Endangered

Help a lemur escape the perils of deforestation and forest fires that suffocate the Madagascar jungle.

Endangered is a 2D pixel art platformer. The idea for Endangered started as a concept about human impacts on the environment. I knew I wanted to create a serious game that focused on habitat loss due to human cause, inclusive of climate change, pollution, and deforestation.  I decided to focus solely on deforestation and needed to find an endangered species that is threatened by the issue at hand.

               I decided ultimately on a lemur character because not only are they cute to insert into a game, they are critically endangered, with 98% of the lemur population in danger of becoming extinct. Their habitat consists of trees in the Madagascar jungle. Due to deforestation for consumer lumber, it is a pressing issue that lemurs are losing their homes. This is true for forest fires in Madagascar as well posing a threat to lemur habitats.

               This game features a seemingly normal environment in the first level that slowly becomes further plagued by human impact. Trees begin to fall, as well as human vehicles and aircraft are noticeable disruptions in the environment. Humans start to replace the enemy fossa, which is symbolic of the humans being the real enemies in this game. In the end of the game, the habitat is completely lost to fire and the lemurs are forced to go underground into a cave.