Pilot news | The COOL Kotka EU project created the Energiasyöppö computer game and humorous informational videos

Background:

In the city of Kotka, a video game will be developed that specifically addresses the issue of energy consumption and encourages its reduction. High school students in the city are developing the game around this theme, with the goal of having it ready by 2025. At that time, the game will be open to all citizens of Kotka, as well as others who are interested. Tatu Heinämäki is a visual artist, game designer, and media arts teacher, while Camilla Pentti is a visual communications professional and game designer.

Banja Media‘s pilot project aims to produce short, humorous yet informative videos on energy saving, the circular economy, and sustainable development. The goal is to inform and inspire viewers to think about what we can do to promote sustainable development and save energy. The videos are created in collaboration with youth groups of various ages in the city of Kotka. Juha Metso is the director, Mika Roikka is the main illustrator and editor, and Petri Pietiläinen is the screenwriter.

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The results of the Cool Kotka project, which started in 2023, have now been published!

The project, implemented by the City of Kotka, Cursor Oy and Xamk, the University of Applied Sciences of South-Eastern Finland, aims to promote a sustainable lifestyle for city residents, especially in regard to energy saving. The Energy Eater game and humorous videos produced by Banja Media bring the topic closer to young people.

In the Energy Guzzler project, led by the game development team of Camilla Pentti and Tatu Heinämäki, high school students from Kotka created energy-themed computer games in overnight game jams. The project was complemented by the Energy Guzzler game developed by Pentti and Heinämäki.

“Energy Eater started with the idea of ​​making a game that encourages energy saving and is also funny and strange in a fun way. We wanted to combine factual information about household energy use with easy-to-approach gameplay,” says Camilla Pentti. “Now Energy Eater and the games made by high school students can be found online and are freely playable by everyone,” Pentti rejoices.

Juha Metso, Mika Roka, and Petri Pietiläinen’s Banja Media project produced a series of humorous informational videos. The ideas were tested with students from educational institutions in Kotka, who also made their own videos.

“We chose five ideas, which included saving electricity by lowering the indoor temperature, producing our own electricity for making coffee, carpooling, and saving hot water,” says Petri Pietiläinen, the working group’s screenwriter and who also appears in the videos. “We wanted to make films that contained both information and emotion, but cooked up with great or downright crazy humor. Unnecessary didacticism was eliminated,” Pietiläinen emphasizes.

COOL Kotka is part of the international CCI4Change project, which aims to connect cities and municipalities with creative industries to find new ways to reduce energy consumption. The project, coordinated by the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture, involves the cultural and event services, urban planning and environmental services of the City of Kotka, with project partners Cursor, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Xamk, as well as the local government of Jurmala (Latvia), Skåne Region (Sweden) and STPLN (Sweden).

The total costs of the CCI4Change project are 470,000 euros, of which 80 percent is funded through the Interreg Baltic Sea program, and the remaining 20 percent is funded by partners.

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