The Profit Seed game explores the issues surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMO) and the patenting of agricultural seeds. It is also an experiment with a novel game mechanic. A player uses her mouse to control the wind, trying to plant heirloom seeds while preventing GMO seeds from blowing onto a farmer’s plots. If enough GMO seeds land in the field and germinate, the lawyer from an agribusiness corporation comes to sue the farmer and take his land.
Profit Seed was designed using the Values At Play curriculum which can be used to design activist games or simply novel games with unusual mechanics. The project is a collaboration between the Tiltfactor Lab and members of the Rochester Institute of Technology game design program.
