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planetplay

2024-05-16

PlanetPlay CEO Rhea Loucas Shortlisted For Sustainability Award

We’re delighted and honoured that our CEO Rhea Loucas has been named a Finalist in the Sustainability category of the Develop:Star Awards 2024.

Taking place On July 10th during the Develop:Brighton conference, the awards recognise the best of the games development community and cover 22 categories, plus the Develop Star award for outstanding achievement.

The Sustainability Star award recognises an individual, team or company that has passionately embraced the cause and put in place significant changes to the way their studio or company works to reduce impact and be more sustainable.

In 2023 PlanetPlay Founder & CEO Rhea Loucas drove significant progress towards our industry’s sustainability via the company’s primary mission: to be a disruptive NPO, harnessing the power of 3+ billion players within a $190+ billion industry to effect change through the best games and biggest superstars in the world.

Under Rhea’s passionate and clear-minded leadership PlanetPlay’s goal is to show that it’s possible to create a system that is 100% dedicated to making the world a better place by unlocking what we call the ‘passive activism’ of gamers globally. 100% of what PlanetPlay generates goes green.

PlanetPlay has achieved this by empowering studios and publishers to make special ‘green’ items available within their games, with the benefit of receiving certified carbon credits (Verra and GoldStandard) equivalent to their revenue.

The recent launch of PlanetPlay’s Make Green Tuesday Moves will take this important initiative forward. All the world’s gamers need to do is continue playing the games they love, with no change in style or habit required to contribute to amazing sustainability causes.

PlanetPlay also runs advisory sessions to help a studio assess its own ‘green’ baseline, then works with the team to create a plan for achieving the goals they set. 

It also encourages and conducts non-invasive in-game player surveys to help studios understand their players and their environmental concerns on a whole new level.

As the CEO of a dedicated non-profit organisation committed to combating the climate crisis, Rhea believes the best approach is to start from real actions. PlanetPlay prioritises the strategic allocation of funds raised from game community to high-impact climate projects, focusing on both carbon removal and carbon reduction as a dual-pronged approach, with verifiable results. Following thorough due diligence, it also considers the multiple SDG benefits of these projects.

Rhea has been shortlisted in the category alongside Green Game Jam, nDreams, Smartdc, Sports Interactive and YRS TRULY.

She said: “With over three billion players worldwide, the games industry is in a unique position to leverage significant change when it comes to driving climate change action. I’m honoured to be shortlisted for the Develop:Star Sustainability Award and applaud the other finalists in the category for their commitment to sustainability efforts.”

The full list of finalists for the Develop:Star Awards 2024 are:

Best Game

  • Alan Wake 2
  • Balatro
  • Baldur's Gate 3
  • DAVE THE DIVER
  • Helldivers 2
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Best Studio

  • Arrowhead Game Studios
  • d3t
  • FuturLab
  • Larian Studios
  • nDreams
  • Playground Games
  • Remedy Entertainment

Best Small Studio

  • Bytten Studio
  • Geometric Interactive
  • inkle
  • Interflix Media
  • Noun Town
  • Rogue Sun
  • Sketchbook Games

Publishing Star

  • Curve Games
  • Kepler Interactive
  • nDreams
  • No More Robots
  • Playstack
  • Secret Mode
  • TEAM17

Best Mobile Game

  • Cityscapes: Sim Builder
  • Football Manager 2024 Mobile
  • Lost Words: Beyond the Page
  • MONOPOLY GO!
  • Sonic Dream Team
  • The Queen's Gambit Chess

Best Creative Lead

  • AJ Grand-Scrutton, Dlala Studios
  • Andria Warren, Rare
  • Helen Andrzejowska, Secret Mode
  • Kostas Zarifis, Rogue Sun
  • Naoki Yoshida, Square Enix
  • Sam Lake, Remedy Entertainment

Best Game Design

  • Balatro
  • Baldur's Gate 3
  • DAVE THE DIVER
  • Helldivers 2
  • Jusant
  • Viewfinder

Best Audio

  • A Highland Song
  • Alan Wake 2
  • Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
  • Baldur's Gate 3
  • COCOON
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

Best Visual Art

  • A Highland Song
  • Alan Wake 2
  • Baldur's Gate 3
  • Chants of Sennaar
  • COCOON
  • FINAL FANTASY XVI

Best Narrative

  • A Highland Song
  • Alan Wake 2
  • Baldur's Gate 3
  • Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
  • FINAL FANTASY XVI
  • Starfield

Best Original IP

  • American Arcadia
  • Balatro
  • Classified: France '44
  • DAVE THE DIVER
  • Jusant
  • Viewfinder

Tomorrow’s Star

  • Ackeem Durrant, Surgent Studios
  • Alif Trevathan, Sumo Group
  • Amy Elliott, Sumo Leamington
  • Charlotte Pang, Chirashi Games
  • Dora Vasiliou, Dlala Studios
  • Jazeena McCallum, Surgent Studios
  • Rach Macpherson, Neonhive

Marketing Star

  • Claire Sharkey, Freelance
  • Dan Allman, Kepler Interactive
  • FuturLab
  • Hannah Flynn, Failbetter Games
  • ICO Partners
  • nDreams
  • Neonhive

Best Technical Innovation

  • Audiomob
  • COCOON
  • Dead Island 2
  • Helldivers 2
  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2
  • Noun Town: VR Language Learning
  • Viewfinder

Best Creative Provider

  • Atomhawk
  • Flix Interactive
  • Liquid Crimson
  • PitStop Productions
  • Room 8 Group
  • SIDE
  • TrailerFarm

Diversity Star

  • Adam Clewes-Boyne, BetaJester
  • Fida Zourob, Games for Love
  • Danielle Udogaranya, Evolotu
  • Leon Hijazi-Killin, Sumo Group
  • Liz Prince, Amiqus, G Into Gaming & Empower-Up
  • Moo Yu, POC in Play
  • Sara Machado, Sumo Digital and Bird's Eye View

Supporting Star

  • Barclays Games and Creative
  • Coutts & Co
  • Fourth Floor Group
  • Game Republic
  • GG Insurance Services
  • Urban Ledgers

Talent Development Star

  • Dlala Studios
  • Flix Interactive
  • NaturalMotion Games
  • nDreams
  • REALTIME
  • Ripstone
  • Sumo Group

Best Technology Provider

  • GameMaker
  • Genba Digital
  • i3D.net
  • PopcornFX
  • Speech Graphics
  • Unity
  • Unreal Engine

Recruitment Star

  • Aardvark Swift
  • Amiqus
  • Avatar
  • Datascope Recruitment
  • mustard jobs
  • Skillsearch

Sustainability Star

  • Green Game Jam
  • nDreams
  • Rhea Loucas
  • Smartdc
  • Sports Interactive
  • YRS TRULY

Best QA & Localisation

  • Keywords Studios
  • Player Research
  • PTW
  • Testronic
  • Universally Speaking
  • Warlocs

The Develop Star will be announced in the coming weeks.

Voting for the awards begins now – and we would be honoured if you were to consider voting for Rhea. Click here to vote.