Hopeful Possibility Spaces - Climate Conscious Analog Games. onwards to Peacegaming (Part II)

This presentation looks at games which step away from apocalyptic storytelling around the climate crisis and its impacts, and instead seek to demonstrate hope in the worlds and possibility spaces they construct, and through this inspire action. Primarily we will be investigating approaches taken in two games, first the Spiel des Jahres winning Daybreak (CMYK, 2023), a successful game refocusing proven co-operative eurogame mechanisms toward a positive message around climate empowerment. Second, Earthborne Rangers (Earthborne Games, 2023), a post-apocalyptic living card-game which repurposes both its genre and message to harness cosy aesthetics to a hopeful story. Examining how these games approach messaging around sustainability, and hope in message and method, this paper considers how analog games offer imaginative counter-narratives to environmental collapse, fostering engaged play rooted in emotional connection and shared responsibility. The material and thematic choices within these titles reflect broader shifts in cultural discourse and perhaps also consumer demand —moving from fatalism to a perception of ecological stewardship—while challenging dominant game paradigms often steeped in extraction and conquest. We argue that such designs cultivate not only agency within play, but a reflective optimism beyond it.