2021 International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT)
Carbon Warrior: A game-based environment to
understand Carbon Footprint and its effect on
2021 International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT) | 978-1-6654-4106-3/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICALT52272.2021.00094
Sustainable living
Rajashri Priyadarshini, Indrayani Nishane, Nagesh Pokle, Ulfa Khwaja and Chandan Dasgupta
IDP in Educational Technology
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Mumbai, India
e-mail: {204380003,204380001,nagesh pokle,ulfa khwaja,cdasgupta}@iitb.ac.in
Abstract—Sources of knowledge about environmental educa-
tion are bounded to textbooks, documentaries, animated videos,
and a few games for school children. However, it was observed
that children’s knowledge about Carbon Footprint (CF) and
its implications was very limited. To address the gap in the
connection of the users with the outcomes of their actions, another
mode of awareness through digital games has been used for
some time. These games have a simpler means of conveying
complex topics in an interactive way which has been employed
to teach topics such as sustainability to the users. Existing games
help justify most addressed issues in the conventional methods
but are still a step behind in making adequate personalized
and usable connections with the users which are mainly adults.
Carbon Warrior is an interactive application for school children
to help users learn about CF and its impact on sustainability. This
study has focused on validating the usability of game elements
of Carbon Warrior. The users appreciated the elements of the
game encouraging the further extension of the work.
Keywords-Game-Based Learning, Sustainability, Sustainable
living, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Warrior
I. I NTRODUCTION
Carbon Footprint (CF) is often seen as a quantified measure
of greenhouse gas emissions that occurred throughout the
lifecycle of any product or organization, or person. A higher
CF is viewed as unsustainable [1]. Rather than focussing on
just conservation of the environment, we will have to shift the
attention to adaptation and strengthening resilience in social-
ecological systems. The focal questions in this regard are when
to act and how to act to reduce CF because even short-term
actions can have a long-term impact on the environment [2].
Thus, meaningfully understanding the concept of CF in
ways that help users connect their actions with its effect on CF
could lead to an effective understanding of this concept. Our
goal is to help users meaningfully understand this concept,
know the sustainable options available in their daily lives and
how they can embrace them.
A review of literature along with a quick survey of mid-
dle school student’s preferred mode of engagement led to
the emergence of Game-Based Learning (GBL) as the most
preferred method for learning about CF meaningfully. GBL is
mainly used to arouse and maintain users’ interest while learn-
ing. Therefore it is recommended for the areas where boredom,
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DOI 10.1109/ICALT52272.2021.00094
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passivity, and repetition might occur [3]. Games often allow
students to experiment without suffering the consequences of
their actions in the real world. This mixed learning approach
is also in line with the preference given to blended learning in
Indian National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 where learning
through games and environmental studies are highlighted [4].
Thus, we have developed a prototype of a game - Carbon
Warrior - that affords construction of personally meaningful
understanding of the concept of CF, helps identify sustainable
options available in daily lives and enables one to embrace
these options. We follow a constructivist approach [5] towards
building users’ conceptual understanding of CF. The game
requires students to make decisions (what to choose when
multiple people are there, what to choose based on availability,
etc) regarding the choices that they make based on scientific
inquiries such as using values of carbon footprint. This instills
the decision-making practice in students when they are faced
with similar problems.
In this paper, we attempt to answer the research question
‘How usable were the elements of the game - Carbon Warrior
in aiding students to learn about carbon footprint and its effect
on sustainable living among school children.’
II. R ELATED W ORK
Digital games enable remote participation of work towards
a goal. Users fulfill the given goals via series of deduction,
exploration, and inference where the players have to rely on
their problem-solving skills, creativity, and other decision-
making skills [6].
Most settings or inspiration of the games are inspired from
the real world [9]. Although the reviewed games as mentioned
in table 1., fulfilled most of the game requirements in terms of
utilization of disciplinary skills, there was a scope of possible
improvements. such as - even though options are given for the
choices but the quantitative reasoning about the correctness of
options is absent (SuLi) [9], thus denying a factual knowledge
learning opportunity to the user.
Carbon Warrior, built on the pedagogical point of view for
middle and high school children to integrate the awareness
early on in life extends some of its features from the above
games such as the premise of GBL on daily life choices but
 TABLE I
G AMES R EVIEWED - S KILLS A ND I SSUES
Game Addressed Skills Issues
GB Game [7] Decision Making Lack of proper rules, proce-
dures, and interactions among
players
WE Energy Problem-Solving, No motivation on attitudinal
[8] Decision Making and behavioral changes
SuLi [9] Life Cycle Think- Gameplay needs supervision
ing by teachers or experts
Cool Choices Decision Making Players forgot sustainability
[10] skills within few weeks
Kids-Go- Problem-Solving, Multiple outcomes, popula-
Green [11] Decision Making tion, and scenarios not con-
sidered

the given choices are based upon the interviews given by the
school students. The lack of quantitative assignment of each
choice in the above games is addressed in Carbon Warrior by
assigning actual CF values to every choice. While some games
reviewed above focus on choosing an alternative choice but
do not deny the importance of the existing choices. It rather
contextualizes the decisions for the choices. Apart from the
feedback that the choices provided, there is also an evaluation
scenario included at all levels.
III. T HE G AME “C ARBON WARRIOR ”
A. Game Development
A detailed online interview with 15 middle school students
from different curricula across multiple locations (Goa, Kar-
nataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra) in India was conducted
for 45-60 minutes. Some of the questions asked were “Could
you tell us about your daily routine?”, “How do you travel
to school?”, “What is ‘CF’?”, “Do you think it is related to
sustainable living?” and “Is it the same as pollution?” to elicit
learner’s understanding of terms such as CF, sustainability, etc.
The input from the interviewees helped in designing a single-
player web-based game environment for students of class 7th
to 9th.
B. Game Flow
The goal of the game is to maintain the temperature of
the Warmth Meter within a permissible limit. If the limit is
crossed, the game ends.
The gamification elements are - a pedagogical agent called
the talking tree (Fig 1-a) which helps the player by providing
support in form of hints (Fig 1-b) and feedback. Here the
scoring mechanism is in the form of Carbon Credits (CC)
(Fig 1-c) which is directly related to the choices made by
the player during the play i.e., selection of more sustainable
options leads to higher CC. These credits can then be traded
with the system to purchase trees and plant them to lower
the overall temperature of the planet which is the goal to be
achieved and is shown by the Warmth Meter (WM) (Fig 1-d)
in the form of a thermometer.
Next, the player is introduced to the 10 different scenarios
of the game namely - 1. Getting Up, 2. Brushing Teeth, 3.
Bathing Habits, 4. Breakfast, 5. Going to School, 6. Lunch,
7. Coming from School, 8. Evening Activities, 9. Doing
Fig. 1. Question asked in scenario 5: Going to School
Fig. 2. Result of choices made by the player in a scenario
Homework, 10. Sleep Settings. These scenarios are to be
played sequentially without the provision to go back. They
can use hints whenever any clarifications about the question
or options listed is required (Fig 1). Higher credits are given
for more sustainable choice and lower to less and least for
non-sustainable choice based on the CF generated in real life.
Based on the option selected, the next question is presented.
Finally, the player is provided with appropriate feedback along
with ideas on what would have been the CF [12] if another
option was chosen. The number of CC earned and temperature
change is reflected on the screen (Fig 2). The player has to
keep watch on the WM to avoid ending the game without
completing all the scenarios.
A star is awarded for each assessment question after every
two scenarios that are correctly answered. If the player gets
three stars out of five then s/he gets a Carbon Warrior badge.
The player has the option to quit the game at their convenience.
Currently, only one scenario (scenario 5: Going to School) is
developed for the prototype, and the same was used for the
usability study.
IV. M ETHODOLOGY
We conducted a pilot usability study with five students who
were randomly chosen from 15 others that we interacted with
previously. We conducted semi-structured online interviews

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to understand how students used the Carbon Warrior game.
Each participant spent around 20 minutes interacting with the
game’s interface and an additional 20 minutes answering the
post-game interview questions. Four researchers observed the
participant’s interaction with the game. Each of the studies
was video recorded with the consent of the user and their
parent(s). These recordings were analysed later. The questions
in the interview were inspired by QUIS [13] [14] to test the
usability of the various elements in the game. This was done
to understand what the user felt while using the system on
a deeper granularity which might have not come forward in
mere system interaction. The questions encouraged students
to provide their feedback and suggestions on the design.
Data from these interviews were transcribed and analyzed to
understand how students used the game.
V. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
All the students found the hints to be helpful, two students
suggested that the credit points should be deducted on using
a hint as this would encourage players to ponder over the
question more deeply. All could relate to the change in the
CC “There was some change happening there (referring to
CC) when I selected the option” while two showed confusion
“..how do the points add if I select something else?”. It was
suggested that the CC earned at every stage of the game should
be displayed along with feedback on choices. Four students
correctly articulated the role of the WM and the impact their
choice has on it. They further added that the arrow representing
the change in the WM should be emphasized effectively either
via graphics or audio. Students found the basic tasks easy, were
satisfied with the game design, and displayed a willingness to
play the next scenario. While interacting with the game two
students asked the meaning of a few terms like carpooling
and CC in the options provided. They further suggested that
the options could be represented in a pictorial format to help
them understand the vocabulary. These students also showed
confusion regarding the two scenario questions. “I am a little
confused about these questions...at first, I was asked how I
travel to school...then the game showed another question..I was
wondering if I should again select the answer that I usually
do or what the game wants me to do”. Another source of
confusion was whether it was expected to provide the best
answer or the most suitable option they would have opted for
if the same was the case in real life. One student advised that
the hints could be of different form i.e. a short video, a gif,
or a picture beside the text. All students mentioned having
learned about CF based on the choice of travel displayed in
the game.
Since only one scenario was designed for this prototype we
could not measure the efficiency of the game design. This was
a major limitation of the study. But we could get user opinion
on the game layout which will be standard throughout the
game.
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VI. C ONCLUSION AND F UTURE W ORK
The preliminary results of the pilot study provided insights
on the usability of the game and the elements of the game
design in the current high fidelity prototype of the game.
Although there were confusions with regards to elements
such as WM, CC, these were erased/reduced as the student
progressed through the game. Here, the progression of the
game acted as an indirect scaffold. The usefulness of certain
game elements such as the talking tree, the hint button, and
the feedback at the end of the scenarios was integral to the
game-based learning.
In-depth data analysis is required to understand the exact
effectiveness of the game on the players. Our future work
will be focused on building the complete game, possibly with
multiplayer options.
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