Looking for ideas for a game to promote daily practices that help the environment.

[ToxicFyre]

Right now we are thinking of adding multiple mini-games with tips, and revolving around the theme of climate change and ecology.

However, we need new ideas that make our game better, in any way. All ideas are welcome.

[CaptainPanic]

Eeehm... maybe you need to write a little introduction so that we know what we're talking about?

[ToxicFyre]

Eeehm... maybe you need to write a little introduction so that we know what we're talking about?

 

It´s for a competition in my uni, which asked us to crowd source ideas for a game to promote the protection and care for the environment.

A way for people to learn while they have fun in an addicting way, so the information sticks. That's basically it, we have been thinking about giving statisctics and tips inside ecologically themed mini games like snake and pong, but that's not really innovative. :/

That's why I am asking what you guys think, so please if you have any ideas or suggestions just reply.

[Ilex aquifolium]

Are we talking computer games or physical games like board/card?

[ToxicFyre]

Are we talking computer games or physical games like board/card?

Computer game.

[Ilex aquifolium]

That's a shame, I liked the idea of a board game on this topic - but maybe that's just me being an eccentric old lady in the body of a hot young scientist ( < entirely subjective).

[pears]

How about a game that involves keeping things below a certain level, such as power or water. E.g. you have to perform certain tasks without exceeding an allowed level of resources. Maybe you have opponents (e.g. other household members) that go around leaving lights on, and taps running?

[Endy0816]

Yeah, a new resource management game could be good. Otherwise adapting an existing concept to fit could also work well.

 

 

3rd World Farmer and Sim Farm is a good example of this. Both games are farming simulations but with very different focuses. A number of casual games out there that could serve well as raw material.

 

 

Best suggestion I have is to identify one specific issue that your group feels strongly about and proceed from there. Something motivating, "Save the Reefs!", "Stop the Polluters!", can serve as your rallying point. Then you can determine the game concept, necessary code and images.

[Noodle]

What is your target demographic age range? I actually used to play a few sciencey games growing up, and it probably had a lot to do with how I got here.

 

If it is for younger kids- how about a traveling host who can go to the Great Barrier Reef and help clean it? Then take care of endangered animals in Africa? Then recycle at home where she wakes up everyday? Compost gardening, and other good habits? I do like the idea of energy and water gauges to help show how bad some appliances can be. Maybe she can upgrade her ampliances to more energy efficient ones as she levels up?

 

Hope this helps!

[davidivad]

are you required to use a specific game engine?

 

i think that "recycling" objects so that you can do more than one thing with them would be an idea.

consider a simple object you find and use for one thing and hold onto. later, you can either do something else with it or combine it with something else found to create a new object.

 

clearly recycling and resource monitoring are already part of a typical game so it will likely be a matter of presentation.

 

perhaps a journey that is a struggle of creating awareness and, in the end, results in global awareness.

[petrushka.googol]

My idea would be a carbon credit game.

it could use simple logic where activities are tracked from daybreak to nighttime and each activity is tracked with bonuses awarded for constructive behavior and penalties for potentially hazardous actions.

The actors in this scenario would be the protagonist and his associates would be other actors.

To give you an example : in the morning if the user forgets to switch off his room light he should be penalized say 5 points.

You could assume an intelligent home where this information is relayed via SMS at least once.

If the user reads the SMS and remotely switches off the lights (assuming this facility is available) then the initial penalty could be reduced by 2 points.

Or else he could be further penalized another 5 points.

You could have a cut off threshold for the day.

If he crosses 50 penalty points he forfeits the game.

Also you could track his interactions at work. If he takes out a print out of his data then that is a carbon debit. If he emails the information he could be at status quo.

A cascade on this would be a paper shredder. If he uses this he should be rewarded.

Also if he uses public transport (or a car pool) he could be rewarded.

You could list out the actions that the person can do in a day and select those that he intends to do in the day.

Then you could build a tree based on those selections.

Customization would be some custom behavior like clearing old emails (which is good for the environment as each byte stored on a data center is electricity demand added) and would merit some sort of reward.

Also you could have a health feature....If the person smokes then he could be penalized.

Just my simple idea...You could call it Go Green

Edited February 2, 2014 by petrushka.googol

[Eider]

Right now we are thinking of adding multiple mini-games with tips, and revolving around the theme of climate change and ecology.

 

 

Is your game trying to capture the breadth of these topics, or are you trying to focus more on sustainability?

 

It certainly ties into both climatology and ecology, but those are two fields in their own right as well.

 

Ecology has a lot of fundamental concepts that aren't hard to understand at a general level and could easily be adapted to a game. You could make a game where the player has to help species by managing different types of habitats and solve problems that affect them. You can make games based on food webs, trophic levels, succession, etc. These concepts can be simplified to where they won't be too difficult to learn but still have a lot of potential for learning in them, and is certainly relevant to environmental protection.

[Acme]

Right now we are thinking of adding multiple mini-games with tips, and revolving around the theme of climate change and ecology.

However, we need new ideas that make our game better, in any way. All ideas are welcome.

Identify and destroy invasive species and/or replace/replant with native species. :idea: