Silly Studios Environmental Statement +

 Here is the environmental statement I put together for our group:

And here is the link to the original word document just in case:

 Silly Studios Environmental Statement.docx

 

It's important to be mindful of the environment anyway especially for companies who might have a larger impact on the environment (of course, our uni group will not have the same environmental impact as a AAA company/ studio), but as our game will focus on the environmental impact of microplastics it's especially important to be conscious about our own effects on the environment.

In terms of the other the contracts, the contract of engagement ensures we actually work on the project, and the NDA isn't essential but some studios (especially ones that are particularly protective of their IPs) like to use/ make them to ensure their ideas don't get stolen before they've had a chance to publish them. 

I had a look at ChatGPT when writing this, but because of generative AI's huge environmental impact (Mazzucato 2024), I decided to use an example statement from CivicLive to help write this document.

 This project is only a proof of concept of course, so we won't have to worry about physical or digital releases - unless we decide later on to actually make the game outside of uni. If we were to finish and release the game, digital release would be the more practical solution, as it's much easier than having to produce physical copies. Companies like Nintendo will consciously design their products and try to distrubute them as efficiently as possible in order to make less of an impact on the environment, but they will also still prioritise profits above all else, trying to 'balance' social and economic needs (Nintendo n.d.), while most independent game studios release games digitally because it's much easier and cheaper, rather than because of the environmental impact of producing and distrubuting physical copies. Independent studios are also mostly individual people rather than their own companies, and our own efforts to negate climate change are limited compared to what more powerful companies/ businesses/ AAA studios could potentially achieve. Sometimes, if indie games get popular enough, they might release special physical/ collector's editions, like in the case of Undertale (Toby Fox 2015):

(Fangamer 2018)

 

The production of these would impact the environment more on the short term compared to digital downloads (Tapsell 2021), as well as this standard physical versions of these games are also being sold, so it's not like it's only a handful of dedicated fans who are buying these. That being said, digital copies of games are selling more than physical copies as of lately (Dinsdale 2023), so the impact on the environment these have won't be as much if they were sold during a time where physical copies were more popular.

 

References:

Dinsdale, R., 2023. Digital Sales Accounted for an Estimated 90% of Games Sold in the UK Last Year [online]. IGN. Available at: https://www.ign.com/articles/digital-sales-accounted-for-an-estimated-90-of-games-sold-in-the-uk-last-year [Accessed 26 January 2025]. 

 

CivicLive, 2024. Sample Environmental Policy Statement [Online]. Civic Live. Available at: https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_109478/File/PublicService/solidwaste/ConServe-Knoxville-Sample-Policy-Statement.pdf [Accessed 25 September 2024].

 

Fangamer, 2018. UNDERTALE Collector's Editions [online]. Fangamer. Available at: https://www.fangamer.com/products/undertale-game-switch-ps4-vita [Accessed 26 January 2025]. 

 

Jones, C., 2024. Overall Thoughts On Cloud Gaming [online]. Lords Of Gaming. Available at: https://lordsofgaming.net/2024/09/overall-thoughts-on-cloud-gaming/ [Accessed 22 January 2025].

 

Mazzucato, M., 2024. The ugly truth behind ChatGPT: AI is guzzling resources at planet-eating rates [online]. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/30/ugly-truth-ai-chatgpt-guzzling-resources-environment [Accessed 24 November 2024].

Nintendo, n.d. Enviroment: Striving to reduce environmental impact in a variety of ways. [online]. Nintendo. Available at: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/csr/en-gb/report/environment/topics/index.html [Accessed 26 January 2025].

 

Tapsell, C., 2021. What we've learned about digital gaming's climate impact - a summary [online]. Eurogamer. Available at: https://www.eurogamer.net/what-weve-learned-about-digital-gamings-climate-impact-a-summary [Accessed 22 January 2025].

 

Toby Fox, 2015. Undertale [PC]. Steam. tobyfox. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/Undertale/ [Accessed 18 April 2024].