Imagine Earth: Indie & Small Studios Winner
Building Sustainable Civilizations
Judges: Amy, Jenny, Michael
We are thrilled to present Imagine Earth—Building Sustainable Civilizations as the winner of the 2023 GEE! Awards for Indie & Small Studios!
Both timely and important, Serious Brothers’ Imagine Earth takes the most pressing problem of our time—the challenge of global climate change—and makes it playable through a motivating economic strategy and climate crisis simulation game.
Immediately attention-grabbing with detailed storylines, captivating game art, and vivid gameplay experiences, Imagine Earth allows players to build and supply their own global civilizations in a future world where all of Earth’s resources have been depleted. Through structured complexity and just-in-time learning, players develop infrastructure while doing research for sustainable production and renewable energy sources.
Imagine Earth exemplifies all of James Paul Gee’s Principles of Good Learning Games, including:
Strategic and Situated Learning: Makes skill acquisition strategic and interesting rather than tedious, presenting knowledge in contextually meaningful and significant ways. Imagine Earth allows opportunities to learn, grow, and reflect through applied experiences. Players use systems thinking to demonstrate the interconnected issues that affect climate change (e.g., environment, resources needed for the population, a working economy, etc.) in a context that is different enough to not feel overwhelming but similar enough to take away solutions that could be applied to our own planet.
Teaching Players to Learn: Encourages a self-directed and growth-oriented mindset. The World Health Organization and United Nations consider climate change the “single greatest threat facing humanity” (WHO; UN Fast Facts), but it often seems too abstract and unimaginable to individuals. In fact, a lot of the news and attitudes around climate change are very defeatist: it's too late to do anything, we're all doomed. Imagine Earth, however, tackles climate change as a complex, but movable, problem—both tangible and manageable.
Player Engagement: Motivates exploration and commitment. This is a game that the judges wanted to keep playing to see all of the different options. Players bear the responsibility for the fate of global societies and their ecosystem, but also a wide range of research and development opportunities or diplomatic policies. It keeps you hooked!
Agency and Identity: Ensures actions feel impactful and meaningful, fostering a sense of purpose and role/identity. As the developers describe (and we would agree!), Imagine Earth offers the “greatest freedom to find an individual path of transformation towards a sustainable civilization.”
Pleasantly Frustrating: Maintains a balanced challenge, with difficulty at the edge of competence. “I know I can do this, if I just get these things right” was a common refrain while playing Imagine Earth. The game puts you in the position of a global economic actor: competing economically against rival corporations or forming strategic alliances to address diplomatic and environmental issues in the world congress.
Structured Complexity: Begins with digestible challenges, introduces complexity in an engaging, manageable manner. We were incredibly impressed with the complexity of the game. The game provides clear onboarding with a tutorial, and it continues to get more complex with skill progression. That "sandbox" feel was approached in a truly unique and meaningful way with a great creative twist and reimagining of the genre.
Learning Flexibility and Customization: Supports diverse play styles and mental models of the subject. The flexibility in this game exceeded our expectations. The game aims to be socially and culturally adaptive, and it includes consideration of Universal Design for Learning. You can also choose between different modes; there are campaign modes, competition, and even a relaxing endless play mode.
Just-in-Time Learning: Offers information when needed, integrating learning within gameplay. Those opportunities when you’re learning without even realizing it? That’s what Imagine Earth is all about. You’re not only learning but reflecting on experiences and choices in a way that provides deep insights to players.
Control and Manipulation: Provides detailed control over game world elements, enhancing immersion. Through its thoughtful mechanics, the game provides ample opportunity to test out and manipulate elements. The final challenge is to preserve the quality of life for your inhabitants and establish a balance between growth and sustainability.
Sure, we didn’t solve climate change itself by the end of the game. But Imagine Earth makes players ask important questions. The introspection and reflection that develops in players is just as powerful as the deep learning that simultaneously takes place.
Congratulations, Imagine Earth!
