BRANCHING OUT

How ALBA: A WILDLIFE ADVENTURE is making change in the real world

Everybody understands trees,” says Maria Sayans, CEO of Ustwo games. It’s maybe not the kind of pitch we’re used to hearing from developers, but that sentiment does get to the roots of Ustwo’s mission. In just two months this indie developer has helped plant more than half a million trees with its 2020 release Alba: A Wildlife Adventure.

The game follows a young girl visiting her grandparents on a Mediterranean island, lush with gorgeous nature and wildlife. The idea initially came from art director David Fernández Huerta’s love of bird watching. “You’re spotting the animals and you’re like ‘Oh my God, it flew away,’” says lead designer Mishal Mistry. “‘OK, well, maybe I’ll just wait for it to fly back and take another picture’. And so [Huerta’s] like ‘This feels like a game, why don’t we try making a game out of it?’”

In order to capture the beauty of nature in the most accurate way possible, the team would go out on bird watching trips together – something that Mistry had never been interested in before. “I think we did two or three over the course of the project… it was incredible, because it was transformative for all of us.”

That chilled-out joy of discovery really comes through in Alba. Playing it is a truly tranquil experience, peacefully skipping around and soaking in the lush Spanish landscape. But what initially presents itself as a game that’s just about snapping pictures of birds becomes a bigger narrative shaped around the environment and our treatment of it.