The comparison has been many many, many times by people trying to run and dodge through traffic: it feels just like playing Frogger. Except it's terrifying, because you're the frog. This is particularly troubling in developing countries still in need of a robust public infrastructure to regulate traffic.
Spanish game studio Noobware is trying to meet the issue head on in a clever way: instead of just comparing dangerous street traffic to Frogger, why not actually turn street traffic into a game of Frogger? That's the idea behind Street Crosser, a game the studio made for Mostra Play!, a month-long arts festival held in São Paulo, Brazil.
Here's Noobware's Andres Ortega describing the game to Vice's Creators Project:
Our game is attempting to raise awareness of the number one cause of death in São Paulo which is traffic accidents involving pedestrians, so we've created a frogger-style game where the aim is to cross the street and help elderly ladies across for bonus points.
The ultimate accomplishment of broadcasting a giant game of Frogger on a 22-story building might be more a matter of raising public awareness than actual saving lives in-game (so to speak). But even as a public stunt on a similar scale to that giant game of Tetris that went down in Philadelphia earlier this month, you can't really argue with the message here. This is the kind of gamification I can get behind.
via The Creators Project by way of Kill Screen
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