Announcing the winners of the Global Gamers Challenge

Our 10 top projects, and how to stay involved with sustainability games

We asked the Flutter and Global Citizen communities to come together to build epic Flutter games that focused on helping the planet. Hundreds of innovative game projects were submitted by thousands of passionate developers spanning over 50 countries.

Each project aimed to empower players with knowledge and actions that can protect our planet. From resource conservation to combating pollution, these games have raised our collective awareness of pressing environmental issues while being genuinely fun to play! We’re deeply inspired by the incredible ideas and passion of the entries.

One last drumroll for our Top 10

For 103 days, these project teams have ideated, built, sought feedback on, and refined their projects. The result — exciting games that encourage us all to think more deeply about the ways we can live more sustainably. Here they are, in alphabetical order!

Better World

A variety of environmental themes, colorful visuals and music, and ideas to partner with organizations to promote positive action.

Craftown

A unique blend of classic real-time strategy and resource management gameplay, with a focus on sustainability themes.

EcoShift Chronicles

Encourages positive action with charming visuals and sound design, presenting players with relatable choices and their environmental consequences.

Gomiland

Visually appealing, educational, waste management game, inspired by Japanese culture.

Last Bottle

Charming design and collectible elements that effectively communicate its core message about the limitations of recycling and thinking critically about environmental issues.

MGame — A waste management game

Ambitious simulation game that offers an engaging take on complex waste management systems, reminiscent of classic city-building titles.

Ocean Rangers

A compelling narrative, engaging characters, and strategic gameplay elements offer a unique take on a familiar genre with an environmental twist.

PlasticPunk

City-builder style game presenting a complex environmental challenge through engaging gameplay and appealing visuals.

Waste Wise

Waste sorting game featuring intuitive gameplay and effectively educating players on proper waste disposal.

Whaley’s Bins Waste Sorting

Waste sorting game with a creative approach to recycling education, featuring distinctive pixel art visuals.

We look forward to hanging out with these teams in New York City for a day of workshops and more in the Google offices and to celebrate with 60,000 other Global Citizens at Global Citizen Festival 2024!

But these are just 10 of over 30 teams that won prizes from the Global Gamers Challenge, including other members of the Top 20, who you’ll see in the Honorable Mentions list. Head to flutter.dev/global-gamers/#winners to see all of them!

Congratulations to all of the winners!

It doesn’t end here

by Lisa Pak, Head of Operations at Playing 4 the Planet Alliance

The Global Gamers Challenge might be drawing to a close, but the sustainable games movement doesn’t end here. The games built during this challenge, and similar challenges like the Global Game Jam, have the potential to reach millions of players, creating a ripple effect of positive environmental change throughout the world.

To stay connected with this burgeoning movement:

• Join the community: Consider joining online communities and forums dedicated to eco-conscious game design. These spaces offer invaluable opportunities to share your work and exchange ideas with fellow developers
• Keep playing sustainability games: Keep an eye out for popular games that include green activations in the form of time limited events, challenges, and new levels, to engage their players on this important topic. Our goal is to reach as many people as possible, and these could be a great source of inspiration.
• Make your own voice heard: Write about your experiences with sustainability game development, mentor aspiring developers, or organize your own initiatives. In sharing your knowledge and expertise, whether technical or environmental, you not only support the growth of the community but also inspire others to create games that make a positive impact on the planet.

Keep building

by Clayton Whittle, Co-Chair, Climate SIG

Sustainability in gaming includes promoting the movement itself, prioritizing climate and sustainability concerns in your team’s game design practice, and persisting as ambassadors for a sustainability games industry.

Green game design is an evolving field, with increasingly refined practices for creating games that yield tangible and measurable impact. While there are no universal rules for crafting a green game, adhering to standard guidelines can significantly benefit any game design team.

• Know your audience: Effective sustainability games begin with understanding your audience’s needs and capabilities. Since sustainability games aim to transform players in some way, understanding your audience is crucial for guiding this transformation. Without knowing where your audience stands initially, it’s challenging to lead them to a desired endpoint.
• Be specific: Focus your message to increase its effectiveness. Trying to change a player’s entire worldview with one game is unrealistic. Instead, identify specific areas where change makes sense.
• Promote effective actions: Equip players with actionable knowledge. Teach them impactful actions they can take to make a difference. Players are more likely to engage if they see how their actions can influence ecosystems or society on a large scale.
• Beware of greenwashing: Avoid superficial sustainability efforts. Greenwashing involves token sustainability elements that don’t genuinely integrate sustainability issues. While adding green artwork or naming a character “Captain Recycle” might seem appealing, players see through these superficial connections if the gameplay or narrative lacks meaningful sustainability actions.

Remember, there are countless ways to develop impactful green games. Your ideas and designs might extend beyond this guidance into uncharted territories. What works for your team depends on your mission and audience. However, incorporating these principles into your design discussions help ensure that your team remains focused on its impact mission.

How Flutter can help

Here are a couple ways that Flutter can help you spend less time worrying about where your game will run, and more time designing an impactful experience for your mission and audience.

• Flutter is productive: Single codebase development with Flutter means you can write your game just one time, and deploy it across platforms. Features like stateful hot reload help you iterate quickly, speeding up your development flow.
• Flutter is easy to learn: Even if you’re not a professional game developer, Starting with Flutter can be easier than with traditional game development tools. We also offer several resources, like game templates as part of the Flutter Casual Games Toolkit that give you a launching pad to boost your game development skills.

Thank you all for joining us on this journey! We can’t wait to see what you build next!