Mission: Emission
BY JOHANNA GRANSTRÖM
Every frame a game draws uses electricity. Players rarely see that cost, and most games are built to hide it behind ever-richer effects. Our game makes the cost visible.
In the game you guide a small convoy of mechs on a level and protect them while you get upgrades and progress. You are on a planet affected by a climate crisis and each level reflects a different climate catastrophe. One level is flooded, another affected by drought, and a third by forest fires.
Part of the core gameplay is an environmental twist. Players can turn on so-called environmental modifiers. Each one really lowers the energy the game uses, and they change how the game plays. Playing with lower environmental impact is encouraged using game mechanics, rather than being a punishment. Through play instead of scolding or lecture, the player experiences the relationship between the digital world and its environmental cost.
The climate footprint of games is rarely discussed, and digital design is often treated as weightless. However, the gaming industry is estimated to emit as much as our home country of Sweden every year. The constant push for better graphics and ever more potent hardware to support the biggest games are now having the side effect of having a large part of the population unable to play the newest games. Energy efficiency in the gaming industry is not only an environmental problem, but an accessibility and inclusivity issue. Alongside releasing our game we are collaborating with the Sustainable Games Alliance to create a petition for the big market platforms, like Steam, to start showing developers the emissions data of their games to increase awareness for this issue. We believe that by making this game we can also create an example and encourage the larger gaming industry to do better. Both helping the planet and making games more accessible to people, regardless of hardware device.
We want to demonstrate that games do not have to be about sustainability to be sustainable. And with very small means you can make your game more energy efficient and either not affect or actually improve the player experience. Using what games do best: mechanics, engagement, and fun.
The game is part of Sweden’s first game art accelerator in history, ending in an exhibition for politicians, media, gaming industry people, as well as Malmö residents. Proving the artistic and cultural importance of games.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES AND FEARS AS A YOUNG PERSON IN A TIME OF ECOLOGICAL CRISIS?
For the past 10 years, going from my late teens to late 20s, our ecological crisis has gone from a big source of anxiety to one of my biggest drivers for change and purpose. Starting by simply going vegan and only traveling by train within Europe my focus shifted four years ago to make it my career. Individual action has been a way to keep me sane, but collective action is what gives me hope. This game is a statement for me on how we can make it fun to inform people about the physical consequences of something digital, reaching a crowd that just wants to have fun in their own language. But it has also been extremely important to collaborate with industry groups like the Sustainable Games Alliance to also form a strategy around communicating the bigger issue problem – companies and their practices. My fears currently are the push for generative AI with no accountability for the ecological or humanitarian consequences. Showing the physical and emotional cost of digital product’s production and usage is therefore a dear question for me. I’m hoping that the EU can show the way in setting digital sustainability standards, and that projects like ours can be a good communication piece in this work. If an indie game can do these easy changes, big companies can as well.