How is an Edugame made? Discover it through the Video Game developed for Save the Children

Can a video game prepare children and young people to deal with an emergency?

The answer is yes.

When the language of gaming meets the language of education, it can give rise to tools capable of engaging, teaching and creating a much more lasting memory than traditional learning methods.

This is precisely the idea behind Corri il Rischio, the edugame developed by Code This Lab for Save the Children Italy, as part of the Feel Safe Universe project, a digital ecosystem dedicated to educating younger generations about emergency prevention and management.

The project provides a concrete example of what an edugame looks like and how it can become a powerful tool for social awareness, transforming complex concepts into engaging experiences.

Feel Safe: understanding risk to feel more prepared

Before looking at the video game itself, it is important to understand the educational programme it is part of.

Feel Safe is Save the Children’s programme dedicated to emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction. It is aimed in particular at children aged 8 to 13.

Its goal is to introduce younger audiences to complex topics such as earthquakes, floods, fires and environmental crises. It does so through accessible language, engaging experiences and age-appropriate activities.

The programme is not designed to frighten children, but to build greater awareness.

Understanding risk means learning how to observe the surrounding environment, recognise potentially dangerous situations and understand which behaviours to adopt before, during and after an emergency. It also means knowing how to ask for help, being familiar with the European Emergency Number 112, identifying escape routes and preparing in advance together with one’s family.

Emergency education also involves the emotional dimension. Fear, anxiety and confusion are natural reactions to dangerous situations: learning to recognise these emotions can help children and young people remain more clear-headed, follow simple instructions and turn to an adult or trusted person for support.

Feel Safe therefore helps build a genuine culture of prevention. Safety is not presented as a set of facts to memorise, but as a skill that can be developed over time.

Informational materials, quizzes, practical activities, virtual reality and video games all contribute to the same goal. They help children become more aware, engaged and prepared, without placing on them responsibilities that belong to adults.

The context: Feel Safe Universe

Building on the Feel Safe programme, active since 2023, Feel Safe Universe was created as an ecosystem of digital and interactive experiences that expands the ways in which emergency prevention and management can be explored.

The universe includes the Corri il Rischio video game, available on desktop and mobile devices. It also includes the Feel Safe VR Experience.

This virtual reality experience allows users to enter simulated scenarios, observe potentially dangerous situations and reflect on safer behaviours within a protected environment.

The edugame and the virtual reality experience use different formats, but share the same educational goal: turning information and safety rules into practical, engaging and easier-to-remember experiences.

Corri il Rischio is therefore one of the key experiences within a broader project in which gaming, VR, informational content and educational activities work together to introduce younger generations to the topic of disaster risk reduction.

The goal: learning through play

When it comes to emergency education, there is a risk that the content may feel too distant from young people’s everyday lives.

With Corri il Rischio, we chose a different approach.

Instead of simply explaining what to do during an earthquake or a flood, the game puts the player right in the middle of the action.

Learning becomes an experience.

Players absorb information while running, making decisions, overcoming obstacles and dealing with situations inspired by real-life events.

In this way, the video game does not replace traditional education, but makes it more engaging, helping to improve attention, retention and active participation.

A running game built around emergency scenarios

From a gameplay perspective, Corri il Rischio is a 3D running game. Players can access it directly from a browser, on both desktop and mobile devices.

The player controls a character moving through environments inspired by different risk scenarios.

Each world focuses on a specific emergency:

• 🌊 Flood
• 🔥 Wildfire
• 🌍 Earthquake
• 🌱 Environmental crisis

Each scenario consists of three progressively challenging levels, with increasing speed, more obstacles and greater complexity in the educational activities.

During the run, players must avoid the hazards found throughout the scenario and collect coins that can be used to access the Medikit when needed.

But the true educational core of the project comes during the breaks between action sequences.

Mini-games turn gameplay into learning

To reinforce the educational content, different mini-games are placed between the running game levels to test and strengthen what players have learned.

Each level is associated with specific mini-games, selected according to the scenario and its level of difficulty. In this way, quizzes and interactive activities guide players through a progressive learning journey, while keeping the educational content fully consistent with the gameplay experience.

There are three types of activities:

Multiple-choice quizzes

Players must identify the correct behaviour to adopt in a given situation or answer questions about key information related to emergencies.

Visual quizzes

Answers are presented through images, making the game accessible even to younger children and helping them immediately recognise safe behaviours and potentially dangerous situations.

Drag & Drop

The activities require players to drag and place the correct items.

For example:

• correctly prepare an emergency backpack;
• arrange weather alerts in the correct sequence;
• place objects in the safest position within a room.

Each mini-game therefore becomes a true educational simulation, in which players learn through action rather than simply reading information.

Storytelling makes the experience more believable

One of the key aspects of the project is the role of storytelling.

The main character was deliberately designed in a neutral way, allowing every child to identify more easily with the character. This helps explain what an edugame looks like and why narrative structure is an integral part of the educational experience.

Identification does not only increase emotional engagement; it also makes the situations represented easier to understand.

By experiencing danger from the protagonist’s point of view, players are encouraged to observe the scenario, evaluate their choices and more effectively remember the correct behaviours to adopt.

The environments reflect familiar everyday settings, such as streets, forests and urban neighbourhoods, placing players in situations inspired by real-life emergencies.

Every decision made during the game becomes an opportunity to learn the correct behaviour to adopt, which could also prove useful in real life.

The software behind the video game: a fully configurable back-end

Behind the gaming experience lies one of the most technologically interesting aspects of the project.

For Corri il Rischio, we developed a fully customised management platform using Vulcano Digital, Code This Lab’s proprietary platform for configuring video games, interactive content and business applications.

The goal was not simply to create an administration panel. It was to provide Save the Children with a tool that allows its team to independently update the video game’s educational content without making changes to the code.

Through the back-end, it is possible to:

• create new quizzes;
• edit questions and answers;
• upload images;
• add educational insights;
• manage multilingual versions;
• preview mini-games before publishing them.

Designed with younger players’ digital wellbeing in mind

Since the project is primarily aimed at children, it also includes specific features designed to promote digital wellbeing.

Among these is a system that encourages players to take a break every thirty minutes of gameplay, promoting a more balanced gaming experience.

The value of edutainment

Corri il Rischio provides a concrete example of what an edugame looks like. It also demonstrates the value of edutainment: educating through an experience that engages, entertains and supports learning.

Through the language of video games, complex topics become more accessible, while important information and appropriate behaviours are communicated to younger generations in a stimulating and engaging way.

For us at Code This Lab, the project is also a concrete example of Strategic Gaming: experiences in which technology, storytelling, gamification and customised software work together to achieve real objectives.

In this case, the goal goes beyond entertainment: helping to spread a stronger culture of prevention and supporting children in facing the future with greater awareness.

Corri il Rischio at We Make Future 2026

In June 2026, Corri il Rischio and the Feel Safe VR Experience were presented at We Make Future in Bologna, one of the leading events dedicated to innovation and emerging technologies.

Taking part in the event provided an opportunity to showcase two different yet complementary tools. Both were designed to introduce children to disaster risk reduction and help them feel more prepared when facing emergencies.

The presentation was also the result of a co-design process. Organisations with different areas of expertise worked together toward a shared objective, combining technology, research, educational design and creative development.

Alongside Save the Children, the project involved Fondazione LINKS – Leading Innovation & Knowledge for Society, BYF – Build Your Future and Code This Lab.

We Make Future was therefore an important opportunity to showcase the video game and VR experience. It also helped highlight the value of these tools and support their wider adoption.

The aim is to help them reach an ever-growing number of children.