The Animal Crossing of Asia – Coral Island, game about farming and saving the planet, coming soon from Indonesian developer
- Under development by an Indonesian company, the PC game set in Southeast Asia will have a conservation theme, reminding players natural resources are finite
- Each action gamers take has consequences for the ecosystem of the island idyll they have created to live on
Island-building and farming games such as Nintendo’s hugely popular Animal Crossing and the role-playing game Stardew Valley are having a moment – allowing players to build their own paradise and live off the land – but environmental issues aren’t exactly an important consideration.
Players are encouraged to constantly plant more trees, to craft and make their own food, but the available natural resources never run out. Trees will keep producing fruit, oceans never run out of fish, and no matter how much trash you leave on the land, flowers continue to blossom.
This is something that bothered Jeremiah Bramble, co-founder of Indonesian game developer Stairway Games, who grew up on classics such as Harvest Moon. “If we were going to create a farming simulator, we wanted it to include topics that we find important,” he says.
The result is Coral Island. In the upcoming PC game, players are able to partake in a host of activities typical of most games in the genre: farming, rearing livestock and building relationships with fellow islanders. But Coral Island – due to be released in 2021 – introduces an important addition: conservation.
Not only do players have to care for cows and crops, they must take care of the island’s ecosystem to ensure that it, and their farm, thrives.