Marine debris and plastic are just some of the problems affecting beaches, coastal waters, and oceans throughout the world. Siobhan Reddy, Studio Director at Media Molecule, shares insights about the latest partnership with Sustainable Coastlines, a local charity in New Zealand, who wanted to draw attention and educate gamers to the cause using PlayStation’s Dreams platform.

The first of its kind partnership

New Zealand’s Tokahaki Point and Tahunanui Beach are the focus of the new game designed to highlight the problem of litter on Kiwi beaches and encourage players to become Citizen Scientists to combat the issue in real life.
One of the first Media Molecule partnerships of this kind: the game Pick Up Quick!, created with and available to play in Dreams for PlayStation®4, has been launched by Sustainable Coastlines as part of its Litter Intelligence Project.

Pick Up Quick! challenge

The aim of the game is to hunt for discarded litter and collect as much as possible within 45 seconds. The levels of the game are designed to look exactly like the real-life coastlines of Tokahaki Point and Tahunanui Beach, so locals recognize their neighborhood. 

To inform and educate gamers, data from actual litter clean-ups at the selected coastlines is used, and players can compare the rubbish they picked up virtually with what has been collected in real life.

Created by and for the community

Stacey Bartlett, a 25-year-old school administrator from North Canterbury, led the creation of Pick Up Quick! supported with the expertise of our DREAMS™ developers at Media Molecule. Our UK-based game developer experts provided Stacey with tips and advice during the creation process.

As a lifelong PlayStation fan and sustainable conscious citizen, Stacey wanted to create something special for this partnership, targeting young Kiwi gamers. Pick Up Quick! is part of the growing ‘gaming for good’ trend, which sees creators use their skills for the benefit of community or charity groups. The hope is that Kiwis will relate to what they see in the game and look at ways to reduce their impact on the environment.

Endless possibilities for creativity and change

We’ve seen some pretty wonderful creations within Dreams and Pick Up Quick! is right up there – the community aspect of gameplay that encourages education and understanding is really impressive. It shows what’s possible, so we’re hoping it encourages people to get creative as well as think about their environmental impact – wherever they are.

Pick Up Quick! is available to play within Dreams now. Dreams is available on PlayStation Store.