Doing Our Bit IGDA Climate SIG

Professor A.R. Siders, Director of the Climate Change Science and Policy Hub at the University of Delaware, is the teacher of climate adaptation policy and climate fiction who this year found herself organizing a climate game jam.

Clayton called her up to discuss how games can help make the future concrete enough that we can plan for it, what it means to set up an academic game jam and how games can be judged not just on their reach and appeal, but how well they teach their subject matter.



Since this recording, the game jam winners have been announced and can be found here:

https://itch.io/jam/climate-change-game-jam



You can find more of A.R.'s research here:

https://www.udel.edu/faculty-staff/experts/ar-siders/



And as always, here is the IGDA Climate SIG:

https://discord.gg/KW5XXWzCHq

Friend of the podcast Trevin York and his colleagues have interviewed dozens of game studios across the world grappling with a wide variety of climate-focused game designs. We grill him about the findings; what obstacles are we facing out there in the wild, how can we overcome them, and what seems to be working?



Read the full report, titled Gaming for Climate Action, here:

https://onebillionresilient.org/gaming-climate-action-strategy-guide/



Trevin also called out Yale and Unity's study on gamer environmental attitudes, which you can find here: https://blog.unity.com/games/what-do-gamers-think-about-global-warming



And as always, dive into the IGDA Climate SIG here: https://discord.gg/KW5XXWzCHq



For more from Trevin, visit https://www.trevinyork.com/

Clayton sits down with Dr Patrick Prax of Uppsala University to soak up his deep critical thinking about the systemic causes of and solutions to unsustainable practices in the games industry. Why aren't things moving faster? Who (or WHAT) is pushing in the other direction? What does it take to affect change not just to a game, a player base, a company, but an entire industry?



LINKS:

The Story of Stuff: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@StoryofStuff⁠

IGDA Climate SIG: https://discord.gg/KW5XXWzCHq

Clayton goes on a design deep dive with green game evangelist Andrew Brennwald, game director of up-and-coming foraging sim Out and About. Tracing the winding path that led him to that position, they explore a rewilding awakening, the exhilarating leap of starting up a green game studio, and the many joys and challenges of designing a game inspired by nature - one that can in turn inspire players to imagine a future worth fighting for.



References:

The Lakes with Simon Reeve: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16091378/

Yaldi Games: https://www.yaldigames.com

Out and About: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1671570/Out_and_About/

IGDA Climate SIG: https://discord.gg/KW5XXWzCHq

In the first episode of our new season, we discuss climate resilience and how games can help prepare the world for what's to come. Clayton is joined by Shayne Hayes: newly elected co-chair of the IGDA Climate SIG and Associate Director of the Video Game Initiative at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock).


This episode was brought to you by our host: Clayton Whittle, our producer: Hugo Bille, and our podcast editor: Sabrina Fedele.

Invitation to the IGDA Climate SIG: https://www.igdaclimatesig.org/take-action


Learn more about Shayne Hayes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayne-hayes/



The Environmental Game Design Playbook can be found ⁠here⁠.

BONUS EPISODE: In this quick-fire episode, Hugo digests the adventure that was last week's Green Games Summit by UKIE and Playing for the Planet, alongside fellow summitgoers and IGDA Climate SIG members Mélanie Christin and Trevin York. What were our biggest takeaways from the summit, what did it accomplish and where do we go from here?

Apologies for the sound quality in the beginning, it gets better after a few minutes!