June 9, 2024, 6:35 am | Read time: 3 minutes
Easily transitioning to a sustainable lifestyle? It’s worth a try, especially since people already spend a lot of time on their smartphones. The Federal Environment Agency aims to inform and raise awareness with the game “Little Impacts.” TECHBOOK tested the app.
The younger generations are constantly on their smartphones. This could be used to inspire them to adopt a sustainable lifestyle. This was likely the thought of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), which, in collaboration with the German app developer Quantumfrogs, released the mobile game “Little Impacts.” The smartphone game is a so-called serious game, where fun is combined with education and information dissemination.
Improving the World with “Little Impacts”
In five chapters, the main character and environmental activist Leah guides players through the game. Whether at a family gathering, searching for a shared apartment, or having coffee with grandma, Leah helps others make their lives more sustainable. The focus is on topics such as nutrition, sustainable living, transport, and finances. Leah discusses vegan nutrition with her father and shows her mother how to reduce plastic waste by shopping at a zero-waste store.
As a user, you click through conversations where Leah convinces others of sustainable alternatives. Many clichés and sustainability classics are addressed: Mother Britta must pay attention to waste separation while unpacking groceries, while Father Rolf displays a stubborn anti-everything attitude and finds the actually delicious vegan falafel disgusting out of principle. All this takes place in a middle-class family setting with a house and garden. In Berlin, one might say: A true Prenzlauer Berg family.
5 of the Best Story Games for Thrilling Hours
The Woman Behind Germany’s Amazon Alexa on AI and Bias
Many Dialogues, Few Tasks
The game is easy to use and functionally designed. During the dialogue phases, a character appears with a speech bubble. The tasks players must complete are limited to simple click-and-drag assignments. The focus is on the conversations between the characters and the information they contain. You might even be reminded of your own conversations with family members.
The five chapters can be completed in a short time–with a small story twist at the end. Despite its brevity, Leah offers a range of suggestions for a more eco-friendly lifestyle and debunks some sustainability myths. However, the game is only available in German. The app is free and ad-free for iOS and Android.
Better Learning with Serious Games
“Little Impacts” was developed as part of the scientific research project “Potential of Serious Games as a Tool for Promoting Sustainability” by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE). Serious games, also known as impact games, combine the enjoyable with the useful. They aim to convey knowledge and educational content, especially in areas where no educational instructor is available to teach the material. The game “Zeedz,” presented at DHDL in 2023, also falls into the category of serious games.
However, according to the UBA, there are currently few impact analyses of serious games, so the “Little Impacts” project will continue to be scientifically monitored and evaluated. However, the download numbers in the Google Play Store are currently only in the “100+” range. The game was released in March 2024.
With material from dpa