Fife Council’s Economic Development and Employability teams, with funding from Interreg RIGHT Project, have awarded a contract to App developer, Mardles, to create Race to Zero, an augmented reality game. It’s aimed at school-aged users between 12 and 16, to help them understand the different approaches to problem solving, business and the environment.

The game will ask the young people to make a sequence of decisions, which takes their community to a Zero Carbon energy use, happy population, as well as being economically stable. Each session is approximately 40 minutes, ensuring it fits within class time.

Councillor Altany Craik, Convenor - Economy, Tourism, Strategic Planning and Transportation Committee, welcomed the news. He said:

“This is an exciting step forward in engaging high school pupils in enterprising activities. By combining the latest technology with an environmentally responsible approach to business, Fife’s young people will be challenged on a range of issues. Without question, this will develop key skills, whilst providing our young people with the confidence to succeed.

“For Fife Council Economic Development’s Culture of Enterprise Programme to have financial support from Interreg RIGHT Project to enable the development of such an innovative game, will benefit high school users enormously, and help to prepare them for the world of work.”

Ann Camus, Enterprise and Business Development Manager at Fife Council, said:

“We’re really excited about this upcoming addition to our Culture of Enterprise offering, as it will bring a useful interactive element to teaching enterprise skills in Fife high schools.

“Augmented reality is a valuable way of transforming self-learning for young people. Through Race to Zero, we hope that by presenting key moments and interactions in an immersive and engaging manner, participating pupils will be challenged, as they try to complete the game, whilst thinking about their actions, how they impact on other decisions and outcomes, as they strive to have every home and business in the game using renewable energy, whilst being as profitable as possible.”

Mardles, which created the award-winning In the Footsteps of Kings App, which has over 4,000 downloads, successfully won the tender to develop Race to Zero. It’s expected that once developed and tested over the next six months, Race to Zero will be ready for use in Fife high schools by the start of the new academic year in August 2022.

Jason Higgins, commented on behalf of Mardles. He said:

"We approach any new project as a potential award-winning piece, but the imagination and innovation shown by Fife Council’s Economic Development and Employability teams has made this an easy challenge for us on this occasion.

“The use of Augmented Reality gaming to communicate bold, important and current topics regarding Global Climate Change and our transition to Carbon Zero economies is beyond exciting."

Race to Zero received funding from Interreg through the RIGHT Project and is being developed as one of the tools to support Fife Council Economic Development’s Culture of Enterprise Programme, with its aim to assist skills development for energy transition. It will also help to develop the enterprise skills of young people, which includes growing commercial awareness, decision making, problem solving and communication skills.