Playful green utopias: Analysing solarpunk imaginaries in independent video games

Abstract

This study assesses climate imaginaries and utopian proposals within solarpunk video games, understanding solarpunk as a subgenre of speculative fiction that mainly envisions sustainable futures in opposition to today’s prevailing dystopian narratives. Employing a mixed-methods approach that combines thematic and content analysis of 62 titles from the Itch.io and Steam platforms, the research identifies five recurring thematic categories organized along two principal axes: one emphasizing social welfare and community, and another focussing on energy transition and the relationship between urban environments and nature. The findings indicate that indie solarpunk video games predominantly articulate critical utopias, fostering reflection on identity, ethics, and morality in response to the climate crisis from decolonial and posthumanist perspectives. By incorporating Levitas’ concept of ‘utopianism as method’, it is argued that video games offer specific affordances to amplify utopianism, allowing one to transcend the reading of possible futures to actively perform and experience them. Through interactivity and agency, players can simulate alternative sociopolitical systems in real time, positioning the medium as a laboratory for utopian practice that facilitates rehearsal of desirable responses to ecological emergencies in ways unattainable by non-interactive media.