🍀 GREEN WEB GAME JAM by Playgama, GameDistribution and Playing For The Planet is part of Green Game Jam, an initiative facilitated with the support of the UNEP and led by the games industry.

Join our Playgama for Devs Discord, create a game and help us communicate the value of caring for our planet Earth.

Ecology is often talked about in a boring way: numbers, graphs, serious reports. But we are game designers. We have another tool - a game that can thrill, surprise and make you think. It's time to use it to talk about the most important things.

It’s clear: nature is under siege, and someone has to stand up for it. In this jam, your mission is to fight back against humanity’s most destructive forces. Design a game where the player becomes the last line of defense between the planet and the relentless pressure of pollution, deforestation, overconsumption, and industrial madness.

Create bold, bright and memorable games. Show the contradictions and paradoxes of the modern world. Use humor, metaphors, and evocative imagery to bring the environmental theme into sharp and energetic focus. Through engaging mechanics and thoughtful game design with meaningful feedback, we plant a seed of environmental awareness in the minds of players.

Immerse players in the fight for the environment by confronting destructive forces through dynamic combat and intense action. After all, it's not just a game, it’s true green retribution — nature's relentless counterattack against the forces that threaten its very existence.

Theme

It is important that the environmental message of the game is not just present in the story or visual style, but is expressed through the mechanics and feedback itself. Game actions should feel meaningful: if the player destroys a factory, it should lead to a visible reduction in pollution or restoration of nature. 

The player can receive trash to be recycled into in-game currency to buy improvements. Let every victory, every action against destructive forces feel like a step towards a better world.

Below is a list of playful ideas to spark your imagination — feel free to build on them, remix them, or dream up something entirely your own. The main idea is that your concept should be expressed through gameplay. As players master new skills, they should engage with the theme of ecology in an enjoyable and meaningful way.

1. Metroidvania in a Dying Forest
Heal the land to shape the world itself. Clean a toxic lake to grow lily pads you can jump across. Clear poisonous fog to unlock mountain paths. Every action visibly transforms the forest, making nature your map.

2. RTS Farm on a Wasteland
Turn a grey, lifeless wasteland into a thriving ecosystem. Reforest, purify water, and restore habitats — and watch animals return and landscapes bloom in real-time. Progress is measured in green.

3. Trash-Crafting Game
Recycling isn’t about cleaning up — it’s about reimagining waste as potential. Turn discarded materials into useful tools, structures, and upgrades. As you craft and create, the world naturally grows greener, reflecting a shift toward thoughtful, circular design.

4. Platformer in a Sunken City
Navigate a city reshaped by rising seas. Use green infrastructure — like living seawalls, floating gardens, or water-purifying tech — to restore urban life in harmony with nature. Each area you revitalize blends human space with ecological resilience, turning ruins into a vision of a sustainable future.

5. Microscopic Soil Puzzle
Dive into the unseen world of soil. Use microbes to break down toxins and balance nutrients. As you solve puzzles, dead dirt turns lush, plants sprout, and the underground comes alive — all through interactive feedback. 6. Rhythm of Nature

6. Rhythm of Nature
A music rhythm game where the ecosystem responds to your performance. Play in sync with nature to bring the environment back to life — each beat triggers rain, sprouts new plants, or calls birds home. Notes grow into trees, and rhythms shape flowing rivers. Restoration unfolds through music, turning sound into a force of renewal.

Benefits

This jam is organized on a non-profit basis, with the primary goal of encouraging developers to reflect on and address environmental issues through their work. The top-3 winners will have their games featured on Playgama.com and Game Distribution platforms. This visibility will help raise awareness about the importance of environmental responsibility and contribute to increasing financial support for a charitable organization. 
🌿 If a game created during this jam is later monetized in partnership with Playgama.com, both Playgama and GameDistribution will give up their commission until the end of 2025, directing it instead to a nature conservation fund On the Edge.

Rules

1. All game engines that support exporting projects to HTML5/WEB format are allowed.
2. All games must be web-based (HTML5), optimized for performance, and responsive to browser scaling.
3. The game build size must not exceed 100 MB.
4. Create everything from scratch during the event, especially the game logic. Pre-made or purchased assets are allowed for art and sound. 
5. Your game must not violate anyone's copyright. If you use assets, you must own the right to use them.
6. Working in teams or on multiple projects is allowed.
7.  Games must be family-friendly. NSFW content, excessive violence, or hate content is strictly prohibited.
8. Ensure the game is intuitive, engaging, and aligned with the jam's theme by providing clear objectives, dynamic gameplay, and effective player feedback.
9. All games must include Playgama Bridge SDK.
We consider each winner a partner and strive to efficiently publish their game across multiple web platforms (including GameDistribution) to reach the widest possible audience. To facilitate this, integrating our SDK is required. Explore more information about what the Playgama Bridge integration is all about in this community jam post.
10. Reasonable use of AI is permitted during game development; however, we discourage the use of AI to generate core game elements, as it can create an uneven playing field among participants.

Rating 

The games will be evaluated by a jury composed of representatives from three organizations: Playgama.com, GameDistribution, and Playing for the Planet. Each game will be judged based on the following 4 criteria:

Gameplay – quality of the game’s mechanics and controls, along with the originality, engagement, and overall fun of the gameplay experience
Theme –  how effectively the game aligns with the jam’s environmental theme and how well it communicates its educational message.
Polish – smoothness, bug-free experience, and overall refinement
Visuals & Audio – quality of graphics, animations, and sound design 

Your game design skills will be assessed, along with how effectively you convey the educational aspects of environmental protection.
The post-jam voting period will be open until July 21 at 14:00 CET.

Our Mission

The goal is to highlight the impact of human activity on the environment through engaging and meaningful interactive experiences.

Our game jam is hosted by Playgama.com and GameDistribution as part of the larger annual Green Game Jam, organized by the Playing for the Planet Alliance—an initiative supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This global campaign is backed by over 50 major game studios, including Zynga, Rovio, Vizor Games, and Tales of Us.

This jam is a chance for web developers of all skill levels and backgrounds to join this global movement. Whether you're a beginner or a pro, all that matters is your passion for the topic and your desire to make a difference.

Learn more about the purpose behind our initiative in this brief presentation.

About us

Playgama.com is a fast-growing portal and distributor of HTML5 games that gives developers access to an audience of 300 million MAU. We make publishing and monetizing your games effortless by streamlining moderation, solving challenges, and allowing you to focus on what you do best — crafting exceptional games. 

GameDistribution is a leading platform for browser game distribution and a key component of the Azerion platform. It offers an extensive portfolio of high-quality, cross-platform games and integrated monetization services to digital publishers worldwide.

The Playing for the Planet Alliance, launched by UNEP in 2019, is a collective of over 50 gaming companies committed to reducing their industry’s environmental impact and embedding green messages into games. The Alliance hosts the annual Green Game Jam, which has reached over 100 million users, raised $1.5M for environmental causes, and supported actions like reforestation, pollution cleanup, and climate education through gameplay.