Balance

This game discusses how the media shapes our perception toward the environment. Media always shows us the prettiest streets and the most aesthetically pleasing trees in suburban and urban areas. People tend to plant more male trees over female trees because they’re now considered less “messy” but only because they don’t bear fruit. In the game, the player is a farmer who just moved into a town that has an HOA and the HOA chooses to plant “prettier looking trees” that produce flowers in their streets to entice buyers. The problem that’s highlighted in the game is that these trees are male because they produce flowers, not fruit, and end up producing large amounts of pollen which irritates everyone in town. Because this neighborhood chose to plant more male trees over female trees, the amount of people with pollen allergies or asthma increased in that area. This game targets the issue that HOA is forsaking the townspeople’s health for aesthetics.

There is also a narrative aspect to the game that highlights the problem with our view of the environment around us. Each Non-Player Character otherwise known as an NPC will tell the player the issues they’ve been dealing with recently in town and the player’s job will be to fix their problems. The player will first have to go around and listen to the NPC’s issues and then cut down a few male trees to create a balance with the number of female trees. Lastly, they will have to collect the native seeds in town and store them in the inventory to be planted by the town later. I didn’t want to promote deforestation so I made sure to include this part in the game. The native species improve the biodiversity in the town and over time, the townspeople will have a much better experience living there. Their allergies will reduce as well as the severity of their asthma. The balance of male trees and female trees allows the pollen to be reduced because all the pollen created by the males will be absorbed by the females and won’t linger in the air to be breathed in. This game promotes biodiversity and focuses on protecting and restoring natural habitats. In a future iteration of this game, I hope to add more animations and make the mechanics of chopping trees better. I also hope to add a function to the game that will allow the player to grow the native species on their land.