Pursuit for Gaia
An environmental intern travels across polluted cities, battles pollution giants, and rallies others to protect the Earth.
Pursuit for Gaia asked whether an environmental cause could become a playable RPG without reducing the cause to a slogan.
The situation.
Pursuit for Gaia is a story-based RPG made with Ambassadors of Earth, a Dhaka-based environmentalist team. The player begins as an intern, travels through polluted places, fights pollution giants, and works with teammates and peers to protect the Earth.
The collaboration put a real-world mission beside RPG conventions. It also created an accountability question: the game needed to help players understand what to do next, not merely make pollution a visual enemy.
What I did.
I contributed game design, RPG Maker development, production, and collaboration through W15I with Ambassadors of Earth.
Together, we translated environmental themes into a navigable narrative experience through world and character work, mechanical prototypes, an introductory cutscene, maps, and script.
From the game.
An early story scene and the shipped Mission System pulled from the Pursuit for Gaia itch.io page.
Joining Ambassadors of Earth
An early dialogue scene grounds the environmental premise in the player's new role and team.
Image source: W-15 Interactive on itch.io
The Mission System
This shipped interface was the direct response to players who needed clearer objectives and navigation.
Image source: W-15 Interactive on itch.ioHow the work unfolded.
Build with a cause partner
Collaborated with Ambassadors of Earth rather than treating environmental advocacy as a detached theme.
Translate awareness into play
Used an intern’s missions, travel, teammates, and pollution-giant encounters to give the environmental premise an RPG structure.
Respond to player navigation feedback
Helped ship a Mission System after feedback showed that players did not know where to go or what to do; the update added available, completed, and failed missions plus a tracker.
What happened.
The game released on 31 August 2021 for Windows and macOS. After players said they were unsure where to go, we added a Mission System with available, completed, and failed missions plus an on-screen tracker.
That update made objectives much easier to follow and became one of my earliest examples of player feedback directly changing a shipped system rather than being left as a note for later.
What I learned.
A mission needs direction, not just meaning
An important cause does not excuse unclear interaction; players need legible objectives and feedback.
Partnership changes the design responsibility
Working with an environmental organisation required the game’s framing to respect the cause rather than use it as decoration.
Feedback should change the shipped system
The mission tracker is a better outcome than merely noting player confusion in a retrospective.
Related links.
Repositories, demos, event pages, posts, and other places connected to this project.
- Pursuit for Gaia: itch.io release pagePurpose, collaborator, synopsis, release date, and public platform details.
- Pursuit for Gaia bi-weekly devlog: W15I blogReports team work on lore, maps, characters, mechanics, cutscene, and script.
- Mission System: W15I blogExplains the player-feedback problem and the Mission System response.
- W-15 Interactive on LinkedInW15I studio profile and team context.