Co-founder Kassandra Huynh presented the arthouse game studio Neonature and TIDAL ArtS project Echoes of the Deep at a recent FemDevs Meetup, held in collaboration with NFDI4Culture, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and the Center for Cultural Education of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Under the theme “Cultural Heritage meets Game Development,” she explored why our games about the future always look to the past — uncovering the ecological and historical traces we inherit.

A closer look at a hidden past

In Echoes of the Deep — a virtual reality game experience set in the near-future Baltic Sea — looking to the past means confronting the long-term legacy of wartime pollution. Sunken shipwrecks and munitions form a hidden heritage, slowly rusting away on the seabed. After many decades, these shells reach a critical stage of degradation and begin releasing dangerous chemicals into the Baltic Sea. 

Among them is phosphorus, which not only affects marine life but can also harm people. Phosphorus fragments can wash up on shore, looking almost identical to amber. Many beachgoers pick up these beautiful, translucent pieces. If they instead pick up phosphorus and put it in their pocket, they’re in for a dangerous surprise: phosphorus can self-ignite at around 20°C.¹

What does that mean for the future? 

As degrading munitions continue to release their contents, incidents involving phosphorus will become more frequent. This emerging, inglorious heritage demands attention — it is the responsibility of government decision-makers to set a course for cleaning this up. 

Games can make this submerged history tangible, not as spectacle but as a lived, felt encounter. That’s why we’ve woven it into the narrative of our game, Echoes of the Deep – to show that this isn’t an isolated issue, but a cascading effect that will shape the shores of the entire Baltic in the near future. 

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Source 1:  Phosphor vs amber (German)