The first images are visceral and unsettling: we see a dystopian landscape dominated by swirling storms, fires and eruptions that threaten to devour what little life remains on a dying planet.
No, this is not a Hollywood blockbuster. It’s a video game: Away: The Survival Series. In it, players control a sugar glider – a nocturnal gliding possum – and aim to keep it alive, moving through an ever-shifting landscape ravaged by the climate crisis.
Published by the independent Canadian studio Breaking Walls last year, Away is one of a new breed of games centred on the environment. The titles are part of an effort to enlist the world’s 2 billion-plus gamers in what backers call a now-or-never push to save the planet.
“This medium has incredible reach and agency,” said Sam Barratt, Chief of Education, Youth and Advocacy at the United Nations Environment…
