Game On: Review of Beecarbonize, a free to playcard-based game

Beecarbonize not only expects players to find ways to remedy the climate crisis, but also visualizes various tipping points, disruptions that living with the crisis entails

Hyderabad: “Where are all the climate change games?” is a question that most lay people and researchers have asked for the last decade and despite the looming climate crisis, there have been few games that have answered the call.

While several games have looked at dystopic futures where the war against the climate crisis has been lost, the lack of games that help players visualize the various challenges that such a crisis would bring is telling.

Beecarbonize is different. Not only does it expect players to find ways to remedy the climate crisis, but it also visualizes the various tipping points and disruptions that living with the crisis entails.

Playing the game, you can’t help but notice the significant amounts of research undertaken by the developers to create four possible paths to combat the crisis. Each pathway (industry, ecosystem, people, and science) offers a unique winnable solution to end the game but they can only be achieved if all the others come together.

The game has five unique solutions in “Industry 22th Century”, “A global oasis,” “Eco symbiosis,” “Planet B colonized,” and “No tech civilization” and unlocking them requires careful balancing of emissions and development. For instance, the energy and money required to research/develop new solutions is at times your largest source of emissions.

In terms of gameplay, Beecarbonize’s strength lies in its ability to visualize various tipping points and induce anxiety with its sudden disruptions. You can’t expect the simulation to be uniform as just when you think have it all figured out, the game can throw a wrench in the works.

Despite its many strengths, however, I felt the game is overly reliant on science and technology as trajectories on the potential of indigenous knowledge to inform the war against climate change aren’t explored but you can fly to the moon, find a habitable planet, and explore the decarbonization effects of an all-VR society.

I found the trajectory of “the no tech civilization” extremely problematic as it positions tribal cultures and technology as opposites of a binary that does more harm than good as it is based in a troubled understanding of indigenous cultures and societies.

Lot’s to unpack here, both as a player and as someone grappling with climate change, Beecarbonize is a great way to begin the conversation on games visualizing the climate crisis. Here’s hoping for more!