Cinereach, the media incubator and production company behind Academy Award-nominated films, announced “Just Play: A game jam for climate futures.”
The second iteration of the video game development competition is being produced in collaboration with Anima Interactive and powered by Dreamspace.
The competition follows on the success of the inaugural “Just Play: A game jam for justice,” with 100 participants and 43 game submissions from developers in 19 countries, each incorporating unique narratives around themes of justice. The finalists were honored during an awards ceremony at an official SXSW event, showcasing the collaborative power of Hollywood and gaming to drive narrative change.
“Just Play provides an opportunity to learn from our partners and the gaming community which is an important part of Cinereach’s new adventure operating as a story incubator,” said Jennifer Strachan, CEO of Cinereach, in a statement. “We’re building on decades of work supporting the film community, adding in research-backed climate narrative strategies, so we can better support the next generation of storytelling that sparks curiosity, empathy, and agency.”
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The new climate-themed competition carries a grand prize of $10,000 and is designed to challenge game makers, artists, and developers to explore a broader range of climate futures that will inspire new perspectives. Final prototypes and award winners will be showcased and celebrated at the Hollywood Climate Summit’s closing night party on June 28.
“We are excited to partner with Cinereach and the Hollywood Climate Summit for our next iteration of Just Play,” said Karla Reyes, creative director at Anima Interactive, in a statement. “At Anima Interactive, we are deeply inspired by narrative and culture change movements driven by film and tv. We believe there’s immense untapped potential to apply storytelling techniques from Hollywood to video games and drive real-world change, especially since games give audiences agency and test behavior. Entertainment moves culture, and culture moves society. This jam explores that theory in action.”
With more than three billion gamers globally, and growing faster than film, television and music combined, video games have emerged as an unparalleled media platform for increasing education and awareness about critical social issues including the climate crisis.
Just Play: A Game Jam for Climate Futures contest kicks off April 29, 2024 and runs through May 17, 2024, where developers create and submit new video game prototypes that explore a multitude of ways climate can be visible in any story world.
Creators are encouraged to submit games that use narratives, aesthetics, and gameplay to explore climate futures in ways that challenge the status quo and inspire new perspectives. Participants will be provided with a Cinereach toolkit that includes narrative research learnings from its recent climate visibility workshop conducted in collaboration with Good Energy.
Submissions for individuals and teams open on April 29 at www.justplayjam.com. Originally founded in 2006 as a film foundation and production company, Cinereach has supported more than 200 beloved and acclaimed films, including Academy Award Best Picture-nominees Beasts of the Southern Wild and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Anima Interactive is a new socially conscious games and immersive media studio that blends art and technology to craft immersive experiences that ignite positive cultural change.