Alba is a game that touches on issues we care deeply about. One of these is our relationship with nature. The goal of the early prototypes was to recreate the feeling of going birdwatching. A lot of iteration has gone into the game since then but a core of it would still be recognisable today. The game has always featured a young girl exploring a small open world and taking photographs of birds. Slowly, as the game fleshed out, Alba started to grow in complexity and size. As a result, it became impossible to speak of our relationship with nature without addressing the current challenge we face. Climate change can be a real downer. Thanks to Alba, we realised we often focus on the problems, but not the solution. The natural world is incredible, and we stand to gain so much if we take action now and protect what we love.
Taking it one step further
So we made a game about protecting an island and we were inspired to do even more. In 2019, ustwo became a certified B Corp which challenges us to continually improve the impact we have internally and externally. As we were thinking about what we could do, someone suggested Ecologi.
A bit about Ecologi, they exist to give companies like us the tools to do something about climate change. One of those ways is they help connect us to different planting projects like the Eden Reforestation Project. They are a fascinating couple of organisations, but the TL;DR here is that they can plant trees in areas that need reforestation, in a responsible way, involving local communities and continuing to look after the trees as long as needed. So we decided that we would plant a tree for every copy of the game sold.
Our goal is to plant 1 Million trees. After an initial donation of 100,000 to get the ball rolling we have finally reached our halfway point and planted 530,000 trees. And we haven't even released the game on console yet!
So if you are inspired to help after playing, we have good news. You already have by playing! BUT, if you're like Alba and want to take it further, you can add your own trees to Alba's Forest or encourage your friends to do so by going to the site below:
https://ecologi.com/albasforest
If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, you can also join Team Alba by signing up to take a step here:
https://alba.count-us-in.org
Thank you so much for your support so far. The reception to our little adventure has been better than we could have hoped for and it means a lot to us.
Your friends,
ustwo games