A demo of Earth Girl: The Natural Disaster Fighter. A game of awareness, preparedness and survival developed by the Artist-in-Residence Group at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
Article: An Interactive Casual Strategy Game for Volcanic Hazard Preparedness and Community Resilience
Earth Girl Volcano is a free-to-download interactive casual strategy game designed to engage mainstream, non-technical audiences — including children, community leaders, and general residents of volcanic risk zones — in disaster preparedness and response. Developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration between game artists and Earth scientists at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, the game places players in the role of a protagonist tasked with making strategic decisions to protect a community facing an unfolding volcanic emergency. With nine distinct locations, three difficulty levels, and a 16-tool mitigation and response toolkit, the game conveys the complexity of volcanic hazards in an accessible and emotionally engaging format playable in approximately 15 minutes.
The game is structured around a three-act narrative. Players first choose a location and difficulty level under conditions of uncertainty, then gather community intelligence and assemble a preparedness strategy, and finally execute that strategy in real time as volcanic hazards unfold. Hazard scenarios include ashfall, mudflows, lava, toxic gases, rockfall, and pyroclastic flows, each requiring different combinations of tools and approaches. Character-driven storytelling, culturally diverse community members with distinct personalities, and custom behavioral variables — such as hazard awareness levels and evacuation willingness — bring the scenarios to life and help players develop empathy with at-risk communities.
Designed specifically for non-expert audiences in volcanic risk regions, the game has been tested and demonstrated across multiple countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Vanuatu, Chile, Italy, and the United States. It is available in English, Spanish, Indonesian, French, Italian, and Tamil, with additional language localizations planned. The game runs on iOS and Android tablets and Windows and MacOS computers and is available as a free download through multiple platforms. A companion peer-reviewed paper documenting the game’s development methodology was published in Geoscience Communication in 2020.
