Stop Disasters! by United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
The game, Stop Disasters!, is about disaster risk reduction. Through this game, adults and children learn how to build safer villages and cities against disasters.
In this game, simulation-based play is used with the main objective being to demonstrate how the planning and design of a city makes the city safe or dangerous for a natural disaster. The game has different scenarios for each city that is available in the game. The scenarios are created based on the population in that city and this creates multiple simulations in the game. As the population changes, the design of the city would also need to change to ensure it is safe for the larger population.
Here is an example of 3 different scenarios for the South East Asia Coastal region:
Application of the MDAO Framework
Mechanics
Mechanics are the rules of the game which involve actions, behavior, and control. In the game Stop Disasters!, The main mechanic is that the player can build structures such as houses, schools, hospitals, and hotels. The following image shows an example of the goal that is asked of:
In addition to be able to build structures, there is a time limit and a budget that the player is given. Therefore, in this game, another mechanic is resource management where the player has to engage in budgeting to ensure they achieve the set goal (max damage possible) within the budget they are given. They also have to make sure that they build the city in the given time, before the disaster begins, to be successful.
Dynamics
As there is a limited budget, the player must make tradeoffs between spending on current needs e.g housing or long term needs e.g upgrades to buildings to ensure they are better prepared for disasters. As the players spends more money, they have to think more about this tradeoff dynamic to ensure they reach the goal. In addition, as the player keeps playing, they learn about the necessary things they need to do be better prepared for a disaster e.g build homes away from the coast. In this case, the player becomes better at the game, learns how to build better cities, and reaches more favorable outcomes. So the main dynamic of this game is that each decision the player makes impacts the game’s output and so the player must predict what each decision would lead to in order to be better prepared for the disaster.
Aesthetics
The main aesthetics of this game are narrative, challenge, expression and fellowship.
At the beginning of the game, you are presented with a scenario which is like a narrative of the situation you are in. The following is an example:
Thereafter, you are presented with a challenge like the one below. It is the players duty to achieve that challenge in addition to ensure the city is prepared for disaster (which is another challenge).
To complete the challenge/achieve the goal, the players get a chance to build a city with different objects provided which lets them be expressive in the game. This is where the aesthetic of expression comes in. The following are an example of elements they can choose from as well as upgrades they can potentially make to achieve the goal:
The aesthetic of fellowship is also in this game because the player is working to save a community/city from a disaster.
Outcomes
The outcome of the game is whether the mission was a success or not. After building the city, the player can trigger a disaster. After the disaster has occurred, the player gets a report similar to the following explaining the aftermath of the disaster:
In addition, the player also receives a report which shows if the player completed the challenge (as you can see below, all tasks were passed), and also a report if the mission was a success or not:
The player can continue to play the game with different scenarios, different disasters, and repeat the game to achieve greater points. The goal of the game is that they player learns how to build safer cities to protect them from different disasters.
