Treme-Treme 2.1: Improving a Game for Children Awareness of Seismic Phenomena

Year:

2021

Phase:

Finished

Authors:

Inês Sofia Costa de Carvalho Batina

Advisors:

Abstract

Children are usually the age group that is most affected by natural catastrophes. Therefore it is extremely important to educate them on what they need to do in case of danger to protect themselves. To achieve this goal appeared Treme-Treme, a serious game that endeavors to educate school-age children on how to behave before, during, and after the occurrence of an earthquake and/or a tsunami. The game was first developed in 2014 in a partnership between the Departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Civil Engineering for a European project on Urban Disaster Prevention Strategies using Macroseismic Fields and Fault Sources. As the game continued to be used, it became evident, in early 2018, that some changes were needed, not only to keep up with the new web and mobile technologies but also to improve some of the existing features. However, this restructuring has not concluded, and since this game is still active in multiple schools, it was important to complete all the changes to provide all the elements for the students. Thus, this work comes as a follow-up to the previous one, with the missing levels being migrated to the new platforms and making several changes to the structure and functioning of the pre-existing game. In addition to completing the restructuring of the game, this work also resulted in a remote monitoring mechanism of the performance that provides researchers/project managers with information on both the game and the player, both nationally and internationally.