“3D: Deter Dion’s Disaster”: Development of a 3D video game for environmental education

Utilizing games for educational purposes, referred to as serious games, is gaining momentum worldwide in higher education and businesses though it is still a novelty in schools. Serious Games, when used in businesses, reduces the cost of training and generally contributes to the effectiveness of the training process. When used by young users they acquire new or consolidate already gained knowledge making the educational process an especially pleasant experience. These facts motivated us to create a 3D video game for PC, which combines entertainment with education. This is the main product of our student virtual enterprise “The Gaming Pub” which we set up within the framework of the international contest “Junior Achievement”. The game we developed was named “3D: Deter Dion’s Disaster” and aims to cultivate the environmental consciousness of the user through an easy to use interface. The main idea is the preservation of the environment and the ways in which this could be improved. Actions such as garbage collection, extinguishing forest-threatening fires, checking on any industry potentially threatening the environment are some of the missions throughout the game. Furthermore, during the game, messages of educational value appear on screen, such as what exhaust fumes consist of. The game is about a 14-year-old, who, while observing the environment from the window of his room, realizes threats and takes action. Utilizing the help of his friends, he is called upon to carry out missions of escalated difficulty, regarding the improvement of the environment. Additionally, “3D” provides the ability to the parents to set a time limit, at the end of which, the software is automatically terminated for the rest of the day. We consider “3D” a sound contribution to the effort of developing environmental consciousness, but also another stepping-stone towards a better education through the utilization of serious games.