In this episode we catch up with leading ecocritic Alenda Chang to learn about how game worlds can be just as delightful and important as the action that takes place within them, and how deepening our simulation of worlds and ecosystems can help players reconnect with nature. After years of writing papers and books on how games portray ecology, last summer Alenda published an honest-to-goodness manifesto, and it is, well... rambunctious.

LINKS

The paper in question, Rambunctious Games: A Manifesto for Environmental Game Design, can be downloaded here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043249.2020.1765557

Alenda co-edited this themed issue of Ecozon@ called Green Computer and Video Games which helped kickstart the study of environmental depictions in games. It's free online:

https://ecozona.eu/issue/view/124

Read more of Alenda's excellent work in her book Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games or listen to her talk about it in this episode of Super Gamer Podcast:

https://supergamerpodcast.com/2020/03/30/new-super-gamer-podcast-6-our-virtual-natural-world-with-alenda-chang/

The excellent interview with Frankie Myers of the Yurok Tribe on How to Save a Planet that I mentioned, can be found here:

https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/5whko6o/the-tribe-thats-moving-earth-and-water

Join the conversation, and help us build the design patterns database and other resources, in the IGDA Climate SIG discord:

https://discord.gg/KW5XXWzCHq

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