The UN has been active in the video and mobile gaming space for several years. Learn how to prevent disasters, contribute to ending hunger, take climate action, and more. Here’s our shortlist of video games produced by, or in partnership with, the United Nations.
The Best Job in the World: How I became a United Nations Video Game Expert
Imagine growing up with your mother telling you to stop playing video games, and then discovering that you have acquired such a useful skill that the United Nations hires you as a video game expert.
That’s exactly what happened to Eugenio Gastelum, who grew up in Mexico playing Minecraft through...
UN uses new gaming technology to create environment simulation game for teenagers (via UNEP)
NAIROBI, 24 January 2023 – The UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Ozone Secretariat today launched a simulator game and avatar using the latest software technology. Apollo’s Edition is the latest addition to the Reset Earth education platform. Targeting 13-18-year-olds, the free online education material developed provides educators with resources to teach students the importance...
Gaming industry spotlights threats to the planet (via UNEP)
More than 3 billion people around the world play video games. And as they surf subways and unleash angry birds, a growing number are learning about the planet’s most-pressing environmental problems.
That is thanks to the Playing for the Planet Alliance. Facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the alliance...
Path Out
Path Out is is an autobiographical adventure game that allows players to replay the journey of Abdullah Karam, a young Syrian artist that escaped the civil war in 2014. Camouflaged as a Japanese RPG, Path Out is a tale full of surprises, challenges and paradoxical humour, giving insight in this...
Online game showcases plight of our planet’s disappearing coral reefs (UNEP)
One of the world’s leading producers of online word games joined a global effort to help protect the planet’s coral reefs, which a new report finds are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Sweden’s MAG Interactive has unveiled six ocean-themed games to educate people about the ocean, coral reefs and climate change risks. The...
The Antidote COVID-19 teaches players how to stay safe
Just as the COVID-19 pandemic is starting to sweep through the world, Antidote Laboratories receives a strange package. You are assigned to study it and WHAM!, get thrown into the frontlines of medical science. Based on real events and loaded with useful facts about COVID-19, the Antidote COVID-19 takes...
Plague Inc: The Cure – WHO and gamers join forces
Leading disease outbreak experts have come together to show gamers everywhere how to spot and stop a pandemic.
A new expansion of the hit mobile game Plague Inc, now sees players trying to save the world from a deadly global pandemic, rather than destroying it with one.
Plague Inc. The Cure was...
UNESCO joins Minecraft’s latest ‘Global Build Challenge’
UNESCO is joining Minecraft on the ‘Global Build Challenge 2021: Making Peace with Nature’, as part of its programme to engage students worldwide to address the urgent environmental crisis through education for sustainable development.
The Global Build Challenge 2021 will run from 27 September to 19 November 2021 through the videogame...
‘Wheel of Purpose’ puts sustainability and learning side-by-side in a digital environment
Created by SAP, the Wheel of Purpose encourages a global audience to spin a digital wheel and take a quiz on UNCTAD’s work related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Players must then select the correct answer to a question posed about the SDGs. The wheel is a new...
WHO and Angry Birds Friends team up for World Mental Health Day
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on new realities for many of us, such as working from home, temporary unemployment, home-schooling of children, and lack of physical contact with family and friends. It all takes time to get used to. Adapting to lifestyle changes such as these, as well as...