Through the Mirror: A Serious Game for Interspecies Amiable Cohabitation and Urban Reimagining
Through the Mirror: A Serious Game for Interspecies Amiable Cohabitation and Urban Reimagining

Summary/Abstract: This study presents „Through the Mirror”, a narrative-based serious game developed on the Graveler platform, designed to engage players in ethical reflection, symbolic transformation, and real world ecological action. Set in a winter version of Kassel, the game unfolds across three distinct narrative worlds. Players begin in a hostile urban environment, navigating hunger and suspicion while encountering NPCs who question their presence and worth. A pivotal revelation occurs when the player looks into a glowing mirror and discovers they are not human, but a raccoon -one historically commodified and now legally exterminated in many European cities. This identity twist invites the player to wake up into a second world, where they are summoned by a mysterious deity to the temple within a Gothic castle. There, they are entrusted with the mission of reimagining the city through humane coexistence strategies: raccoon cafés, safe waste systems, and educational diplomacy. The final world shifts to meta-reflection, naming the player “steward of creation” and asking for real-world action – evidence of workshops, posters, or donations in support of urban wildlife. Drawing on theories from environmental ethics, symbolic learning, and game-based pedagogy, the game merges poetic storytelling with civic engagement. Early playtests indicate that the combination of narrative twist, spiritual framing, and ecological realism fosters deep emotional impact and ethical awareness. The study argues that such games can serve as valuable educational tools and invitations to empathy and interspecies responsibility.

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