GreenMate: A Serious Game Educating Children About Energy Efficiency

Improving the energy efficiency and reducing the CO$_{2}$ emissions are key strategic objectives for governments on an international level. Although children represent the future energy consumers and efforts have been made to enhance their understanding of energy consumption, there is a lack of initiatives focused on assessing children's awareness regarding energy usage at home and school. Serious games present a highly effective approach to educate and raise children's awareness about energy production and consumption; they are widely used to simulate real-world scenarios, inform or raise players' awareness, and stimulate their problem-solving abilities. Moreover, they assist players in visualising their actions and intuitively exploring different events. This article discusses the development of a serious game, the GreenMate game, which visually portrays the daily activities and experiences of a primary school student. It incorporates progressive levels to enhance comprehension and knowledge of the diverse factors influencing the growing energy crisis, as well as strategies for managing and mitigating them. According to our experimental findings, the GreenMate game can be used as a productive educational tool to effectively foster desired changes in children's behavior regarding energy consumption.