How a new online game helps imagine life on Earth in 2100

What will the world look like in 2100? This question is at the heart of a new free online game called FutureGuessr. Launching in June 2025, this new form of climate communication combines gameplay and visual climate imagery and encourages players to explore future scenarios.

Players see a picture of the future and are asked to guess the location. Information is revealed about how close they are, what the consequences of climate change would be, what would happen if no action was taken, and how things could be different.

Available in English and French, the game is inspired by GeoGuessr, the online geography game that has allowed millions of people to travel virtually from their phones and guess where they are. FutureGuessr uses images to give users a visual representation of how familiar landscapes will look in 2100 due to climate change.

FutureGuessr is part of a broader trend of using games in climate communication. Creative board games and video games can reach diverse audiences and communicate about climate change in a serious, fun, stimulating and surprising way.

Games played for fun, like Game Changers (a story-driven online game produced by Megaverse) can generate conversations about climate actions by creating an innovative visual game world and integrating climate change into the plot. Collective decision-making in the game allows players to learn and discuss climate change with others.

Our research suggests that it helps players criticize corporate power, learn about greenwashing, and have an aesthetic experience. In the world of board games, Daybreak challenges players to cooperate and stop climate change by experimenting with different technical, social and economic projects.

Play with purpose

Serious games go beyond entertainment to connect to real-world issues. The most successful games are fun while tackling social, environmental, and economic issues that gamers really care about.

Games can help players think about disaster preparedness and building resilience. A game called The Flood Recovery Game is used by researchers to identify gaps in disaster recovery. It can also help policymakers create more comprehensive strategies to combat flooding.

In terms of climate education, interactive, in-person, game-based workshops like Climate Fresk are already connecting millions of people with the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body that assesses the science on climate change. These three-hour workshops also allow people to think about how they could take action to create positive climate solutions.

FutureGuessr is a fun game with a serious goal: making climate change data visible. Produced in partnership with Résau Action Climat, a network of non-governmental organizations, it shows the negative effects of climate change in familiar places like Antarctica and Easter Island.

Research on climate visual communication found that images showing climate impacts such as extreme weather and flooding moved people, particularly when they featured localized impacts. There is a balance to be struck between highlighting local relevance and connecting to a broader vision. Showing the future of recognizable places we care about could go a long way to building support for climate action.

But photographs of the future do not exist. FutureGuessr uses images generated from a bespoke AI model that combines maps with photographs of locations and data from IPCC reports.

This has a cost. The climate cost of the AI ​​revolution is increasingly being measured and documented, and generating images is one of the most energy-intensive tasks that can be accomplished with AI. Computer science experts have called for “frugal AI”: treating AI as finite, using it only when necessary, and even then, as efficiently as possible.

It is important to consider not only the message, but also the medium and environmental effects of game production. The Playing for the Planet Alliance has produced a carbon calculator for the industry and offers awards and game jams to help the video game industry take climate action.

Now that the images have been created, an effective use of FutureGuessr could be to generate conversations about the effects of climate change and how research, game design, and communication can be done in the most environmentally friendly way.

People will not act on facts alone. Developing creative ways to communicate about the climate emergency that allow people to understand why it matters is essential for people and communities. Some games are already making an increasingly visible contribution to the conversation, but we need greater transparency about the environmental impacts of game production and consideration of how to minimize these impacts through visible commitments to sustainability, like the Daybreak model.

FutureGuessr demonstrates the value of combining games and visual communication on climate to raise awareness of how climate change affects landscapes all over the planet. We all have to play for the planet. Our research shows that whether played for a purpose or for fun, games can create space for serious conversations about how to tackle climate change.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.