The Bottom of the Sea – video game

The Bottom of the Sea is an underwater video game in which you, as a diver, have the goal of getting to the bottom of the sea by jumping down from sea ledge to sea ledge.

Playing instructions: “Get on your suit and explore the mysterious sea.”

What’s interesting to me about this one is that, unlike many underwater video games, you are heavier than the water and sink pretty quickly. The danger (as in games in the sky) is falling to your death. But instead of climbing upward, you’re pulled down to explore the depths.

Battle for the Coral Reefs

“Battle for the Coral Reefs” is a version of the classic shooter game adapted for underwater environments. The initial description reads:

“Our scene begins three years following the great arctic devastation. With eighty percent of the planet underwater, humanity’s only hope is to help heal what is remaining. Clear the ocean of waste, and bring back the amazing coral reefs.”

Trapped in a post-apocalyptic underwater future , you swirl around in a fish-inspired space ship shooting trash. When you level up, parts of the coral reef grow back. The controls and dynamic are limited and aren’t really adapted for an underwater setting.

“Battle for the Coral Reefs” is a politically oriented newsgame that uses the coral reef crisis as a stimulus for the game’s narrative. Beyond this, it doesn’t really engage the underwater space or the environmental issues.

Conserve Our Ocean Legacy: Ocean Survivor Game

This video game is part of the Conserve Our Ocean Legacy campaign to end overfishing. You are a fish and must escape various types of fishing (trawlers, hook and line, etc). When you are caught, the game displays information about the type of fishing that caught you.

You naturally sink in this game and your only control is to swim upward (and jump out of the water). This parallels the goal of the game, which is simply to stay alive (but you eventually die. The effect of the game, like many other political newsgames, is to basically demonstrate the futility of trying to win (for a fish) and potentially effect frustration in the player which can then be channeled towards change.