TreesPlease on tackling climate change and breaking the industry's "habit of limited-time activism"
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A new development studio dedicated to encouraging more action from players regarding climate change has emerged from stealth today.
TreesPlease was actually founded in 2019, but has been officially unveiled today alongside its debut game Longleaf Valley and a seed investment round of $8 million.
The studio was co-founded by CEO Laura Carter, who previously worked as general manager on CSR2 at NaturalMotion and has been passionate about environmental concerns from a young age.
"The idea for TreesPlease was in my head for a long time, even before the studio was established in 2019," she tells GamesIndustry.biz. "When I was around three years old, I became that kid, knocking on my neighbours' doors selling raffle tickets and raising money for charities like Greenpeace and World Animal Protection. The motivation to make a positive impact grew with me, and into my teens and twenties I got involved in more hands-on volunteering and activism alongside building a career in my other big passion: games."
TreesPlease's goals are perhaps best demonstrated by Longleaf Valley, a free-to-play casual merge game about a scientist who creates a serum to restore plants in landscapes ruined by mankind.
As players complete in-game tasks, they earn 'tree tokens' (an in-game currency, nothing to do with the blockchain) and once they have enough, they can use them to make a donation to the Eden Reforestation Project, which will plant a tree in the real world. Tree tokens can be earned for free, although players are able to purchase items in the game that help them collect tokens faster.
Soft-launched in selected markets last year, Longleaf Valley has already led
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