Nordic DiGRA 2025 conference presents a keynote speaker blog-series. This three part series finishes with the third conference speaker Dr. Velvet Spors, a creative technologist and lecturer of interaction design at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, in Estonia.
A blue hedgehog rolls around in brightly neon cultured structures, surrounded by clear blue waters and picturesque beaches. A woman slowly approaches a group of robotic creatures in an alcove, surrounded by lush, tropical vegetation. A bunch of triangle ASCII characters invoke the shape of a dense mountain forest.
Here, designers of video games simulate, illustrate, imitate, and (re-)imagine nature – whether as background dressing, core element or narrative beat. All acting within their own values, ideas and assumptions about nature—for better, or for worse.
This act of making nature happen in games does not occur in only an individual or personal space: It is framed by our only planet’s forests burning, its polar caps melting, and microplastics swimming in all our blood. Current actual real-life ecological distress is bad, and it is projected to get even worse: The future is full of death and decay.
As the natural world seems to slip away from many of us, digital portrayals of nature become more and more prominent, including video games: Pokémon Go might shape how we move and view our local surroundings. Farm Simulator might give us certain expectations about another country’s flora and fauna. Stardew Valley might make us rethink the relationship we have with the very vegetables we prepare and cook.
In my talk, I will lean on my research exploring the links of nature, video games and people: How can we make sense of them, now and for the future (or futures) to come? Here, I draw from 1) an auto-ethnographic study in which I played games that feature nature in them, and 2) an interview “show and tell” study that invited people to tell me about their thoughts, feelings and opinions about nature in games. Through this work, I begin to sketch out an understanding of video games as an important mediator of what humankind’s relationship with nature currently is, and what it could be—in many ways.
Dr. Velvet Spors (they/them) is a creative technologist and lecturer of interaction design at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, in Eston