7 of the Latest Environmental and Conservation Video Games

One of my all-time popular posts was about environmental games. Personally, I enjoy the lower stress and calmness that these games can offer. Therefore, here are seven new games that expand on my list of 11 already covered by me in 2024. I have tried to summarise what they offer without giving too much away.

Leafy Corner

Key Features

• Simple game, no big learning curve
• Wide range of plants
• Beautiful graphics

In-Depth

Leafy Corner blends plants with a tycoon style shop, which are popular at the moment. Unlike many tycoons where you have to manage a till/cash register, stock shelves, clean up and more Leafy Corner removes most of this. After creating a character you are the boss of how the shop looks, planting of the plants and watering them. Gone is the managing money as your character handles it automatically, and there is no mess.

Instead, the game focuses on growing plants, which people purchase, allowing you to complete quests and earn money. Quests earn a separate currency, which is exchanged to grow new plants and therefore more money. Money is used for shelves, decorations and buying plant seedlings; spend money to gain money.

Along the way you'll find variegated plants, help people with their needs and more. As you progress, you can expand your store, allowing you to maintain even more plants.

Outbound

Key Features

• Single or multiplayer experience
• Go at your pace
• Numerous paths to explore

In-Depth

Outbound follows a simpler life of a modified vehicle, stylised like the Volkswagen camper. The vehicle which allows you to drive solo, or with friends can be upgraded allowing you to explore with greater ease, and has a remarkable rooftop ability where you can build anything (but be wary of the weight limit).

As you explore you'll find research stations, collectables, rubbish and side quests such as lightning all the campfires or stacking all the cairns.

Unlike a classic camper, this one is fuelled with biomass, meaning you'll have to embrace the inner loot goblin to harvest all the supplies needed to continue heading forward. Likewise, don't forget to collect food to stay alive and heal yourself, should you take a nasty fall. Unlike some games, there is no fighting or damage inflicted on the user, bar fall damage, meaning the pace is calmer which suits the environment the journey takes place in.

Island Keeper

Key Features

• Game where you transform the landscape by removing rubbish
• Comic collectables to find on your journey
• Lovely day/night cycle

In-Depth

Island Keeper is currently in an open demo, with a full release due this year. From the get-go, you discover your name and mission, to clean up the Pacific islands. Not long after, you find yourself cleaning up rubbish, such as glass, tins, and electronics, with a bar showing more is to come. It is worth saying the rubbish feels improper with old computers on a remote island, however as with games like this it is enjoyable seeing the rubbish disappear and your progress.

The game being in demo means elements may change, but you can recycle your materials or store them and create tools to expand and quicken your collecting. While I feel the crafting menu could be improved, there is a useful feature that highlights any rubbish, helping spot ones you have missed easier.

Eco Volunteer

Key Features

• Big maps to explore
• Can see your progress as you remove litter
• Plenty of upgrades to make progressing easier

In-Depth

Though there is a little backstory, you are a volunteer looking after the environment across a range of areas. Currently one in the demo, with more due to be released soon. Equipped with a car, you can buy bin bags, tools, car upgrades and more to make removing rubbish easier.

Along the way, you'll unlock quests such as cleaning areas or removing and disposing of bear traps. Each large item or bag of rubbish (bagged correctly) earns you money, allowing you to buy upgrades. Currently, there is no day/night cycle so you can explore for as long as you want without any darkness making your collecting harder.

A useful quality of life feature is you can use your visor to see all nearby rubbish. This feature is extremely useful when rubbish can be hidden among the grass, though they are often clumped together. Additionally, rubbish is grouped together rather than one-off items everywhere.

Bee Space

Key Features

• Choose your path games
• Enjoyable calm music
• Wide range of cards offering different synergise

In-Depth

What would happen if a roguelike and strategic terraforming deck builder came together? Bee Space, is what emerges. The game follows the adventures of a handful of bees as they embark on reclaiming the Earth for all Bee-kind.

While currently in demo, we get to experience a selection of islands, of which each island you visit is different from the last. Each island is made from hex tiles, of sand, grass, mud and more. To start, you are given a small selection of cards, and a narrative to explain some of their functions. Personally, I felt a skip button might be useful for those wanting to dive right in, or should I say fly right in.

Along the way, you'll encounter a changing weather climate that can help or hinder you, as well as negative environmental effects such as a disposable cup that removes a random card.

After each successful mission, you earn money, which can be exchanged for new cards. What is helpful is you can take out a loan to buy something you can't quite afford, though you will pay interest to bee careful.

Feed The Forest

Key Features

• Simple game mechanics
• Upgrade tree keeps the game familiar yet challenging
• Unique, who can be a snail and grow a forest

In-Depth

Ever imagined you are a snail and would grow and harvest apples? Me neither yet here we are with a forest forest-growing incremental which the developers say is a 'game about a snail and a worm turning a worthless desert into a value-producing forest.' They couldn't be any closer to the point. You start as a snail, and meet a worm, allowing you to plant bushes as you move along the arid desert. No idea how they came to fruition.

To aid your journey, the water hole, worm, and other shops along the way have upgrade trees which use apples as a currency. So to simplify the game, you move around to grow more opportunities to grow, as you do you gain apples which helps your apples worth more, efforts to expand easier or grow better plants such as bushes to trees. It really feels like the circle of life.

The game is simple enough, making this an easy game to jump into, and is currently in demo with an online version available here in your web browser thanks to Itch.

Sadly, as of the time of writing, there is no release date announced.

BloomKeeper

Key Features

• No major tutorial, allowing you to learn without being told
• Amazing sounds
• See the environment transform depending on your actions

In-Depth

You enter a world stripped of colour, black and grey, called Hedera. To restore it to the former glory, you'll need to guide the Poucics. These small creatures transform the area around them when guided to the burned away landscape. To help you, work with the landscape by restoring life to waterholes and trees.

As the Steam page states, 'bringing life back is only part of the journey. You must also keep the ashes from reclaiming what you have restored.'

Losing Poucs affects more than just slowing down your advancement. Should corruption sink in, they create Malpouics, who disseminate the burned areas and pose a threat to pull the entire trip into an even more perilous spiral. As you progress through the game, the mission gets more difficult the more the world is let to deteriorate. The same struggle covers defending your colony, safeguarding your sources of life, and containing corruption.

Every loss here colours the terrain you are trying to preserve. However, you can change the tide and bring back the life of the planet by keeping your colony intact and methodically recovering the land.