Today Playing for the Planet has officially launched the sixth edition of the Green Game Jam, with a chance for studios to sign up for 2025, find out more and consider how to act in support of the theme as well as see the 2025 timeline.
Last year some 49 studios joined us and we’re hoping that 2025 beats this record with even more studios signing up to learn, engage and act for the planet.
What is the Green Game Jam?
An annual challenge where games studios are asked to implement environmentally themed content into their live games with existing audiences with the goal to empower players to take action for the environment whilst playing their favorite games.
At Playing for the Planet, we call environmentally themed content like this a “green activation”. These green activations can be anything from a time-limited event, to a new character skin, to a social media campaign as long as they prompt players to learn, engage and/or act for the planet.
The Green Game Jam is open to any game that is available on the market with a live audience. Having a live audience is important as we are looking to reach as many people as possible.
Why nature?
We can’t take nature for granted, yet that’s currently what is happening. 75% of the Earth's land surfaces and 66% of ocean area has already been significantly impacted by activities such as agriculture, fisheries and pollution.
Nature is critical for all life on earth. The rich web of ecosystems that make up the natural world are vital for clean air, fresh water, medicines, fuel sources, food security, and climate stability. Currently, only 15% of land, 15% of freshwaters, and 8% of ocean are protected from human activity and a holistic reappraisal on how we reset our relationship with nature is urgently needed, before its too late.
With this in mind, our focus this year on nature, coming together to ensure we can still enjoy its benefits in the generations to come. We will be playing and campaigning for nature. Playing through the beautiful activations that will be created and campaigning through signing a petition, pledging to take action, and financing nature based initiatives.
How do we implement this into our games?
Ideally, studios would look at what kind of natural elements are already included in the game? Are there ways to connect characters or landscapes in the game to their real-life counterparts? What is the level of awareness around nature amongst players? What is their interest in taking action? The aim is to challenge players to think more about their connection to the natural world, the ways we can all nurture ourselves with nature, and how we can make sure that we enjoy nature’s benefits in the generations to come.
Sounds great - when does it all begin?
Registration closes on Friday 31st January, with a kick-off event on Wednesday 19th February for all participating studios. This will be an online event that is designed to recap the theme and ask, as well as add in any missing details and provide participants with the opportunity to meet each other and ask questions. It’ll also include the first of three knowledge sharing sessions to get studios thinking in-depth about the theme.
Now before studios start going straight into brainstorming mode, please have a look at last year’s workshop from Arnaud Fayolle, Art Director at Ubisoft, who will guide interested parties through some helpful tips and tricks that will support studios in building the best possible activation for players.
The introduction deck with more details on theme and timeline can be found here as well as the registration form here.
