Stop Disasters! is a serious game hosted by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), developed by Pete Everett and David Streek at PlayerThree. The game is about building safer cities against disasters. To educate children in schools about disaster prevention, this game uses narrative to evoke empathy and challenge to mimic real-world decisions.
In this web-based game, players are contractors responsible for developing their community while also reaching the safety goals. Before the disaster strikes, they must obtain strict objectives like housing a certain number of people and constructing a school. Players are also restricted by a budget and timer. These likely were intended to create dynamics of resource management and time pressure to further the challenge aesthetic.
By incorporating the theme of disaster prevention into a city-building game, the UNDRR can educate children in an engaging and playful way. The information is integrated into the game mechanics. For example, as a helpful tool, players can also access a map that highlights the risk factors of building on certain types of land. Initially, I relied on this map to guide my building placements, but I turned it off once I developed an intuition for safer locations. Moreover, all buildings and improvements have a risk factor associated with them. I chose to reinforce the foundations of all existing buildings in the village, to decrease their risk of being destroyed by a tsunami. Additionally, safety tips are available in an in-game information tab to assist players in making informed decisions, though I was able to successfully play the game without them.
After disaster strikes, the player’s decisions are reflected in the form of a news article, advancing the narrative. By presenting the outcomes through this medium, the developers elevate the community members beyond mere statistics, allowing players to empathize with them. This approach deepens the player’s understanding of disaster prevention and its importance. With this article, I could broadly learn which measures I took were effective.
However, Stop Disasters! could be improved in several ways, by introducing more complexity. Typically, there were only one to two options to improve an existing building, and the no-brainer option would be to select all of them. This is possible because even on max difficulty, the time and budget weren’t very limiting. Furthermore, the only factor in selecting a location was the disaster risk associated with it. Presenting additional factors like community level and tourism would make the game more realistic and stimulating, which would also increase the challenge and develop the narrative. In addition, complexity would broaden the approaches to the game, leading to greater skill transfer. Though the game does achieve its basic intended outcomes, raising the complexity would increase the intrinsic motivation to play the game.
