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NZ Fire Service launches online game via Touchcast to educate kids on fire safety

Digital agency Touchcast has released an online game called ‘Get Out Stay Out‘ for the New Zealand Fire Service to help educate young Kiwi kids about fire safety.

The agency says it combined the winning formula of “age-old proven game techniques” to ensure sustained engagement, underpinned with a fusion of fire safety narratives and a UX design informed by a series of workshops and focus groups with school-aged children.

The game features the inside of a house where a small fire has started. The player needs to drag an avatar (a little boy or little girl, depending on the player’s preference) to a safe place.

The avatar then follows the path where the player drags it. The player needs to avoid the embers and smoke or they lose the round. The fire gets bigger and the dangers increase each level. 

Touchcast head of experience Mark Glenn says he’s excited by the early results of the game.

“Get Out Stay Out provides a great always-on method to engage kids in what can be quite dry subject matter,” says Glenn. “Weaving the critical messaging through a narrative and game-play they digest and engage with time and time again. Through prototyping with early testing groups, the extended session times are proving the formula is effective.”

Caroline Rosanowski who ran the project for New Zealand Fire Service says she’s excited about the tool and the future capability it gives the organisation.

“Historically, most tools for  New Zealand Fire Service have been very different from each other; not just from an experience perspective, but from a technology perspective too,” she says.

Touchcast tech lead Andrew Joll agrees: “This new game has specifically designed to evolve over time to meet the changing needs of the target audience, the New Zealand Fire Service and emerging technology. Get Out Stay Out has been built using HTML5, a scalable, robust technology solution that any predecessors can utilise for efficiencies in backend development and enhance front-end user-experience.”

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