Video games is usually a useful gizmo to convey essential messages, whether or not plainly or subliminally.
For Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge, developer Humble Reeds used the concept of gathering and taming frogs to focus on the importance 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, Swap and Xbox. Whereas the duo initially bought it as a cellular recreation, they bumped into points with the enterprise mannequin.
“We did not wish to make a free-to-play recreation the place it’s a must 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 are able to discover a companion that may assist us with good advertising as a result of premium cellular video games are very laborious 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 recreation discovered its footing from Condomines and Christin’s deal with biodiversity and the restoration of nature. Condomines explains that the primary inspiration for the recreation got here from Venture Drawdown, a non-profit organisation and world useful resource for local weather options.
“As a result of the recreation has an environmental message, [the main inspiration] was Venture Drawdown, which is one thing that gives pragmatic options for combating in opposition to local weather change,” he says. “One of the options is restoring wetlands, so wetlands – frogs. That is how the complete recreation 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 folks 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 at the sales space right here, we have seen just a few folks coming over with frog hats and we might instantly go to them and say, ‘Hey! Now we have a frog gathering recreation,” says Christin.
Amassing lovable frogs could also be the promoting level of Kamaeru, however the primary 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 take photos 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 so much of carbon throughout the world. That is what we needed to convey [with this game].”
Condomines makes it clear that whereas the Kamaeru carries an environmental message, “it isn’t an e-learning recreation.”
“It is a very humorous recreation, and all the things is intertwined in the gameplay. For instance, you’re given a bioscore which you obtain for producing good biodiversity,” he explains.
“You might have a carbon seize gauge and the extra you restore, the extra carbon seize will increase. It’s a must to [achieve] this with good biodiversity, so it’s a must 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 in the gameplay – there is not any large message being hammered into your head at any level in the recreation. It is simply pure – that is the complete 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 recreation world from rocks to bushes, the frogs and all the critters in between.
“We’re utilizing the frogs to get gamers to care about wetlands and to revive them” Mélanie Christin
“She’s an amazing artist,” Condomines says. “It is all handmade, and the complete vibe is a comfy simulator. It’s totally low-tech, it is a very cosy recreation. You don’t have any time stress, there’s nothing punitive, nothing dangerous can actually occur to you. There are tons of pure issues, animals popping up in every single place like hedgehogs and butterflies. It is half of the complete vibe, however the factor that gamers actually like are the frogs.”
Some frogs are solely accessible by means of 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 sources they’ve collected for crafting.
“[These items] can then be bought which can fund your restoration and your frog refuge,” Christin explains, highlighting one recreation particularly the place gamers can smash reeds to make sheets of paper and cardboard.
“It is all in the gameplay – there is not any large message being hammered into your head at any level” Aurélien Condomines
“You should utilize reeds to make paper, packaging, cardboard, and insulation panels,” she continues. “So these are real-life functions of what you are able to do with wetland sources. And it is the identical in the Australian billabong and in the mangrove, you get to reap native vegetation and really use it. And that is a real-life use of actual sources that we are able to discover.”
There are seven mini-games in complete, which had been surprisingly not that tough to provide you with 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 as if a “clicker recreation the place you acquire frogs” on the floor, as Condomines notes.
“It has way more depth,” he concludes. “There’s at all times 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 assist of different folks.
“That is the underlying message – cooperation between folks for the better good.”