Nowadays, the environmental problems for which the world is going through has generated several actions aimed at generating environmental education, using various means to achieve it. One of the tools that education and publicity among other areas are using are serious games, which has gained popularity, being used in various sectors such as education, trade, health, environment and others because they add entertainment to communication processes or educational. Serious games are used as one way to sensitize people about the depletion of natural resources and the consequences of environmental imbalance. Serious games are used as one means to sensitize people about the depletion of natural resources and the consequences of environmental imbalance. This article presents an exploration of serious games focused on environmental issues as well as identifying some of its features and opportunities for improvement. This paper presents a serious exploration of games applied to the area of education and environmental awareness, identifying elements that will be useful when developing technological tools such as initiatives and innovations in environmental education is presented. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018.