We’re excited to share the first steps of a new collaborative project between the Climate Center and Evergreen’s Game Design students and faculty—one that’s been a long time in the making. This month, we officially launched a pilot video‑podcast series exploring the intersections of games, climate justice, and education called “Roll for Change!”.
Early last Saturday morning, a team of enthusiastic students, staff, faculty, and an alumni community member (Ross Cowman, owner of Deernicorn and President of the TGA) gathered outside the fantastic Mystic Game Shop to kick off the project. The session focused on two main goals: building shared skills around recording and production, and playtesting the format through a live, game‑based recording.
Learning the Ropes of Production
The morning began with a hands‑on introduction to the basics of video‑podcast production. Participants learned about audio setup, camera framing, lighting considerations, and collaborative recording workflows. For many, this was a first opportunity to step behind the scenes of a media production process—acquiring knowledge that will be essential as the project grows and future episodes are refined.
This pilot session was intentionally designed as a learning experience. By experimenting early, we’re able to identify what works, what needs adjustment, and how to make the process more accessible and sustainable for students and collaborators moving forward.
Play as a Lens for Climate Futures
After the production briefing, participants were introduced to the game that anchored the session: Tidal Blades, a tabletop role‑playing game that fits within the“Tidalpunk” subgenre of solarpunk. With its emphasis on oceanic cultures, renewable technologies, and community resilience in the face of larger threats, the game provided a some entry points for conversations about climate justice and ecological futures.
For this session, players used characters inspired by the United Nations’ Inner Development Goals (IDGs), a framework focused on cultivating the internal skills and values needed to address complex global challenges. Through play, participants explored themes including renewable energy, aquatic life, collective care, and the emerging concept of the blue economy, which centers the sustainable and equitable use of ocean resources.
Looking Ahead
We learned a great deal from this first pilot recording, from making technical adjustments to improving our pacing and facilitation. The insights gathered will help us refine the process for next month’s session and future episodes, while the next step for this episode will focus on editing the recording and preparing it for release.
This pilot is just the beginning. Our goal is to create a series that highlights how games can be powerful tools for climate education, bringing creativity, empathy, and critical thinking into conversations about justice, sustainability, and the future we’re building together!
If you’d like to follow along, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on the project and announcements about when the first episode will be released. We can’t wait to share what’s next.
