Over the past three decades, natural disasters (floods, storms, wildfires, and earthquakes in particular) have increased steadily in frequency, ferocity, and impact upon vulerable populations worldwide. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the World Bank, and others, since 1990 roughly 217 million people have been affected each year by natural disasters. That number continues to rise, on average, with every passing year.

As a result of the steady upward trend in the scale, scope and significane of natural disasters, humanitarian disaster response has grown into a centerpiece of international policy and practice. International disaster response actors now range from militaries to bilateral aid organizations, national and local governments, private corporations, media, NGOs, churches, and other voluntary organizations.

The influx of new actors and resources into global humanitarian disaster response has been in general  positive development, but has also come with relative costs. Situational information remains difficult to acquire and share. Effective coordination across multiple actors remains elusive. Likewise, with so many actors now participating in disaster response operations, it can be exceedingly difficult for any given one of these actors to understand the strengths, weaknesses, potential and positionality or the others. Cumulatively global disaster response is beset with interlocking crises of knowledge, governance and accountability- any one of which is challenging for response actors or the public to understand and redress. Our challenge is to create games that help organizations and communities prepare for effective responses in the wake of a disaster.

• Appropriateness to theme
  
• User Experience & Functionality
  
• Originality & Impact
  
• Technical Difficulty