MurGame

A playful debris flow simulation, where players defend an alpine village from giant mudslides.

The MurGame is a playful debris flow simulation, where players defend a quaint alpine village from giant mudslides. It is aimed at players with a love for realistic simulation and is also used for educational purposes.

It was first showcased at the Swissbau in Basel in January 2020 and will be released online later this year. The game will be developed further if there is more funding. A free version will be playable later this year and includes one level on the mountainside with several building options and two differently sized mudslides.

This game is made in cooperation with Geo7], a geoinformatics company, and the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. The development was funded by Präventionsstiftung der Kantonalen Gebäudeversicherungen, Die Mobiliar and the Federal Office for Environment (BAFU).

MurGame was developed to raise awareness of the costs and dangers of giant mudslides in Switzerland at specific conventions. Damage caused by debris flow is quite costly, though with some small upgrades to housing, they could be drastically reduced. By experimenting with different constructions, the players immersively learn what kind of countermeasures can be made in high-risk locations.

A special feature of the game is the use of realistic data. The game is implementing data of the software RAMMS, provided by the SLF. The data is used to calculate a realistic debris flow depending on the terrain as well as how the players build their town. This leads to a realistic damage calculation when the debris flow hits the infrastructure. Since the game is using a realistic price range for the infrastructure in Switzerland, this results in viable depiction of costs and damages in the end. This sets the game up for being a useful tool for urban planning.

The players are responsible for designing a new part of a small, rural Swiss village. The village is potentially endangered by debris flows. The players can build houses, shops, public buildings and then prepare the infrastructure for the mudslides within a reasonable cost. Then a debris flow is triggered, the affected structures take damage and the effect of the measures is shown in an evaluation screen. The village can be rebuilt, the debris flow can be simulated again and the players can compare the new results directly with the previous ones. In this way, the players learn in active application of knowledge which protective measures influence damage prevention, reduce the risk while still being economical.