The Reef Game

The Reef Game is an ocean environmental narrative and game experience intended to raise awareness on issues and human activities that are damaging and destroying our ocean’s ecosystems. The main message of The Reef Game is to “Slow Down!"



The freely downloadable Reef Game developed for tablet and touch screen devices has the potential to reach large audiences of all ages and so help address and contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular, Goal #13 Climate Action and Goal #14 Life Below Water.



The Reef Game has three main levels or scenes. Each scene and transition between them provides an unfolding narrative to experience the pristine and healthy reef and corals teaming with marine life through to destroyed and damaged reef. In the first scene players slowly drift through and experience the beauty, tranquillity and wonder of the corals, marine life, fish and ecosystems in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and the world’s oceans. The objective of the second scene is to “Slow Down” the issues and human activities effecting the reef – and though this main gameplay loop players become aware of issues and harmful human activities. But as disruptive human activities to the reef and oceans escalate, so gameplay becomes more frenetic in an attempt to "Slow Down" the destruction and threatening the sustainability of the reef and oceans. So there is a paradox of speeding-up to "Slow Down" - where increased gameplay represents the increase in effort and resources necessary to help protect and restore the reef and oceans. The idea in The Reef Game world to “Slow Down” is a metaphor that extends to the rest of the world outside of the game. The last scene is again performed by slow exploration in the ocean in order for players to reflect, but this time on the unhealthy, destroyed and bleached corals, and dead marine life and fish from the gameplay in the second scene