features and what the players are interested in. Keight says: “Always starting with what your players want is a great way to not only have that environmental message but also build that business case when you’re pitching internally for this type of project.”

Laura Carter, CEO at TreesPlease Games, reflects on how the way you tell a green story in games impacts how people will react. “When you’re trying to enact change you have to say here are the facts, what do you think we should do as opposed to here is what you should do”, she says.

Carter says you need to leave space for players to “join the dots” themselves: “Ultimately players are there to have fun and be entertained. If you make a game that goes too far on the green themes, then ultimately you’ll probably have a very impactful game that’s played by 100 people… It needs to be a game in its own right that’s fun and appealing and casual and all of these things… but [think] how do we weave these themes in, in a way that isn’t telling people what to do but still has a kind of clear message and clear takeaway.”

Emily Brown, BAFTA Breakthrough and lead designer at ustwo games, adds that it’s also about how we “weave in our own hopeful journey in a changing world.” Highlighting that games storytelling offers an opportunity to think: “What about that hopeful future? Yeah, things have gone wrong but we’re figuring them out, we’re trying to solve them.”

Sustainable stories equal good business for the games industry. Estaris highlights that green content can mean more profit as “81% of gamers would like to see more relevant environmental content in their games and 61% of gamers are motivated to pay for environmental content”. And Jude Ower MBE, Chief Strategy Officer at PlanetPlay, points out that “showing having green messages [and] having green content can have positive uplift for the game” plays an important role in continuing to drive this type of content forward.

Aside from making a business case for incorporating climate storytelling though Ower also adds that creating space for players to “speak up and have their voices heard” is a vital piece of the puzzle. She says: “Make people part of the conversation. Don’t tell them what to do but let’s understand what they know and what they don’t know, what they want to see happen, and let’s work together on this… how can we help them have the right information to make the right choices.”

For anyone looking for somewhere to start, Estaris champions adopting these three steps…

• Iterate – testing new ideas and building on what works
• Innovate – pushing the envelope to drive change
• Instigate – having pillars that weave in sustainability and showing KPIs that support a business case for having purpose in our games

She says: “Let’s provide some planetary care in our games which also happens to improve our bottom lines, our profits and lets share with those in need… this is how we care for each other this is how we care for our planet.”

BAFTA is excited to be hosting the Green Light Season, a series of discussions and screenings designed to inspire content makers to take our collective commitment to sustainability to new heights. Through this season of activity we’re asking for the industry’s help to explore how we can create TV and films that support an inclusive conversation about climate change where everyone feels part of the mission.

The events that the industry experts included in this article contributed to were entitled: Driving impactful sustainable change through games and  Assemble for Change: An Interactive Adventure in Sustainable Game Design with Jennifer Estaris.

With thanks to our Official Partner – Universal Production Music. Listen to the official Green production music playlist.

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