Interview with Louisa Keight (Green Game Jam) & Kaley Marino (Rainforest Alliance)

Dear Seekers, thank you for the amazing response to our Guardians of Nature event. Many of you have asked who we’re working with, what the event aims to achieve, and exactly how the funds will be used — and we want to be open and clear. We spoke with Louisa Keight (Project Lead, Green Game Jam) and Kaley Marino (Lead, Forest Allies, Global Programs, Rainforest Alliance) to get straight answers about the partnership, the goals, and the on-the-ground impact of donations.

Read the full interview below, and as a small thank-you, use promo code GREENGAME2026 in the Seeker’s Store to receive 50 Guardian’s Binoculars.

Important: the code is valid for the first 20,000 Seekers, redeemable once per player, and expires on June 12 at 11:59 PM UTC.

1. Could you introduce yourself and your organization? What are your main activities and goals?

We’re Playing for the Planet, a membership organisation made up of 52 games studios, service providers and trade associations. Our mission is to activate players globally to protect and restore our planet whilst accelerating decarbonisation across the video games industry.

Facilitated by the UN Environment Programme and supported by Ukie (the UK’s games industry trade association) we collaborate with the video games industry to offer practical tools and insights no matter where studios are in their environmental journey.

Every year we run the hugely successful Green Game Jam: an annual challenge for live games that are available on the app stores with existing audiences to build content that engages players on environmental themes whilst raising vital funds for the conservation and restoration of ecosystems.

We’re excited to welcome Mytona to this year’s Green Game Jam, and look forward to seeing their activation for Seekers Notes this summer!

2. What makes gaming an effective platform for environmental action?

There’s a few reasons why we ask people to play for the planet.

1. Games have an astronomical reach: Gaming is the world’s largest entertainment sector, with a global market value higher than movies and music combined. As of 2026 there are around 3.3 billion active gamers worldwide, which is almost half of the total global population. It is important to us to reach people where they are, and we know they’re in games.

2. Games create communities: Community makes us feel powerful. When members of a community normalize particular attitudes and behaviours – not just caring for the planet, but other things like fairness, positivity and hope – it then promotes those ideas within the group. As gaming communities aren’t always tied to one geographical location that means that pretty soon, they’re sharing these ideas with other communities they’re a part of. That’s how a moment becomes a movement.

3. Games are creative ways to tell stories: In games, there’s a lot of ways to tackle important and difficult messages in creative and unexpected ways. Whether that’s through making decisions and seeing the outcome or by exploring a beautiful natural world, games give people the opportunity to discover an issue for themselves rather than feeling lectured.

3. What specific outcomes or goals do you hope to achieve from this project?

Every year the Green Game Jam has a different theme and goal. We do this to introduce studios as well as their players to the endless ways they can support our planet together. This year we are asking studios and their players to fundraise to support two beautiful ecosystems - reefs and rainforests. The Seekers Notes community will support the Rainforest Alliance’s Forest Allies initiative, supporting the indigenous communities of the world’s forests to stop deforestation, restore damaged areas, and promote the responsible management of tropical forests.

By participating, games and their players will support Forest Allies to:

• Educate community members in different rainforests on conversation and restoration;

• Generate revenue for the community by training its members in sustainable forestry and agriculture;

• Distribute seedlings to community-run nurseries which provide jobs;

• Restore forest via planting native tree species.

The donations from GGJ will be used to continue and scale the current work being done by Forest Allies. The 2026 Forest Allies annual report will show everything the project did this year, with a page dedicated to GGJ and donors.

4. Could you tell us more about Green Game Jam 2026 and the “Team Rainforest” / “Team Reef” concept?

This year Mytona is joining ‘Team Rainforest’ alongside a number of other amazing games. You can read more about the other studios joining the Green Game Jam for 2026 here. They’re going head to head against ‘Team Reef’ who’ll be fundraising for and NGO active in the ocean space called Oceana.

Our world relies more on these unique and beautiful ecosystems than we realize, and human activities place them under threat. This year, we wanted to shine a spotlight on that importance. They’re not just pretty backdrops – they’re essential to our survival.

Why both? Well, they’re more similar than you think. Coral reefs and rainforests are two of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. This means they are the cornerstones of all life on Earth – even human life. Rainforests store CO2 and produce oxygen for us to breathe; they are crucial to our global food supply by helping us breed disease-resistant crops; and around a quarter of all modern Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest plants.

5. What are the most important facts or messages you want Seekers Notes players to take away from this event?

First and foremost, we hope that Seekers Notes players enjoy the event. Ideally they take away that our actions can have a positive impact, and this is especially true when we work together. Even when we live thousands of miles away from a rainforest, our actions have an impact on them.The reverse is also true – these ecosystems have an impact on our lives, supplying us with foods and medicines.

6. What other ways can players support the cause offline or in their communities?

The three key areas in which we have the biggest impact on our planet are through what we eat, how we travel, and how we heat or cool our homes. Players can consider trying out new plant based foods, opt-in for their next holiday to be closer to home to a destination that can be reached by train, and have a look at what kind of energy (fossil fuels vs. renewables) they purchase to power their homes.

Find out more about individual actions you can take on the Rainforest Alliance’s website.