Safety Safari

Logo
Level 1: classroom earthquake
Introduction: 9am class
Level 2: item retrieval after earthquake
Level 4: flood item retrieval and higher ground

Inspiration 🌱

We were inspired by Dr. Brad Bass's presentation during the opening ceremony on the severity of natural disasters and their effect on people worldwide. The idea for Safety Safari was born from the need to educate young children about natural disaster safety in a fun, interactive way. We realized that kids often don’t know what to do during emergencies, and traditional teaching methods can sometimes feel overwhelming or difficult to remember. By combining essential survival tips with an engaging game format, we aim to make learning about safety both enjoyable and memorable for children.

What it does 🍀

Safety Safari is a playful, educational game that teaches young children how to respond to natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and wildfires. Through mini-games (levels), kids help animal characters make safe choices during these emergencies, such as finding shelter, taking cover, gathering supplies, or following evacuation routes. When the player does these things correctly, they gain points and can achieve a new high score. When they make a mistake (e.g. being near the windows during an earthquake), the game subtracts points or prompts the player to restart.

How we built it 🌴

We used python, since we both had a bit of existing knowledge from our courses, with a focus on simple, child-friendly visuals and easy-to-understand instructions. We decided to use Pygame, since it offered simplicity and flexibility, making it easy to build a 2D game with smooth graphics and animations while allowing us to focus on the core educational elements with our 24-hr time constraint. Our team worked on designing intuitive game mechanics that teach survival skills step by step, ensuring that the game remains age-appropriate and engaging.

Challenges we ran into 🌳

The challenges we ran into were mainly design-based, for example how we were planning on making the 2D game as realistic as possible. Additionally, we had to carefully design the game's difficulty curve to ensure that it remained accessible but still offered a sense of accomplishment (e.g. it wasn't too difficult for younger audiences)

Accomplishments that we're proud of 🌵

We're proud of the minigame we made since neither of us had experience with coding games in general, let alone Pygame. Successfully designing a platform that can teach life-saving skills while keeping children engaged is a huge accomplishment for us.

What we learned 🌲

We gained valuable experience in python, collaboration, testing, and refining features to make the game both informative and fun.

What's next for Safety Safari 🪴

In the future, we plan to expand Safety Safari by adding more disaster scenarios and animals, and making the game available in multiple languages to reach a broader audience. We’re also exploring the possibility of creating a companion app or offline materials that educators and parents and educators can use to reinforce safety lessons after children play the game.