Wildfire Resilience Minigame Collection

Organization:

University of California Santa Cruz

Dev Category:

Student

Release Year:

2025

Wildfires are becoming more frequent, more severe, and more widespread around the world. These minigames can help prepare individuals and communities before a wildfire, by showing how fire spreads, how community evacuation works, how to pack a go bag, and how to take home hardening steps to protect against fire damage.

This collection of minigames was developed by a team at UC Santa Cruz in collaboration with partners at UC Berkeley and UC Davis and with community partners in Marin and Alameda counties. We are supported by a grant from the NSF under Smart and Connected Communities.

Play here: https://ucsc-wildfire-games.itch.io/wildfire-minigames-collection

Game Overview

Home hardening
Packing for an evacuation
Planning and dilemmas
Decision-making in crisis
How fire moves

Each minigame has a unique objective:
In Firesafe Friends, two players work together to “harden” two neighboring homes to protect them from fire
In Find Your Things, the player is packing a go-bag to prepare to leave before an evacuation
In Firewise Residents, the player interacts with residents of a community to encourage specific actions during the evacuation, which they see play out in a simulation

Anyone living in an area with wildfire risk, or other natural hazard prone areas with similar evacuation and preparedness steps such as floods

The player’s performance influences the resulting simulation and a feedback screen at the end offers insight into their actions. Resources links are available for the player to learn more, as one of the intended outcomes of our games is to encourage information-seeking behavior.

Game Specs

Game Engine

Unity

Operating System

Platform

Game Video

Play the video below to learn more about Wildfire Resilience Minigame Collection