Together For The Planet
Our journey to becoming a more sustainable company has provided us with opportunities to learn, challenge ourselves, and create unforgettable interactions with our players. After our successful fundraiser supporting TreeSisters, we are excited to present the next chapter in our green story.
This year, Wooga is one of roughly 30 companies participating in the Green Game Jam, an initiative from the Playing for the Planet Alliance, facilitated by the UNEP. With this program, gaming experts will come together to find innovative ways to educate and empower millions of players about climate change.
The journey to our final Wooga entry brought incredible ideas and talented people together.
Why Wooga Cares.
Wooga’s global reach into homes across the world means we have responsibility to care for our planet. We started our mission with understanding and reducing our carbon footprint two years ago. This was followed by company-wide changes, both big and small, that help reduce our emissions. Today, we continue our journey with initiatives that give us the chance to educate ourselves as well as inspire our players to learn more about climate change — its causes and solutions — while playing our games.
How Did It All Start?
As soon as we committed to participate in the Green Game Jam, Wooga opened up the project to all employees that were interested in joining. Volunteers from every team signed-up and attended online workshops and seminars on environmental awareness to educate themselves about environmental activism. With the theme of this year’s Green Game Jam being ‘Forests on Land and in the Water’, our creative colleagues were inspired to see how our virtual island in June’s Journey can help impact real life environments.
The challenge was about weaving fun and climate action together. The 25 employees who took part in the initiative formed teams and developed different ideas on how to integrate this messaging into the game in a rewarding way for our players. The result of that has been a great synergy of seven diverse teams, from- game designers to artists and engineers, brainstorming together playfully about new content to add in June’s Journey. These features had to be not only fun to play, but should also contribute to educating and empowering our players in taking climate action.
How Was The Final Entry Chosen?
On May 20, Wooga hosted an online show for all employees. During the event, the ideas developed during our initial brainstorm were presented and a team of judges from the June’s Journey team evaluated them through set criteria, like their green impact, player reception of the feature, as well as creativity and development costs. At the end of the show one winner was declared. Fans of our latest Root To Rise campaign will love this winning idea. Without spoiling the surprise, let’s just say that once it’s live, you’ll be planting trees on your islands and beyond! Stay tuned to find out more on June 16th. That day, we will share more details on our social media and invite you all to cheer for our entry in the finals!
In the meantime, if you want to take additional action in helping our planet, sign Play4ThePlanet’s petition in support of forests, and their pledge in support of ocean protection. Supporting the environment is important to all of us, and Wooga is so thankful for our player’s support to help bring awareness and education to Orchid Island and beyond!