Rescuebusters - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation

Rescuebusters is an interactive 3D-animated game that specializes in youth safety education. It is an unique teaching tool that brings practical examples alongside theoretical learning with animated, real-life based tasks. Rescuebusters offers an immersive world with distinctive, sympathetic characters, unique game mechanisms and development tracking which take teaching to a whole new level.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

Schools are changing their teaching plans and materials. The use of technology and gamification is rapidly increasing as part of learning, but they are still not used enough. Unfortunately, some of the subjects are getting overshadowed by others: most importantly safety education which does not get covered anywhere near enough. Rescuebusters has been developed for these purposes – it also makes learning more fun and teaching much more instructive than ever before.

In version 1.0 of Rescuebusters there is first - aid house and fire safety house but the plan is to add all safety topics in the game. We have Finnish safety professionals with us (The Finnish Association of Fire Officers, Finnish Resuscitation Council and Finnish Emergency Response Center) who secures that all things that we teach are right. The game is freemium and you can download it from Google Play and Appstore. We are also making a unique web tool where teachers can add their students in it and found all safety materials as an ebook. This web tool can be used also in companies as a working safety tool. Biggest school equipment seller in Nordic countries, Lekolar, is going to sell Rescuebusters web tool in schools. We are planning also to make a safety app for shopping centers. And best of all is that behind of Rescuebusters is Finnish Fireman Jussi Rautio so the idea comes from real reasons and it is very ethical.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

Rescuebusters is a unique game in the world and Rescuebusters web tool also. They both support each other. You make your own avatar, get points and achievements and when you are good enough you can go to city missions and save other players avatars. Rescuebusters is also very easy and fast localize to any country in the world. It is suitable from year 6 to 100. And it is 100% real thing because there is safety professionals making it so you can really learn how to save lives. It lowers the level to help people.

What is the current status of your innovation?

Fireman Jussi Rautio was teaching fire safety in Finnish schools and noticed that teachers don´t have good tools for teaching safety for children. He contacted Finnish company Nopia Ltd and they started to make safety learning game for schools. Rescuebusters was born.

Finnish Funding Agency For Innovation (Tekes) came with and gave the first innovation money for the project. The company SyraWise Ltd was founded and got more money from private innovation company H&H Family. The plan was to make a playable learning game that children and teens like to play. The version 1.0 was ready 5/2017 in English, Finnish and Swedish. There has been lots of interest from all over the world and SyraWise Ltd has started negotiations in the Middle East, Switzerland and in China. SyraWise Ltd uses lots of social media for marketing and got also the biggest school equipment seller (Lekolar Ltd) in Nordic countries as a distributor.

Rescuebusters game and web tool are going to be one of the biggest safety innovations that the world has seen when it is ready. It is fun and powerful way to learn safety topics.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

-The Finnish Fire Safety Association: securing fire safety expertise in the game, contacts to all over the world for helping localize the game, giving professional material for web tools, ebook...

-Finnish Resuscitation Council: securing first - aid expertise in the game, have contacts all over the worlds resuscitation councils to help localize the game.

-Finnish Emergency Response Center: uses our characters in their enlightenment videos, helps to create an emergency response center in the game

-Lekolar Ltd: sells our web tool in the schools and marketing the game

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

-Finnish Funding Agency Of Innovation (TEKES): have given full support for Rescuebusters and gave funding to start the project. Has been very flexible towards the project.

-Finnish schools: 100% support from Finnish schools and teachers that have tried the game and they are waiting for the web tool.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

Innovation got first prize in Finnish Fire Safety innovation contest 2016. It has got also a lot of attention in Finnish media and in safety and teaching fairs in Switzerland, Hongkong, Dubai, Norway, and Finland.

We are expecting a lot of downloads and attention when the web tool is ready, and we get hopefully bigger investment company cooperation. We also hope that children plays Rescuebusters and learn how to help each other and not just walk pass and look away when somebody is needing help.

Challenges and Failures

Challenge is to get companies to co-operate. In Finland, you have to be first big and after that, you get interesting offers. Also, it is not so easy to reach schools but luckily we got Lekolar Ltd to work with us.

Conditions for Success

-Motivation, trusting yourself and your idea, listening to each other in the company and experienced businessmen and women.

-Cooperate as much as you can.

-Go to the world to meet different kind of people in fairs etc.

-Don´t think everything is coming easy.

-Work with people that you trust.

-Appreciate when someone gives you feedback.

Replication

This could include replicability of the problem (i.e., widespread public challenges), as well as replicability of the solution (i.e., the ease at which the solution can be adopted by others) Rescuebusters game and web tool scales easily in every sector. It can be used in schools and companies and also in governments. It has been made so that it is easy and fast to modificate for every need.

Lessons Learned

Cooperate with other startups. Learn from and teach to companies. Together you are stronger. Don´t trust if somebody promises you something. Talk is cheap nowadays, unfortunately.

Anything Else?

We all have a huge responsibility to teach our children the basic skills that they will need for the rest of their lives. By teaching them how to act in emergency situations, we make the future safer for everyone. Rescuebusters is the answer to this. Let´s play the world safer!

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