Day Zero Productions, the Los Angeles-based manufacturing firm based by Trevor Noah, is launching a brand new recreation jam with Anima Interactive and Cinereach.
Indie online game studio Anima Interactive has teamed up with Day Zero to unveil the inaugural online game competitors — Day Zero Video games: Solarpunk Jam — a climate-themed international recreation jam awarding a $10,000 grand prize.
The initiative is sponsored by Cinereach, a not-for-profit story lab behind Academy Award nominated movies Marcel the Shell with Footwear On and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Additionally it is supported by neighborhood companions throughout the international recreation growth ecosystem, together with Worldwide Sport Builders Affiliation (IGDA), Black in Gaming Basis, Latinx in Gaming, and Video games for Change.
“Indie games are fertile environments to push creative boundaries in our industry”, remarks Dan Zubrzycki, head of video games at Day Zero, in a press release. “Our team’s name, Day Zero, has its roots in the climate conversation. It’s an issue close to Trevor’s heart. With this Solarpunk Game Jam, we’re tapping into that spirit to reimagine the climate conversation — not with fear, but with creativity, resilience, and joy. The future needs more than warnings; it needs worldbuilders brave enough to imagine a better tomorrow.”
Day Zero Productions takes its identify from the water scarcity disaster in Cape City, South Africa that occurred between 2015 and 2018 — an origin that displays the studio’s local weather consciousness. Day Zero Video games: Solarpunk Jam invitations builders around the globe to think about hopeful and optimistic local weather futures impressed by the solarpunk literary and artwork motion.
Final yr, Anima Interactive and Cinereach hosted Simply Play, an initiative that inspired creators to discover totally different lenses of justice by way of interactive media. These recreation jams culminated in showcases at SXSW in Austin, Texas, and the Hollywood Local weather Summit.
“Game jams offer a safe space and playground to experiment and take risks that might not be possible within more structured studio environments,” stated Anima Interactive’s inventive director Karla Reyes, in a press release. “We’re excited to partner with Day Zero on this solarpunk-themed jam. During a time when our Earth is fragile, it’s more important than ever for art and activism to converge and inspire a brighter future. It should be electrifying.”
Reyes will probably be a speaker at our upcoming GamesBeat Summit 2025 occasion on Might 19-20 in Los Angeles. Anima Interactive beforehand ran the Simply Play recreation jam for justice in 2023.
Launching on Earth Day (April 22, 2025) and operating by way of Might 10, 2025, the jam challenges creators to make authentic online game prototypes that convey local weather visibility to the forefront. A story toolkit created by Cinereach in partnership with Good Power will probably be offered to members, providing insights and local weather analysis to tell and encourage their initiatives.
“We’re thrilled to team up with Day Zero Productions on our third game jam with Anima Interactive,” stated Cinereach’s chief inventive officer, Candice McFarlane, in a press release. “We can’t wait to see our narrative blueprints—shaped by representatives of impacted communities and climate professionals—transformed into playable worlds with the power to inspire alternative futures. What developers create here might just be the seeds from which a new reality can emerge.”
With greater than three billion players globally, and an business rising sooner than movie, tv and music mixed, video video games have change into probably the most highly effective platforms for social commentary and cultural impression. Day Zero Sport Jams harnesses this potential to reshape how creators and audiences interact with probably the most pressing problems with our time: the way forward for our planet.
Karla Reyes founder and studio director at Anima Interactive.
Submissions for creators open on Earth Day, April 22, 2025 on itch.io.
Day Zero Productions is a three way partnership between Trevor Noah and Paramount World. Its gaming division collaborates carefully with the corporate’s movie and tv initiatives to take a 360-degree strategy to storytelling. Along with trans-media initiatives, DZP produces authentic interactive experiences like JokeNite with Epic Video games, and helps the broader business by way of strategic investments, together with a seed spherical in Midsummer Studios, based by Firaxis veteran and XCOM creator Jake Solomon.
Anima Interactive is a brand new socially acutely aware unbiased video games and immersive media studio that blends artwork and expertise to ignite optimistic cultural change. The corporate is at present growing Take Us North, a story journey that immerses gamers within the poignant journeys of migrants and asylum seekers on their technique to cross the US-Mexico border.
Cinereach is a not-for-profit story lab advancing tales that spark curiosity, empathy and company. We’re working to revolutionize the narrative course of, enhancing how tales are made and consumed, and bridging the hole between social impression storytelling and well-liked leisure in movie, tv, and rising media. Initially based in 2006 as a movie basis and manufacturing firm, Cinereach has supported greater than 200 beloved and acclaimed movies, together with Academy Award Finest Image-nominees Beasts of the Southern Wild and Marcel the Shell with Footwear On.
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