They've previously tackled alien invasions, gang violence in New York and how to raise a happy family, but this week computer games wrestle with an even more pressing issue: climate change.

Arriving on PCs on Tuesday and Macs shortly after, the British-made Fate of the World puts players at the helm of a future World Trade Organisation-style environmental body with a task of saving the world by cutting carbon emissions or damning it by letting soaring temperatures wreak havoc through floods, droughts and fires.

The strategy game is already being hailed by gaming experts as a potential breakthrough for such social change titles, and welcomed by climate campaigners as a way of reaching new audiences.

While traditional mainstream games have focused on action, sports and increasingly casual genres, Fate of the World features data from real-world climate models, anecdotes from the polar explorer Pen Hadow and input from a team of scientists and economists in the US and UK. It has been developed by Oxford-based games designers Red Redemption, whose previous browser-based climate game for the BBC has been played more than a million times since it was launched in 2006.

Gobion Rowlands, chairman at Red Redemption and a board member of social gaming organisation Games for Change, said the game was inspired by his desire to make the subject more accessible and a drunken boast to Dr Myles Allen, head of climate dynamics at Oxford University and a contributor to the last report by the UN's climate science panel.

"My wife was working on Allen's Climateprediction.net project [a project to use the power of home PCs to process climate model data], when he took me out for dinner. We got quite drunk, and I bragged that we could make a computer game about anything. He challenged us to make one about climate change."

Allen has provided the prediction models used in the game. "For far too long, climate policy has been developed by unelected technocrats in smoke-free conference centres or through talkshow soundbites," said Allen. "What I like about this game is that it allows people to experience, in an idealised world, of course, the kinds of decisions we are likely to confront, and makes it clear there are no easy answers: should we start mining methane clathrates [gas trapped in arctic ice], for example?"

Tom Chatfield, gaming expert and the author of Fun Inc: Why Games Are the 21st Century's Most Serious Business, said: "This could be the beginning of a flowering of issue-led gaming. But it will be judged on whether it's a good game, not on whether it's worthy or not."

He said that, although some mainstream titles – such as the Civilization franchise, which has sold more than 6m copies – had touched on issues of sustainability and pollution before, most games with an overt social message often had a lower budget and gave a less polished experience. "It will be interesting to see if this game can resolve that tension – I can't list many games that are both campaigning and staggeringly good."

But, he added, issue-driven titles on everything from health to human rights, such as the browser-based Darfur is Dying, – a game based on life as a refugee in Sudan played by more than 800,000 people were improving in quality and popularity. Just over half of all gamers play games in which they think about moral and ethical issues, according to a 2008 study by the Pew Research Centre of 1,102 12- to 17-year-olds.

Both Rowlands and Chatfield agree that games as a medium are uniquely placed to tackle the complexity of climate change. "Two of the problems with environmental issues are time and geography – getting people to care about people on the other side of the planet and problems far in the future," said Chatfield. "But if people can feel and see the evolution of variables in a system – such as a changing climate – it can be a better way of learning than reading lots of scientific prose."

"Games handle complexity well," said Rowlands. "Partly because you learn by doing, but also because of the length of interaction – you could be playing for up to 50 hours, during which you learn a huge amount about how a game works. In an age when we're accused of dumbing down, computer games can reverse that trend and help us to smarten up."

Green campaigners have welcomed gaming joining other cultural efforts – from Ian McEwan's recent novel Solar to the BBC's drama Burn Up featuring Neve Campbell – to take on the subject. Mike Childs, Friends of the Earth's head of climate change, said: "We've had books, films, TV debates, movies – so it was only a matter of time before the fight against global warming inspired computer games too. We hope that, by wrestling with the challenges of tackling climate change in the virtual world, gamers will be inspired to take action in the real one – especially with crucial international climate talks coming up in Cancun later this month."

Fate of the World is released Tuesday for £14.99 via digital download and Oxfam stores across the UK.

Games for change

Darfur is dying

Play as a refugee, picking from a choice of Darfurians such as 30-year old Rahman to or 12-year old Abok. Players must forage for water while avoiding attack by local militias. Fans include Kanye West.

EnerCities

Compete with friends to build a 3D sustainable city powered by solar panels and wind turbines, without breaking the city's budget. Described as the "first serious game on Facebook".

Food Force

Created for the UN World Food Programme, this humanitarian strategy game challenges players to tackle the logistical problems of food shortages and poverty. Five million people have downloaded it so far.

Against all Odds

Part-funded by Microsoft, the game puts players in the first-person position of a refugee fleeing war and conflict in their home country. The Flash-based game was developed by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.