How Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge highlights the importance of environmental change

Video games could be a useful gizmo to convey necessary messages, whether or not plainly or subliminally.

For Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge, developer Humble Reeds used the concept of amassing and taming frogs to spotlight the significance of ecological biodiversity, and the way easy restoration efforts might help save the planet.

GamesIndustry.biz spoke with the studio’s co-founders Aurélien Condomines and Mélanie Christin about how they conveyed this environmental message, and what they hope gamers take away from the cosy frog farming sim.

Kamaeru launched on June 8, 2024, for PC, Change and Xbox. Whereas the duo initially offered it as a cellular sport, they bumped into points with the enterprise mannequin.

“We did not need to make a free-to-play sport the place it’s important to buy stuff,” Condomines says. “So we determined to place it on PC and console first.”

“We might wish to [sell on mobile] in a while, if we will discover a associate that may assist us with good advertising as a result of premium cellular video games are very exhausting to promote,” Christin provides, highlighting that the touchscreen aspect works very well with Kamaeru’s gameplay.

As for the idea of Kamareu, the pair had been impressed by video games like Pokémon and Cats & Soup. However the sport discovered its footing from Condomines and Christin’s deal with biodiversity and the restoration of nature. Condomines explains that the principle inspiration for the sport got here from Mission Drawdown, a non-profit organisation and international useful resource for local weather options.

“As a result of the sport has an environmental message, [the main inspiration] was Mission Drawdown, which is one thing that gives pragmatic options for preventing towards local weather change,” he says. “One of many options is restoring wetlands, so wetlands – frogs. That is how the entire sport got here collectively.”

Condomines additionally notes that different farming sims had a significant affect throughout growth, significantly Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.

“That is the form of viewers we get. And other people like frogs, clearly. I found an enormous frog-loving viewers,” he says, with Christin including that she already knew as a result of she’s a frog lover herself.

“Even on the sales space right here, we have seen a number of individuals coming over with frog hats and we might instantly go to them and say, ‘Hey! We’ve a frog amassing sport,” says Christin.

Amassing cute frogs would be the promoting level of Kamaeru, however the principle focus is on biodiversity and sustainability by restoring the creature’s habitat.

“The extra you restore the wetlands, the rarer frogs that seem which you’ll be able to take footage of and add to your Frogedex,” Christin explains. “So we’re utilizing the frogs to get gamers to care about wetlands and to revive them, which might actually assist seize loads of carbon the world over. That is what we needed to convey [with this game].”

Condomines makes it clear that whereas the Kamaeru carries an environmental message, “it is not an e-learning sport.”

“It is a very humorous sport, and the whole lot is intertwined within the gameplay. For instance, you’re given a bioscore which you obtain for producing good biodiversity,” he explains.

“You’ve gotten a carbon seize gauge and the extra you restore, the extra carbon seize will increase. You must [achieve] this with good biodiversity, so it’s important to plant as a lot vegetation as you may so it is balanced.

“And since you’ve gotten this kind of bioscore, you [attract] bugs to feed the frogs. So it is all within the gameplay – there is no huge message being hammered into your head at any level within the sport. It is simply pure – that is the entire concept behind it.”

As an alternative, Kamaeru leans extra into the cosy nature of farming sims, which is accentuated by the splendidly detailed, hand-drawn artwork designed by Christin. As she explains, each single aspect is built-in into the sport world from rocks to timber, the frogs and all of the critters in between.

“We’re utilizing the frogs to get gamers to care about wetlands and to revive them” Mélanie Christin

“She’s a terrific artist,” Condomines says. “It is all handmade, and the entire vibe is a comfy simulator. It’s totally low-tech, it is a very cosy sport. You haven’t any time strain, there’s nothing punitive, nothing unhealthy can actually occur to you. There are many pure issues, animals popping up in every single place like hedgehogs and butterflies. It is a part of the entire vibe, however the factor that gamers actually like are the frogs.”

Some frogs are solely accessible by breeding. By feeding the frogs and taming them, gamers can breed the creatures to get completely different colors and species.

There are over 500 frogs to gather and look after, unfold throughout three biomes. The primary space gamers are launched to is a typical wetland, then they’ll unlock an Australian billabong (a small physique of water) and an Indonesian mangrove. There are completely different actions in every biome, which contain gamers utilizing assets they’ve collected for crafting.

“[These items] can then be offered which can fund your restoration and your frog refuge,” Christin explains, highlighting one sport specifically the place gamers can smash reeds to make sheets of paper and cardboard.

“It is all within the gameplay – there is no huge message being hammered into your head at any level” Aurélien Condomines

“You should use reeds to make paper, packaging, cardboard, and insulation panels,” she continues. “So these are real-life purposes of what you are able to do with wetland assets. And it is the identical within the Australian billabong and within the mangrove, you get to reap native vegetation and really use it. And that is a real-life use of actual assets that we will discover.”

There are seven mini-games in whole, which had been surprisingly not that troublesome to give you throughout growth.

“It is humorous,” Christin laughs, as Condomines says they found they “had been naturals for arising with unusual mini-games” for a restoration title – particularly one which looks like a “clicker sport the place you acquire frogs” on the floor, as Condomines notes.

“It has rather more depth,” he concludes. “There’s all the time one thing occurring, and there is a notion of development from going between the varied biomes. There’s additionally a story thread. There are NPCs you may discuss to, and also you progressively be taught that your mission is to revive the wetlands with the assistance of different individuals.

“That is the underlying message – cooperation between individuals for the larger good.”