Indie developers are celebrating Earth Week in a number of ways. While some are adding new flora to their games or promoting their ongoing projects, others are using their platforms to support planting trees through Ecologi.
Ecologi is the same organization that Alba: A Wonderful Adventure collaborated with after the game launched. For every copy of Alba downloaded, the developers at Ustwo Games plant a tree with Ecologi. This resulted in over 450,000 trees planted by the end of January this year, but Ustwo's goal was 1 million trees. Now, thanks to Earth Week, Alba's developers are once again promoting the collaboration, currently having planted over 650,000 trees and sitting at the top of Ecologi's leaderboard. Additionally, Alba's Forest has restored 3 habitats through the platform.
During the going celebration of Earth Week, other developers are getting in on the environmental activism through Ecologi as well. Apico is an indie beekeeping simulator, and its development studio TNgineers has launched its own Forest on Ecologi. At the time of writing, Apico has helped another 267 trees get planted.
In addition to the leaderboard, Ecologi also uses badges to help generate hype by making users feel a sense of accomplishment with their actions. Apico's Forest currently only has a couple, but it could soon be on its way to looking more like Alba's with the help of supporters.
Cheekynauts, two developers behind the upcoming indie game Moonshell Island, has also launched its own Forest on Ecologi. Though its platform may be small as an indie studio for a game that hasn't released yet, Cheekynauts' Forest has successfully accrued 382 trees, which counteracts the environmental damage of about 12,000 miles driven in a car or 4 international flights in an airplane.