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Our Research
In Portland, Oregon, young adults are one of the least prepared groups for the Cascadia quake (DHM Research, 2017). This is, in part, due to limitations associated with this phase in life; young adults have fewer financial resources, are more mobile and less likely to own a home, and often are less involved in physical (vs. virtual) community support networks. Preparedness messaging often fails to address these limitations, as it is usually targets families and homeowners. But young adults could have advantages for preparedness and mitigation efforts, including physical capacity, creativity, and ability to organize with other young adults. In fact, young adult volunteers can be a vital part of disaster response, as shown in work by Nissen and others (2021).
Our research seeks to understand what motivates people in general, and young adults in particular, to prepare for disaster in order to inform future preparedness messaging and outreach. We use video games as a research tools because they are more experiential than traditional media and can be used to simulate the outcomes of actions made under conditions that are rare in real life. They also make make room for solving problems in lots of different ways, and they jibe with the media preferences of young adults.
Our use of video games as digital interactive environments began in 2018 with a proof-of-concept pilot study. In 2019, we received a grant from the Humans, Disasters, and the Built Environment program at the National Science Foundation (#1917148) entitled Rehearsing Disaster: Understanding Earthquake Preparedness Behavior in an Interactive Environment. Successive games made for the project are titled Cascadia 9.0, 9.1, etc. We consult with emergency managers along the way about their top priorities for community preparedness, and we demo our game solutions to check for consistency with current knowledge and best practices. We share our research results directly with emergency managers, and after each of our Cascadia 9 experiments, our games are made publicly available for anyone to play and use.
Cascadia Earthquake
The very first earthquake video game we made was called Cascadia Earthquake and was developed using RPG Maker (Version 41.0.2272.76) in 2018. In the 2D game, the player purchases supplies, finds drinking water, turns off a gas valve, and helps an injured person out of an apartment building, with the help of other neighbors. We used the game in an experiment that manipulated the level of resources the player had and their avatar choice and name. We found that playing the game significantly increased players' self-efficacy or confidence in their own ability to prepare for and respond to an earthquake. Self-reported preparedness also increased for 8 out of 10 actions after 7 months. Surprisingly, players who did not get to choose and name their avatars had higher self-efficacy than those who did! For a fuller description of the the study results, consult our CHI Conference paper or the full journal article about it (available upon request).
The game does have an easter egg hidden that allows you visit a secret and powerful entity living underground that can solve all of your problems (while transforming you into a rat!). You can play the game here, but please note that this game is not maintained, so there may be some glitches.
Cascadia 9.0
The original version of Cascadia 9.0 was developed in 2021. We moved to 3D for this game and created it using the Unity Game Development Platform. Mini-games were also introduced which allow the player to practice water sanitation, waste management, and other survival skills.
In spring, 2025 we made some exciting modifications to Cascadia 9.0! The game now includes a simulated ShakeAlert notification, which in real life should give some communities in California, Washington, and Oregon crucial seconds of warning before shaking starts. We also made a version of the game tailored to Chromebooks to make it more accessible.
Our Cascadia 9.0 experiment compared the impacts of video game play and web searching on learning, self-confidence, motivation, and action toward earthquake preparedness. Both media experiences had similar positive long-term impacts, but video game play was more engaging and stimulated more short-term learning, information-seeking, and self-confidence in ability to cope. See the abstracts from 2022 Researchers Meeting at the Natural Hazards Center Workshop and the European Geosciences Union meeting for more info, and stay tuned for our paper in progress!
Cascadia 9.1
Cascadia 9.1 was completed in fall, 2023 and used in the related experiment that wrapped up in late 2024. Utilizing TopDown Engine and Pixel Crusher's Dialogue System, Cascadia 9.1 is a trading game that lets the player travel to some of Portland's iconic locations trying to satisfy their own needs while helping others.
There are two versions of Cascadia 9.1 that differ by where the player character lives: in a house or an apartment. We noticed that earthquake preparedness messaging doesn't always match young adults' lifestyles. For example, many people don't have yards to use after an earthquake or much space to store bulky preparedness items. That led us to wonder how closely a player's circumstances need to match what's depicted in a game for the game to inspire them to prepare. We also set the game in Portland, OR but recruited experiment participants from both Portland and Seattle, WA to test another aspect of matching to game environment. Luckily, the positive effects of game play on motivation to prepare are not sensitive to those differences.
One interesting thing we found is that, while thinking about an earthquake did make people anxious, the further people got in the game, the less anxious they were and the more confident they felt about their ability to manage the challenges they'll face.
Cascadia 9.2
Cascadia 9.2 introduces a whole new set of challenges compared to our earlier games, plus a brand new opportunity: to play with someone else! You can select either one-player or two-player mode from the start screen. You can share controls on the same keyboard with the WASD and arrow keys or use game controllers to play the different characters.
In Cascadia 9.2, the player characters make the risky decision to navigate across town to rescue their pets. (Don't let this happen to you in real life! Include your pets in your post-earthquake plan). Players confront a number of real and dangerous environmental hazards that would be caused by a major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. In the game, you sometimes have to take actions to deal with those hazards, though in real life you should do everything you can to to avoid them!
The Cascadia 9.2 experiment compared the impacts of playing the game as a single player vs. as one of two players. Our three-month follow-up data is still coming in, but stay tuned here for updates on our main findings once we're free to talk about them.
References
DHM Research (2017). “Bureau of Emergency Management Services Omnibus Report: Telephone & Online Survey, Focus Groups.” Portland, OR. https://www.portland.gov/sites/default/files/2022/pbem-emergency-preparedness-report-2017.pdf, 109 pp.
Nilsen, E., Safran, E., Drake, P., & Sebok, B. (2020). Playing a Serious Game for Earthquake Preparedness: Effects of Resource Richness and Avatar Choice. In Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1-7.
Nissen, Sylvia, Sally Carlton, Jennifer H.K. Wong, and Sam Johnson (2021). “‘Spontaneous’ Volunteers? Factors Enabling the Student Volunteer Army Mobilisation Following the Canterbury Earthquakes, 2010–2011.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction v. 53: 102008.
Safran, Elizabeth B., Erik Nilsen, Peter Drake, and Bryan Sebok (2024). "Effects of video game play, avatar choice, and avatar power on motivation to prepare for earthquakes." International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction v. 101: 104184.
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