The gambling and gaming worlds have recently joined the rest of the innovative world in providing solutions to the key environmental challenge; climate change. From fresh and novel casino games that provide talking points about the challenge to indie creations that want to be an education platform, the gaming world may just provide the solution everyone else is looking for.

The world is now fighting under the weight of climate change and its far-reaching effects. The effects are so much so that the advocacy for resilience measures are at fever pitch. With a lot of activities going on, a group of indie games creators have found a way to use their titles as platforms for interactive education on the topic of climate change and its mitigations.

While depicting nature in video games is not necessarily new, the trending aspect by newer creators to design real-world situations that mirror the day-to-day problems is both refreshing and commendable. The underlying purpose of these endeavors, it appears, is to reflect on the injustices meted on the environment while encouraging both dialogue and change so as to undo the damages that years of industrialization has done to mother nature.

A case in point is the project by E-Line Media that has developed both Never Alone and Beyond Blue. The former is a puzzle platformer game about native Alaskans developed along the storyline of master storyteller Robert Nasruk Cleveland.

This game brought the attention of the BBC to E-Line Media, a partnership that led to the creation of Beyond Blue. During the time that the BBC was looking to partner with the video games publishing house, its games and interactive studios department was helping to develop a documentary titled Blue Planet II.

The conversations between the two teams during the creation of the documentary has led to the development of Beyond Blue, which is an interactive game that invites gamers to relax and explore the underwater environments while also progressing the conservation efforts through narratives.

Through the game, E-Line Media and the BBC are inviting players to imagine what the underwater environment would turn out to be like in the face of the harsh realities it is experiencing.

In creating such a game, the indie developer hopes to provoke both though and discussion about the issues that affect the planet. A game that in innately connected to the contemporary issues affecting nature makes people appreciate the mysterious, beautiful, yet complex cosmism. And, because the imagined spheres of science fiction and fantasy share these characteristics, it becomes easy to teach a generation to care when you tap on these unique qualities.