Overview

Eco is a very unique game. Not only due to its game mechanics, but also the story of its creation. Most people I have talked to were not aware of Eco’s origins, even many of those who play the game often. In this article, we’ll dive into how Eco came to be, along with what makes it stand out from the crowd of open-world survival crafting games.

Educational?

What’s the first game you think of when you hear the phrase “educational video game”? For me, it would be some sort of point-and-click children’s game or maybe something from coolmathgames.com (I might be showing my age here). Educational games are not exactly known for their quality or engaging gameplay.

Eco is one of the few exceptions here. Yes, if you didn’t know, Eco is an educational game. Not only that, it is a government-funded educational game. It was created specifically for use in the classroom. Despite that, it is very fun to play, with engaging gameplay loops and a complex interactive environment simulation.

Gameplay

Before I go into the story of its creation, let’s take a look at the actual gameplay. Eco is an open-world survival game with a focus on a player-driven economy and self-governed community. It was inspired partially by games such as Minecraft, EvE Online, and Rust. The backstory is there is a meteor headed for the planet, which will impact in 30 days. Players have that much time to advance from sticks and stones to computers and lasers, all while dealing with the environmental impact of technological progress.

The environment in the game is complex, and changing one aspect can have far-reaching effects on multiple parts of the world. The game simulates everything from animal populations to plant spread, soil composition, air quality, and even climate. All of this must be balanced to keep the ecosystem functioning properly. However, sometimes the fate of the planet must come before keeping the environment in tip top shape, and sacrifices must be made. Go too far though, and the only thing to save from the asteroid will be a barren wasteland, with no food to support life.

Players are able to organize and create a government, which provides bonuses and enables placing restrictions on citizens of the government. This is entirely self-run, and all laws are created and voted on by the players. These laws can restrict what players can do, in an effort to optimize the economy and help prevent the player base from destroying the environment. This is easier said than done, however, and many players will disagree about what will and will not work well. This is all part of the game, and players with different ideas can run against each other in elections. I will stop here, as this article is far too short to describe the entire system. There is a whole wiki to help with that though. Check it out here if you want to learn more about the game.

Players can post jobs which other players can take and receive payment for - which helps fuel the economy.

Players can post jobs which other players can take and receive payment for - which helps fuel the economy.

Humble Beginnings

In 2009, developer John Krajewski founded the company Strangeloop Games. The goal was to create engaging games that were also educational. The company produced 2 smaller games prior to Eco, which were acclaimed for having realistic scientific representations, but did not see major success.

In June of 2014, the University of Illinois’ Impact on Science Education team partnered with Strangeloop games to develop a prototype of Eco for use in middle school classrooms. This prototype mainly focused on the environment simulation in the game, and students had to work together to prevent the ecosystem’s destruction. This partnership was a major success, and later expanded to middle school and high school classrooms.

In August of 2015, Eco debuted on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, where it saw even greater success. It earned over $200,000, which set it up to continue independent development by Strangeloop Games as an early-access title on Steam, where its popularity further skyrocketed. It continues to receive regular updates to this day. While there is no planned date for release, the final product, labeled “Eco Infinite” was announced in 2021.

Carefully managing the in-game economy can lead to major benefits - like tacos.

Carefully managing the in-game economy can lead to major benefits - like tacos.

Funding

One of the reasons for Eco’s success is the funding. While the $200,000 raised on Kickstarter was substantial, it was nothing in comparison to the amount received from grants from the US Department of Education, among other sources.

The main two grants were Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the Department of Education. The first in 2014 was for $149,833 and the second in 2015 was for a staggering $899,871. A third SBIR grant for $149,952 was awarded in 2017, though this supported Strangeloop’s integration of two of its games, Eco and Colony, in classrooms via a software, and not Eco’s development directly.

Eco also sees steady sales on Steam, where it costs $30 USD. Rough estimates place the revenue at around 7 million dollars from Steam alone, making it the largest source of funding for the game, by far.

Even though the Steam sales far outweigh the grants, none of this would have been possible in the first place without the money from the Department of Education, which supported the game through the majority of its development so far.

Eco’s Legacy

While Eco isn’t fully out yet, it has not only proven that educational video games can be a successful tool for classrooms, but also fun and financially viable on that merit. It has won numerous awards for its quality, and has been received well by students and players alike. It currently has an 80% rating on steam. I am hoping this success story encourages other developers to make high-quality games that cater to both audiences.

With Eco’s massive success, Strangeloop Games is gearing up for more projects in the future. Namely, a space-themed game called Colony, not many details of which are known. WIth their past games, we can be sure that this will be another entry in the educational genre.

Whether or not you are in it to learn, I personally recommend Eco to anyone who loves the genre. It’s a very social game, but can work with groups as small as 5 if you tweak the settings enough. Many servers have 30+ regular players on them, I’ve even seen a couple with 100+ players, which makes for a very interesting experience. I wrote this article because while Eco is relatively successful, I think it deserves a much bigger spotlight than it has gotten so far. In my opinion, it’s a miracle an “educational” game was made to this level of quality, and I would love this trend to continue. It is one of the most socially engaging games I’ve ever played, and it really brings a community together.

If you’d like to create a server for Eco, Akliz supports it! You can get started with our 4gb plan in no time. Check it out here!

Sources:

- U of I Impact on Science Education projects

- Institute of Education Sciences Small Business Innovation Research

- Strangeloop Games’ website

- Eco Kickstarter

- Eco Wiki