KATOA Ocean, An Educational Mobile Game, Helps Raise Awareness and Funds to Restore Ocean Habitats.

I was still in high school when the Endless Ocean games first came out for the Nintendo Wii and how a combination of real-life conservation efforts and pre-colonial Polynesian folklore inspired their scuba diver storylines. While I wasn’t much of a gamer growing up, I have to admit that playing a game that involved scuba diving, training dolphins, and going on quests to solve ancient mysteries ended up dethroning every Pokemon game I ever played in elementary school. They were fun, exciting, and, very trivial with facts about the animals that appeared in the games along with a few historical facts.

Now, years later, it looks like another company has developed its very own version of Endless Ocean, but only this time; it aims to not only raise awareness about the plight of our oceans but also, raise funds to restore real-life marine habitats, too.

Earlier this year, The Great Barrier Reef Foundation announced a partnership with Sankari Studios to develop a new game that would let people with smartphones protect the Great Barrier Reef.

The game, named KATOA Ocean, is a free-to-play mobile game that allows people to earn points by just exploring underwater ecosystems, managing resources, and completing quests that sometimes involve combating threats. The points are then converted into cash, which then, goes directly into the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s work to restore coral reef ecosystems, which includes regenerating 250 hectares of seagrass.

The game’s strategy, which was released to both Android and ISO on Earth Day of this year, is to harness and focus the immense power of all gamers that play hours of the game and turn it into efforts to combat the effects of climate change. This includes giving players knowledge and tools to bring forward change and discover a piece of their planet that may inspire them to care about the environment.

The developers hope their players reach the Guardian Level of about 1,000,000, by May 21st of this year so they could donate $50,000 to EarthDay.org.

How I found out about this game?

I accidentally found an ad for this game on my Instagram and checked it out. Once it read that it was aimed at raising money to restore coral reefs, I gave this game a chance and download it to my phone. Once I downloaded the game, I found it to differ from other environmentally-themed games I’ve played in the past.

The Game Play (So Far)

You first create an avatar that almost looks like a mix between a mermaid and a water fairy. This character will serve as the “protagonist” of the game. Then, your character is “sent” to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, where your quest to protect the ocean begins. The first animal resident you befriend is a parrotfish named Chewy, who helps you with restoring the reef. Throughout the game, your character works to plant different corals and seagrasses to help restore the reef and unlock new animal residents along the way.

Add the daily quests along with the main quest of the story, and you're really having fun learning how to protect a coral reef habitat, combating threats, and the animals that call the reef home. Add that they raise money for actual wildlife conservation causes is a huge plus that impresses me the most about this game and I highly recommend that you guys should all give it a chance if you wish to learn about conservation management.

Do they Give Money to Other Non-Profits, Too?

Other organizations that Sakani Studios plans to give money to from the game pay include EarthDay.org, Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA), and SavingPenguins.org.

Where to Download the Game?

The game is available in both GooglePlay and the Apple AppStore.