[GDN] How do the blocks link together to build a city? Are there special areas that can be placed on top of each other?
 

AR Ovolo: There are a family of buildings: civic buildings, residential, commercial, and industrial; then services: police, hospital, school, park, and landfill. Then there is finally energy, waste, and special building. Civic and services buildings can be stacked together to increase their reach without using additional space. All the while, the player must try to optimize the balance between all the buildings with regard to how the environmental impact will register. City Rain is first and foremost about equilibrium and having a sustainable balance between key city infrastructure requirements. That’s what make the metaphore a powerfull teaching tools.

[GDN] Was the development process for the game green and eco-friendly as well?
 

TS, Mother Gaia: Always. We focused first on a game that would be fun and entertaining. But to create the entertainment we additionally wanted to include a theme that would have some insights and educational pointers about our fragile environment and ecology.

So, the result was City Rain, which we hope will come across as first: fun, and play very naturally and fun—but also imbed a message and consciousness about sustainability and living ‘green’.   We all have a great responsibility for preserving and protecting our environment, so even in our own studio here in Brazil, we never use non-recyclable materials like Styrofoam or plastic cups—we use recycled paper products. We strive to create minimum waste and to recycle the waste that we do create and do our little part to preserve and care for our planet.

[GDN] Are Ovolo and Mother Gaia Studio ’green’ companies? How are they doing their part, aside from making eco-friendly games, to help keep our environment clean?

AR Ovolo: Ovolo is a worlwide collection of talented artists, and we don’t share office space or use any resources other than digital equipment. So in that sense we can say that the carbon footprint  of our productions are kept at a minimal. 

GDN would like to thank Alexandre and Tulio for their time and willingness to answer our questions. We would also like to thank Kevin Clark for taking the time to get it all organized for us. We wish Ovolo and Mother Gaia all the best, success and great reviews. We look forward to further projects in the future.