In November 2018, Lewis and I founded the social enterprise EcoGames to create fun and engaging VR games with real world conservation outcomes. We teamed up in this enterprise through a shared love of natural environments, a desire to put our experience and knowledge towards a good cause, and two very different skills sets: Lewis is doing his PhD on VR game design, and I have a BSc. (hons) in environmental and marine biology, and a PhD on using tourism for conservation. We both love the Reef, with a combined 20 years+ and thousands of dives on the Reef.
Like a lot of people, we felt that unless we act now, many fragile ecosystems such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef are expected to disappear in the coming decades.
Our planet needs innovative and fun ways to engage people in conservation
With the help of small team of app developers, and with seed funding from the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, Lewis and I combined our varied skills in VR and gaming, marine biology and environmental education, to create our first game called ResilientReef.
In ResilientReef players start our with a blank seascape and learn to build their own coral reef ecosystem. The game mimics the real ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef; as your reef gets more complex, more animals will move in, but threats will also appear. And it's your job manage those threats to keep your virtual reef safe and healthy. Now we want to take it further, and use the game to protect reefs in the real world.
The game has been a real labour of love and the product of 18 months of collating scientific reef ecology papers and reef field guides, working in the IT lab, collaborating with end users, and testing it on a wide range of people.
To make sure our game reaches the right people and is fun to play and makes people care about the future of the reef, we've been working with industry partners, particularly reef tourism operators. Both operators and tourists love the game so far! Alan Wallish, the owner of Passions of Paradise (who has been allowing us to test the game with tourists) says this about the game:
"You guys have a killer concept with this game! Finally a product where the user is actually immersed in building a reef. What a cool way to truly understand the beauty and resilience of our reefs. Our passengers love it!"
Educators love it too. Gareth Phillips, the owner of ReefTeach in Cairns describes the game as
"It's amazing; it's fun, educational, heartbreaking and addictive all at the same time"
WHAT NEXT?
Our vision now is to link the virtual game with real conservation outcomes. We want to add in-game micro-donations that help the players keep their virtual reefs healthy and rich in biodiversity, and while at the time supporting conservation organisations working to save the Reef from those same threats that players are battling in the game. Want to get rid of all the crown of thorns starfish eating your reef? Pay $1.99 and all the plastic magically leave your game AND the $1.99 goes to reef conservation groups removing plastics from real reefs.
The process looks something like this:
To make our vision a reality and link the game to real conservation outcomes, we need your help. We need to fund our IT team to create and test these new features. It's going to take new programming, new models, new animations, new user interfaces and a whole lot of testing to make this happen, and we need your help to do it!
Donate to our crowdfunding campaign by selecting a reward from the list on the right - every donation of $10 of more will give you access to a downloadable version of the game and your name in the credits, and for $50 you'll get the game and a compact headset to use with your phone. With larger donations, you can contribute to the direction and design of the game and its outcomes. For $250, we encourage you to select a fish to add to the virtual reef, or $500 you can nominate a reef conservation program that could use some extra funds by becoming a recipient of the game's micro-donations. For $1,000 you get all of the above, plus your name in the game as a sponsor and amazing karma for helping protect one of the world's largest ecosystems.
Our first conservation partner will be the Cairns Turtle Rehab Centre (http://www.cairnsturtlerehab.org.au/) - this is what one if their founders, Jennie Gilbert, had to say after she tried playing the game:
"I love this innovative way to fund conservation. This game is both educational and informative whilst having fun. It looks at what is involved with the unique marine ecosystem and threats that it encounters daily while learning what they as individuals can do to help save this fragile ecosystem. This game can be played not only by children but all ages will enjoy it. I cannot wait to see it made available to everyone"
JENNIE GILBERT - CAIRNS TURTLE REHAB CENTRE
Let's start saving some turtles.... Thanks for your help.
This project was supported by the Commonwealth through the Australian National Commission for UNESCO of the Department of Foreign Affairs, who helped fund the prototype.