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GamingOverview

PlanetPlay

Turning Gaming into Climate Action

TL;DR

01

Engineered end-to-end blockchain infrastructure on AWS, Polygon, QLDB, and MongoDB linking in-game purchases to verified carbon offset records

02

Designed the Green Coin system where every 10 cents of in-game spend equals 8.33kg of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere, making climate impact tangible for players

03

Built dual-facing platform with a player web app and studio analytics dashboard, giving game studios real-time visibility into player engagement and environmental impact

The Challenge

The gaming industry is massive (billions of players, trillions of in-app purchases), but its environmental footprint is largely invisible to the people driving it. Individual players have no mechanism to connect their entertainment spending to climate outcomes. Game studios have no easy way to signal environmental commitment without rebuilding their products from scratch.

PlanetPlay had a compelling vision: create a universal layer between gaming and climate action, letting any studio plug into a system that automatically channels a portion of in-game purchases toward verified carbon removal. But the vision required solving several compounding technical problems at once.

The core challenge was trust. Any platform claiming to convert gameplay into carbon removal needs a transparent, auditable record of every transaction. That means connecting real-world purchase events to on-chain carbon credit records in a way players and studios can independently verify. Without that, the climate claims are marketing, not impact.

Beyond trust, there was the integration problem. Game studios operate in their own ecosystems with their own payment flows. A solution that requires deep engineering effort from every studio partner would stall at the first integration. The platform needed to work via lightweight API connections, not full rebuilds.

Finally, the currency design problem: how do you give players something meaningful in return for their contribution? The Green Coin had to be worth earning, worth spending, and worth understanding. It needed to represent a real, verifiable unit of carbon removal, not a symbolic badge.

Key Results

01

Production-ready end-to-end platform delivered connecting gameplay to verified carbon removal

02

Green Coin peg: 1 coin per $0.10 of in-game spend = 8.33kg CO₂ removed

03

Dual redemption model: carbon credits and in-game digital assets

04

Real-time studio analytics dashboard tracking impact metrics and player engagement

05

Immutable transaction audit trail via AWS QLDB for carbon credit integrity

The Solution

01

Designing the Green Coin: A Currency with Real-World Meaning

AE Studio worked with PlanetPlay to refine the core product concept before a line of infrastructure was written. The Green Coin became the unit of account for the entire ecosystem: 10 cents of in-game spend generates one Green Coin, and each Green Coin represents 8.33 kilograms of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere.

This peg is not arbitrary. It ties the currency to the actual cost of verified carbon removal credits, making the conversion rate defensible and transparent. Players who earn Green Coins can see exactly what their gaming activity has funded in terms of physical carbon extraction.

02

Blockchain Infrastructure Built for Auditability

The platform runs on a hybrid data architecture designed to balance performance with verifiability. Polygon handles on-chain token operations and carbon credit transactions, providing a public, auditable record that neither PlanetPlay nor any partner studio can retroactively alter.

AWS Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) provides an immutable transaction log for every event in the system (purchases, token issuance, redemptions), creating an append-only audit trail that supports regulatory and partner verification needs. MongoDB handles application-layer data, including user profiles, studio configurations, and marketplace inventory.

The combination gives PlanetPlay a system that is fast enough for real-time gaming interactions, auditable enough for carbon credit integrity, and flexible enough to onboard new studios through API rather than deep integration.

03

Studio Integration: API-First Architecture

Game studios plug into the PlanetPlay ecosystem through a set of APIs that sit alongside their existing payment flows. The primary integration point is coin bundles: when a player purchases in-game currency or items through a participating studio, a portion of that transaction routes through the PlanetPlay layer.

Studios do not need to rebuild their payment systems. They configure their integration once, set their donation percentage, and the platform handles token issuance, carbon credit allocation, and player rewards automatically. This low-friction onboarding was a deliberate design choice: every additional week of integration time reduces the number of studios who complete the process.

04

Player Experience: Two Ways to Spend Green Coins

Players interact with PlanetPlay through a dedicated web application that shows their accumulated Green Coins, their carbon impact, and the marketplace where they can spend their tokens.

Two primary redemption paths exist. Players can spend Green Coins directly on carbon credits, purchasing verified removal units that appear in their profile as a permanent record of their contribution. Alternatively, they can spend Green Coins on digital assets, special in-game items created by studios specifically for the PlanetPlay marketplace, giving tokens immediate gaming utility in addition to environmental value.

This dual-use design solves a classic engagement problem: if the only thing you can do with an environmental currency is buy more environmental credits, you lose the players who prioritize gameplay over impact. By giving tokens gaming utility, the platform retains both audiences.

05

Studio Analytics Dashboard

PlanetPlay built studio-facing tooling that gives game partners visibility into how the integration is performing. The analytics dashboard displays real-time impact metrics (total carbon removed, green tokens issued, asset sales driven by PlanetPlay) alongside player engagement data that helps studios understand whether the integration is influencing purchase behavior.

This dashboard serves a dual purpose: it helps studios optimize their PlanetPlay configuration, and it gives them the data they need to communicate their environmental contribution to their own players and press. A studio that can show measurable carbon removal driven by their game community has a genuine story to tell.

06

Amplitude Integration for Behavioral Analytics

AE Studio set up Amplitude as the behavioral analytics layer across the PlanetPlay platform, tracking the full user journey from game discovery to Green Coin redemption. The instrumentation captures purchase funnels, asset popularity, token spending patterns, and player retention over time.

This data feeds back into PlanetPlay's product and partnership decisions. Understanding which assets drive the most engagement, which studios generate the most climate action, and where players drop out of the funnel allows the team to optimize both the platform and its studio relationships without relying on expensive third-party gaming data providers.

07

Transparent Carbon Credit Verification

Every carbon credit sold through the PlanetPlay marketplace links to a verified removal project. The blockchain record created at the time of purchase provides an immutable reference point connecting the player's transaction to a specific carbon removal event.

This transparency is what separates PlanetPlay from green marketing. Players are not making a donation to an environmental fund that may or may not deliver results. They are purchasing a specific, verifiable unit of carbon removal backed by a public on-chain record. The QLDB audit trail ensures that the same credit cannot be sold twice and that the platform's carbon claims are independently verifiable.

Results

Key Metrics

Production-ready end-to-end platform delivered connecting gameplay to verified carbon removal

Green Coin peg: 1 coin per $0.10 of in-game spend = 8.33kg CO₂ removed

Dual redemption model: carbon credits and in-game digital assets

Real-time studio analytics dashboard tracking impact metrics and player engagement

Immutable transaction audit trail via AWS QLDB for carbon credit integrity

The Full Story

AE Studio delivered a production-ready platform that translates video game engagement into measurable, verifiable climate impact. The architecture connects in-game purchase events through API integrations, through the Green Coin issuance system, through the PlanetPlay marketplace, and finally to verified carbon credit records, all with an auditable on-chain trail.

The Green Coin system launched with a clear, defensible unit of value: one coin per 10 cents of in-game spend, each representing 8.33kg of CO₂ removed. This peg gives players a concrete understanding of what their gaming activity accomplishes and gives studios a credible environmental claim backed by blockchain verification rather than marketing copy.

The studio analytics dashboard gave PlanetPlay a differentiated value proposition in partner conversations. Rather than asking studios to trust that the integration would benefit their business, PlanetPlay could show partners real-time data on how Green Coin integration affects asset sales and player engagement, making the business case alongside the environmental one.

The platform launched into a market where gaming studios increasingly face pressure from players and investors to demonstrate environmental responsibility. PlanetPlay's infrastructure gives them a path to do that without rebuilding their products. AE Studio and PlanetPlay continued working together after the initial platform delivery to support growth and product evolution.

Conclusion

Gaming is one of the largest entertainment industries on the planet, with billions of active players making trillions of micro-purchases each year. PlanetPlay identified that infrastructure, not intention, was the missing piece between that scale and meaningful climate action.

AE Studio built the platform that makes the connection real: a blockchain-backed, API-integrated system where in-game spending generates verifiable carbon removal, players earn a currency with genuine utility, and studios gain an environmental story backed by data rather than marketing.

The result is a new model for the gaming industry, one where entertainment and environmental impact are not in tension, but structurally linked.

Key Insights

1

Blockchain credibility requires more than marketing claims. Using Polygon for on-chain records and QLDB for immutable audit trails made PlanetPlay's carbon removal claims independently verifiable, a prerequisite for trust in the sustainability space.

2

Currency design determines adoption. Giving Green Coins dual utility, both environmental credits and in-game assets, solved the engagement problem that plagues single-purpose environmental currencies.

3

API-first integration is the only viable path to scale. Studios that face deep integration requirements drop out. A lightweight API layer that slots into existing payment flows is what makes a platform partner-friendly enough to reach meaningful adoption.

4

Analytics are a partnership tool, not just a product tool. The studio dashboard turned data into a business development asset, giving PlanetPlay something concrete to show prospective partners beyond the environmental vision.

5

Pegging impact to a real-world cost creates defensible claims. Tying Green Coin value to the actual market price of verified carbon removal credits made the environmental promise specific and auditable rather than aspirational.

Frequently Asked Questions

Every carbon credit sold through the PlanetPlay marketplace is linked to a verified removal project. The purchase event is recorded on-chain via Polygon, creating a public, immutable record that connects the player's transaction to a specific carbon removal event. AWS QLDB provides an append-only audit trail ensuring the same credit cannot be sold twice. This means the environmental claims are independently verifiable by players, studios, and third parties, not just asserted by PlanetPlay.
Studios connect through a set of APIs that sit alongside their existing payment flows. The primary integration point is in-app purchases: when a player buys in-game items through a participating studio, a portion of the transaction routes through the PlanetPlay system automatically. Studios configure their donation percentage once and the platform handles token issuance, carbon allocation, and player rewards without requiring changes to the studio's core payment infrastructure.
Players have two redemption paths. They can purchase verified carbon credits, acquiring a permanent on-chain record of the specific removal event their coins funded. Alternatively, they can spend Green Coins in the PlanetPlay marketplace on digital assets, special in-game items created by studios for the platform. This dual utility ensures the currency has value for players motivated by gaming outcomes as well as those motivated by environmental impact.
Polygon was selected for its combination of low transaction costs, EVM compatibility, and established ecosystem for gaming and digital assets. Carbon credit transactions and Green Coin operations need to be affordable at the micro-transaction scale that gaming generates; Ethereum mainnet fees would make small in-game purchases economically unviable. Polygon also has mature tooling for NFT and marketplace integrations, supporting the digital asset side of the Green Coin ecosystem.
The dashboard gives studio partners real-time visibility into how PlanetPlay integration is affecting their business, including total carbon removed, Green Coins issued, and asset sales data. This matters because studios need to justify the integration internally, to their investors, and to their players. Having data that shows measurable climate impact alongside engagement metrics transforms PlanetPlay from an environmental experiment into a business tool with a trackable return on partnership.
OverviewGamingintermediate7 min readBlockchainGamingClimate TechCarbon CreditsWeb3PolygonSustainabilityPlatform EngineeringImpact Tech

Published: Feb 2025 · Last updated: Feb 2026

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