Climate Games: The Developer's Field Guide

[Music] thank you I'm so happy to be here today not only here in GDC but here in the design track of GDC so I saw that would mean the advocacy track to convince you that climate change is real and important enough to talk about it but you've seen the mega fires you've suffered from the heat waves Last Summer some of you struggle to find fresh water to drink and some of you have way too much water and lost their home so you looked it up and now you know that the only way to keep this planet habitable is to completely transform our ways of life from this to that and the clock is ticking people around you said it's impossible that we are doomed because there's no way Humanity can shift his course in such a short amount of time but not you because you my friend have a superpower

your game makers you can talk to 3 billion players around the planet who already trust what you have to say you can teach complex problems in fun and engaging ways that no school can ever match sorry for our Educators in the room you get to Define what being cool means and for multiple generation at once and I'm one of you I've been making games for 17 years all around the world within wonderful teams growing as a successful art director yet wondering if I was part of the problem it came to the conclusion we can be part of the solution instead so I helped founding the igd climate special interest group an international Grassroots community of game devs academics and climate scientists passionate about exploring the untapped power of video games to take all the climate crisis then he has a chance to join Ubisoft positive play a transversal team from our International headquarters task to demonstrate and amplify the positive impact games can have on players and on the planets together we're now developing creative tools to support game devs in their quest for

environmental impacts such as brings General win game Jam organized by the playing for the planet Alliance to which 20 Ubisoft game participated so far so I've been doing this for a bit learning with all of you through trial and errors and today I'm proud to present you all our findings in a a field guide does it took a bit work in progress to you because it is see I wish I could come to you claiming this is how we solved climatic crisis you can do it too but it hasn't happened yet there's no perfect science about how to solve a problem of such scale so we are all Pioneers here learning together how to make a difference what I do know is that we're in the middle of a climate emergency and we need all hands on deck now so here on board I'm going to share with you our Maps method and discoveries first of the press and hope you can give you a head start so you don't lose precious ears if you're attending other sustainability sessions this week I'll show you how everything can come together into a process you can leverage if not this one will be a good starting

point to get you interested in what everyone else has been doing ready let's do that first let's start by clarifying what is a climate game is the game that can fix climate what does this even mean climate change is much more complex than just managing your greenhouse gas emission the causes are deeply rooted in everything that makes our modern civilization and its consequences are affecting everything and everyone on the planet and we can't fix complex problems with Simple Solutions we need a systemic change a global transformation so to make sense of this the United Nations have put together a plan with 17 sustainable development goals which would allow to restore balance on the planets can a video game solve all of these click here right some developers had the courage to make games that tackle these heads-on giving players a chance to explore all these interconnected problems to understand how to beat climate change and I do encourage everyone to play those games

but let's be realistic the mostly appeal to people who are already dedicated to this course if we want our 3 billion players to play climate games we need to talk to them where they are right now so what if every game could be a climate game let's explore what every game developer can do in your studio and on the game you're making at the moment and let's address the elephant in the room first what we all need to do right now is reducing our environmental impacts otherwise we'll still being part of the problem so carbon footprint of digital Industries is way too high and keep growing so we must start flattening the Curve at Ubisoft decarbonation is part of our play Green initiative this is a huge challenge that will take time to fully address but our plan has been validated by the science-based Target initiative which proves it can be done there's so much to say about this but so if you're interested you can find all information on you about Ubisoft the carbonation plan on our website we update it every year and we're trying to be as transparent as possible

when surprising fact I'd like to share with you though is that most of our emissions are Downstream effect such as the energy our player used while playing we only have direct control over five to ten percent of our Global emissions how can we expect a game Studio to make a positive impact on climate if we have no direct control over 95 percent of the problem by doing what we do best making games are a growing part of today's culture and therefore can have a positive impact on climate via our players the way Final Fantasy 7 inspired a generation of Eco activists back in 97. so let's grab our initial definition game can't fix climate but our teams and our players can so a climate game would be a game with a sustainable environmental footprint that nudge player to act for climates okay but how do they do this well there are two approaches we can either partner

up with ngos and Inspire player to spend some of their money to fund the work of Planet Keepers who will plant trees protect Wildlife or build renewable energy infrastructure on their behalf the best part with this technique that is very easy to track progress last year Ubisoft player planted more than a million trees with our partner ecology thanks to games participating to playing for the planets win game Jam so downside is that some overseas projects appear sometimes to be less beneficial for the planet as initially sold and that players who feel satisfied to have contributed for good cause may be less inclined to reconsider their also life habits the other approach is to inspire a player to tackle real world issues on their own the way Riders Republic invited player to restore a section of their open world and experience the difference Shifting the attitude and behavior of millions of players may be a tricky task with how to measure outcomes but if the only way to ensure long lasting positive effect on our world even after players are done playing our games both approach are valid but like no McLean said to change everything we need

everyone so we can't just let our player play games at home while the world burn can we sooner or later they'll have to act on their own like everyone and it will be much easier for them if games have prepared them to do that so it begs the question what action should we Inspire players to take what do we want our players to do in the real world after playing our game and it's such a tough question for us game developers because even the most passionate activists don't speak with the same voice some claim we should change individually do our part learn to live with less renew our connection with nature and abandon the broken system in a world learn to live sustainably others say we should rely on our strong institutions government and corporations to collectively transform our planet crushing system into something that could sustain itself for centuries in short transforming the system some even say we should be all in the street right now holding our ground against those who destroy our planet for profit with love and rage

in short resisting against the planet destruction so who should we trust there are so many good people trying to convince all the good people that their ways would be more efficient than others and the fear of advocating for the wrong solution can paralyze us so to schematize those three action path could be mapped that way seemingly going in different direction but it's actually closer to an ecosystem because each path benefits the other two living sustainably helps those trying to transform the system by probing the demand for that and act as a point of reference for those resisting against the planet destruction by transforming the system we create new sustainable alternatives for those who wish to live sustainably and we set new Benchmark for future regulation that allow the resistance to take legal actions and when we resist again Planet destruction we send a strong signal to government and cooperation that inaction won't be tolerated helping all employees working hard to transform the system from within as well as protecting the

condition of Life of those we live to live sustainably so you see everything is connected we can safely Inspire action in all those three axes knowing that their outcome will meet up at some point but again that's a lot to ask for can a game really nudge players into doing all of this one game no but collectively we released more than 10 000 games last year on Steam alone so the real question should be how can my game contribute what is my game uniquely suited to achieve that no other game can you know how we always go through Great Lengths to identify what's our game USPS their unique selling points well we should also strive to identify what's our game uip is our unique impact potential and we can triangulate this by looking at your game theme what it talk about the context of its world and characters it's gameplay what do we ask player to do in game and of course it's audience who will play the game and what is the

context of their lives let's start with the themes and now it's a good time to look back at the United Nations sustainable development goal and see where is the theme of our game lens games with very specific themes are perfect to focus on specific issues like life below water and hungry shark other games like broader open worlds can expose player to a whole range of Concepts like writers Republic with their various activities and usually the more systemic a game is the more things it can potentially addressed city builders like Anno are a perfect perfect to let player experience how all these different teams are interconnected in our civilization so I'm sure you're looking at this list now and think oh yeah there is this thing making game can be maybe hold that thought for now and let's look at our gameplay what does the game task player to do what are we encouraging and what are we punishing and look at where it lands on our climate action map

even though all games have a good Inspire player to act along any axis it's easy to notice some game genre have a natural potential to nudge player in specific directions games about real life activities low carbon sport relationship with animals or the natural world can Inspire players sustainable way to live games featuring systemic civilization are perfect to inspire Society transformation even games about high carbon activities like car racing can aim at setting examples the way track Mania does by showcasing an electric car rather than a petroleum action games combat shooting games can lead the resistance against our planet destruction we just need to clarify what we are fighting for or against so what does your game test player to do you must already have a good idea of where your game could be on this map great the last crucial element to determine the unique impact potential of our game is its audience your game professionals so you already have a good idea of their demographics

their segments and maybe some of their patients but what you don't know yet is where they stand on their pro-environmental Journey are they still ignoring the problem by accident or by choice are they already aware of those crisis but aren't acting yet or are they already actively involved in making the world more sustainable depending of our genre and themes is a proportion of each segments amongst our audience will vary but the goal is always how we get there from here to there and from there to there and to do this we need to understand the barriers that preventing them to doing so in the first place whether they're just not familiar with the problem or some existing misconceptions if you don't feel relevant to them or too complex to get into or even simply because the climate crisis is just too terrifying to even want to think about it during their Leisure Time and people who are already aware may not be actively involved yet because they feel it doesn't align with their current needs or they may not know what they can do they can also feel held back by

social norms or like the resource the things they need to take action and this can be addressed by a different features within the same game in rocksmiths plus tone would update the team addressed both Audience by including nature themed visual effects track lists and cosmetics to spark player interests and emotional connection with the natural world as well as optional videos about the importance of choosing a sustainable resourced guitar and how to take care of it to make it last longer which should be considered as a normal behavior of any GitHub player so we should now have a pretty good idea of what's our game unique impact potential at the intersections of our game theme are intended in-game attitude and challenge required by the gameplay and the context of that of our target audience did you find yours because nobody know your games better than you do okay so at this stage we know we can reduce our own emission we know that every individual and

Collective action can have a positive impact on the world we know that the unique impact of our game is to activate our audience to take action but how do we know for sure if our game will really contribute to pushing our players to take action basically how do we know it will work Studios participated into the green game Jam have been using all kind of tools to measure how effective their cultural impact is like in-game's metric collection or pre and post gameplay survey and they all show very promising results however this Matrix only shows the players pro-environmental intentions not their actual Behavior afterwards are done playing and we are all aware that can be a gap between intention and action sadly there's no way for us to measure player behavior when it happens outside of the game but what if we could predict them in the environmental game design Playbook called by member of the igd climate special interest group we compiled academic research we identify what could be key predictors of instrumental behaviors and here's what

we found we can predict player will adopt a project mental Behavior when they have the right knowledge because you can't actively know what to do it's not only about raising awareness about a problem but also understand why it happens and how to take direct action then they use the right attitude because you won't act if you don't care the player's attitude refer to how they Define themselves and feel about their relationship with the natural world each experience make us re-examine our attitudes as we learn through emotional interactions exposure to social or conceptual norms and practice positive behaviors the third predictor is a perception of self-efficacy because you won't act if you don't think it matters players can build this by witnessing the effect of their in-game action on the virtual world so they feel really invaluable starting with small actions and gradually tackling bigger and more complex one and experience with the collective power of community action can achieve and finally they need hope that all of this is worth doing hope is critical for

both taking the first step and keep going on the long run it can be built by experiencing and practicing trust in other players in their agency to set their own goal and their ability to experience success so this may look like a lot and it will be extremely hard to come up with a game that cover all of them but remember the our player aren't blank slates so even focusing on a single predictor can will help moving the needle and with a multitude of game pushing in the same direction collectively will make change happen which when you think would be easier to cycle with your game so we're getting somewhere but it still doesn't tell us how to actually make this game which leads to our last Quest what are the tools we have to achieve this but indeed the climate workshop on Monday this will be a bit familiar just like climates games are rich and complex systems they include so many

different parameters weave together into an experience so to fully understand what our level of actions are let's deconstruct what makes those systems first thing we see are the aesthetic is the Aesthetics the visual the sound and moderately everything that can be perceived with our senses while playing then we have the narratives the stories the settings the scripts in a world meaning we give of everything we see on screen the gameplay of course which include the game mechanics and more generally all the interactive bits and finally the technology the way the game is coded how it runs from the game engine to the device it plays on each of those four pillars are equally important they're usually handled by different people with different skill sets but they can all contribute to addressing environmental issues in their own unique ways we've regrouped them into X tools the first and most obvious one is message of the game what does the game tell us about the world about ourselves we can use it to deliver awareness

knowledge of course like in angry shark but also to help shaping players attitude by presenting characters relating to specific situations like in Watch Dogs the second tool artists hold the power of creating emotional impacts like Tony Kate said the role of the artist is to make Revolution irresistible by leveraging aesthetic codes we can trigger effective learning to either inspire a sense of connection with nature like in Rayman Origin or a sense of fear for danger we haven't experienced yet like wildfire in Raiders Republic number three the visualization or representation are achieved by combining narrative and aesthetic to show player what may be difficult to imagine on their own what it wasn't specifically about climate change the world Builders of Tom Clancy's The Division exposed the fragility of our society by representing dramatic vision of what the world will become if we let it collapse but also more hopeful vision of how acting together can lead to a self-sustainable

and happy life we narrative and gameplay are aligned we can lay some explicit or implicit calls to action to equip player with relevant action knowledge and build their perception of self-efficacy the reworked Miss plus invite player to repair and maintain their equipment leverages our community to take part in tree planting events on the gameplay side we've always we've seen that behavioral learning can induce attitude shift repeating actions in a game can become habits and where the context and personal value are aligned habits acquiring game can transfer it to real life could collecting garbage from the ocean in a Hungry Shark Inspire player to clean up their Beach next summer could taking part in a virtual climate match in Riders Republic inspire a scaffolding effect leading player to join one in the real world the future will tell next games have become so good at simulating the real world and all its

complex interactions that they can allow player to experiment which is component and draw their own conclusion the way I know 1800s helped developing systematic knowledge of complex problems like impact on ecosystem it makes it possible to understand long-term consequences of our action on a much shorter time frame and experimenting your sense of agency without the stress of making life-threatening mistakes when it comes to engineering optimization can also be used to give player agency over their own electric consumption and express their care for the environment in the most practical way such as with the echo mode we are pioneering with Microsoft and Xbox if you have as you may have heard on Wednesday some teams also came up with very creative solution to reduce the power consumption of their games such as giving players the opportunity to clear up their inventory space in exchange for exclusive reward in the game horse allowing us to reduce the server's usage for that game and finally and as much as it pains me

to admit it as a now director Graphics are responsible for most of the game computation power and disk size but there's a lot we can do to practice graphic sobriety without damaging the experience picking a linear Direction in brawlhalla allowed them to release on literally every platform allowing players to play on devices their already own rather than buying new one then reducing electronic waste and even photorealistic AAA games like Far Cry 6 can do their part such as making their high resolution texture pack optional during initial downloads saving nearly 30 gigabytes of data for players who don't need them so here are the eight tools we identified for game maker to figure impacts but they are probably much more the example I've mentioned are just a tiny fraction of everything you can leverage to address environmental issues but it shows how everyone in your team have strong card to play within their area of expertise you already know which one you're going to use okay let's wrap it up with a quick recap

so when you will go back to your studio on Monday and your team will ask what did you learn at GDC is there anything we can do to help with the climate crisis you can tell them I have a plan first let's make sure we stop being part of the problem by reducing our carbon emission we'll calculate our cardboard footprint we'll set ambitious yearly reduction targets get it validated by your trusted group to ensure it's realistic and we're going to start right now because it will take time to fully implement in the meantime we'll keep making the game we know and love but we are going to identify their unique impact potential by checking what sdg with our story world or character Explorer what acts of action can our gameplay promote and where our audience is likely to be in their journey to sustainability and what their barriers could be once we know this we need to equip players to maximize the chance of positive behavior we'll ensure they have some necessary knowledge to act an

attitude that Inspire positive action perceives themselves to be capable of making a difference and believe that their action can result in a worthwhile outcome so that they are highly likely to act in a pro environmental manner and to achieve this we'll need to look into what's in our game Leverage The Unique Advantage at aesthetic narrative gameplay and Technology can provide and will Empower every member of our great Dev team to contribute with their own expertise and when the content of our game equip and motivate our players to take action on their own to make the world a better place all without adding fuel to the fire it means we've given a World the game that part of the solution to climate crazies because in the end of the day what is a climate game really if not a game that's still relevant to develop to buy and to play in the age of the climate crisis thank you so this is where we are I hope you now feel inspired empowered and

hopeful and to get you started here are a few resources you can grab to help you in this Quest while I answer your questions [Applause] so I know there were a lot of contents I have a very little time and each of the tools I've shown could be the topic of a whole talk um but I'm happy to want you to a direction of this other talk after a while uh no thank you for your inspiring presentation and for tackling uh the problem or trying to tackle the problem um naively I'm assuming that today's games being run as a service have a bigger cupboard footprint than yesterday's games being sold in a box has Ubisoft measured the average cupboard footprint of a game or of of a player

today and are you trying to reduce that per player or per game being sold are you measuring this yes we measure this and yes we're trying to reduce it as much as possible boss per game and per player unfortunately it's not exactly my area of expertise so uh which is why I am sharing all our plan it's all it's all explained uh on the on the playground on the play green page but I'm more um I'm more here to talk about the cultural impact of games but yes this this is something that is being tackled um if you were you can find on the walls the you will be able to find on the walls of presentation Xbox game on uh on a Wednesday it's a wonderful police right here where they explain how we teamed up with Microsoft to uh to get the tools to measure this kind of bear game and power impact players

thanks Arno I just wonder is it possible to set up a league table of greenness some kind of index against all of the popular games and set the challenge you know like a a league table so that we can see on these Dimensions that you've created where the games are hitting the spot and it'll lead people by example to try and encourage them to get to the top of the uh the green table so what do you mean a green table you mean a list of uh of green game yeah so this is already part of what we are what we're doing as part of the igd space climate special interest group so for last three years we are trying to catalog uh every game more more or less green to try to identify uh learning from that so we already have about 500 games also in the database if you join the ngd climate special interest group from this QR code we'll give you the link and access to this database so you can do your own research

hey hi Arno I'm wondering uh with this approach is is really um in depth and I'm wondering if you have offered workshops where people can try it out Hands-On like at the green game jam and how that's gone yeah so we we had to claim at Marshall on Monday he's a polar interv here oh yes um and we are we we give this Workshop every year and if you want to give it to a specific company or at a university you can contact us and we'll be happy to see if we can if we can do it yeah thanks for the talk I know as a game designer I was interested in what you touched upon with making climate goals actionable for the player so often video games are a fantasy for players how as a game designer how would you work on mechanics that are not just staying in the fantasy for the play which actually lead them to do something

different outside of the game and so we can you repeat your question oh sorry so I just meant that since games are often perceived as a fantasy for players how do you design mechanics that the player would actually be influenced by to uh to act outside of the game to take their experience outside of the game and to do something about the real climate crisis so for me this is about like the four predictors of power control behaviors that we that we've shown so what you could do is for each feature of your game for every kind of experience for everything you tell player to do it's Wonder does that push the needle into one of those four behavior and um what kind of outcome does it contribute to uh to build often there is no direct translation from like actioning games into action in real life or the wife

with all people playing shooter games the world would be a wall Zone but if it if it's aligned with uh with the context of their lives and the and their personal values it can help Translating that then I I think every every game jar can really make a difference um in their own music ways again so there's no there's not one recipe to uh that that will work for everything if you have specific example I will be happy to talk with you after that makes sense yeah I think we can talk after the in the waiting area thank you thank you again everyone for coming and thanks for trying to make the world a better place thank you