Big Oil made a videogame. Why isn’t there one for renewables?

When I came across Ketan Joshi's post about Energy Town, a strategy game developed by Norwegian oil giant Equinor, that lets kids build their own future city, it struck me as both sinister and oddly inspiring.

Sinister, because the game is pro-fossil fuel propaganda masquerading as a videogame for children. Energy Town selectively downplays the role of renewables in the energy transition in favour of fossil fuels. The game discourages wind farms for killing birds, cautions that renewables are unreliable, and conveniently leaves out a number of problems inherent to fossil fuels, like air pollution, infrastructure disasters, and of course, climate change.

Inspiring, because the tactic of an engaging, playable narrative about energy is clever. It's the kind of tool the climate movement could be using, too. It’s been tried before, sort of. But Captain Planet is old, and the stakes are exponentially higher now than when the cartoon introduced a generation of children to environmentalism.

There’s nothing especially new about Energy Town. Industry-funded "educational" content targeting children has been part of the corporate playbook for decades. Energy Town is just a particularly modern expression of it: There’s no outright climate denial, just a calm and confident narrative that casts oil and gas as essential and dependable, and renewables as a bit risky, a bit expensive, not quite ready.

The omissions do the heavy lifting. Fossil fuels get a generous edit. Meanwhile, wind farms are flagged for their danger to birds. Hydrogen is touted as a clean solution. It's a carefully constructed worldview, made to feel common sense.

And it works, not because it shouts, but because it aligns. The game tells a story that feels familiar. Here the status quo isn’t the villain, but the backbone. It gives players the sense they’re making pragmatic choices and frames fossil fuels as responsible and reliable. The narrative is embedded, not argued, and it doesn’t clash with many people’s beliefs. These same tools are used in political communication all the time.

A strategic opportunity for the environment movement

The idea of a playable energy narrative is a good one. It just doesn’t have to serve fossil fuel interests. Imagine a "Clean Energy Town" that showed what’s actually possible with renewables. It could let players design neighbourhoods powered by solar, wind and storage. Success in the game could come from investing in proven solutions, rather than doubling down on gas and hoping hydrogen works out, with success metrics like lower emissions, affordable power, better public health, and thriving wildlife with no extinctions.

Clean Energy Town could help build an intuitive understanding of how a zero-carbon future works – planting seeds early and creating positive associations with the idea of the transition and renewables. It wouldn’t need to be preachy. Subtle enough to avoid moralising, yet sophisticated enough to be credible and help shift mindsets. Just tell a better story, truthfully and clearly. Kids who fall in love with Clean Energy Town today may demand clean grids tomorrow.

There’s precedent. Captain Planet did it in the ’90s, in its own way. So does the odd mainstream TV show or children’s book. My son is three, and reading or watching cartoons with him has reinforced how almost all products are value-laden. Every story, every game, every cultural product carries a point of view. Pretending otherwise is how the status quo reproduces itself.

The fossil fuel industry understands this. They invest in narrative infrastructure just as much as they invest in lobbying or ads. They make their story easier to absorb and harder to avoid. The environmental movement needs to meet that with a strategy that’s just as creative and just as committed to storytelling, but anchored in truth and designed to empower.

The goal isn’t to manipulate. It’s to make the future feel real and achievable. To counter propaganda with clear and powerful vision. If we want people to believe in the energy transition, we need to make it visible, not just in policy papers but in the stories and experiences that shape how people see the world, from the earliest age.

Games are one place to start. And the success of Energy Town, flawed as it is, shows that the format works.

So: why haven’t we built our own?