Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Game designer Sam Alfred is aware of the challenge he faces in trying to build a video game with climate change at its heart.
Bestselling games often push destruction and violence rather than constructive engagement with the environment.
Yet Terra Nil, a strategy game designed by Alfred, puts players in charge of rebuilding ecosystems. It has attracted 300,000 players, according to the publisher Devolver Digital.
“I’ve lost count of how many people have dismissed the game or made fun of the game ... because it’s a game which is not about shooting people or rampant expansionism,” Alfred explained.
With an estimated three billion people playing video games at least once a year, climate campaigners have been targeting them.
Even the United Nations has tried creating a climate game that it said reached more than six million people.
