Terra Nil (2023) is an antidote to city builder and strategy games.
While many city-builder games focus on exploiting environmental resources, colonising land and unstainable expansion, Terra Nil asks players to bring a wasteland back to life by restoring nature and building healthy ecosystems.
The game asks: ‘What if we put nature first?’
The creators, Free Lives, were inspired by their home in Cape Town, South Africa. They based parts of the game on local scrublands, which are small but important ecosystems, which are under constant threat. They also looked at real conservation efforts happening nearby.
Terra Nil uses real ideas from environmental science, like rewilding and controlled burning to fight climate change. The game encourages players to consider new possibilities for a sustainable future. A percentage of the games profit is donated to a non-profit wildlife organisation.
