“I wanted the players to have fun [with] the learning materials,”
Update: "Zoo Rescue Adventure" game helps AMA teach crosswalk safety
This fall, AMA's partnership with NAIT produced a second video game designed to make learning about road safety issues fun for children. Like the previous game, 2024's AMA School Safety Patrol: The Game, Crosswalk Quest: Zoo Rescue is built on the Roblox platform and free to play.
Aimed at kids ages five to 10, Crosswalk Quest sees players join Teddy, AMA’s mascot, to help lost animals find their way back to the zoo. Along the way, they practise safe street crossing, learn bicycle hand signals, and discover the meaning of road signs, all with guidance from a police officer who pops up with helpful tips.
Ian Lee (Digital Media and IT – Game Design ’19), studio technologist with NAIT Applied Research, also prioritized online safety in his design of the single-player game, which has no chat features. It can be played on a tablet, phone or computer.
- Veronica Jubinville
Play Crosswalk Quest: Zoo Rescue Adventure
For more than 80 years, the Alberta Motor Association (AMA) has supported and trained elementary students to help peers cross streets in school zones. In decades past, special belts and even capes were among the top tools for ensuring safety. Now those tools include a video game designed by experts at NAIT.
In 2024, AMA approached applied researchers at the polytechnic about creating educational content to simulate the experience of being a crossing guard.
“We wanted to promote safety, in particular [for] children in crosswalks and around busy schools,” says Jessica Sadownyk, AMA’s director of association learning. To get the message to kids, including potential safety patrollers from Grades 5 and 6, Sadownyk knew that the content had to be uniquely engaging.
So did Ian Lee (Digital Media and IT – Game Design ’19), studio technologist at NAIT Applied Research Motion Capture Lab. “Immediately, we thought of gamifying it,” he says.
“They carefully guided us so that we could make informed decisions about the type of game [that] would resonate with the kids in that age group,” says Shannon Cutler, AMA’s manager of association learning programs, of Lee and the NAIT team.
Lee built the game using Roblox. The free, online platform offers all the tools a developer needs to create custom content. It also attracts the audience AMA wanted to reach; 58% of Roblox users are under 16 years old. Overall, it offered the opportunity to make the content widely accessible and highly enjoyable.
“I wanted the players to have fun [with] the learning materials,” says Lee.
After a few months of consultation with AMA staff and active product development, Lee delivered AMA School Safety Patrol: The Game in September 2024.
Learn more about what NAIT Applied Research offers clients
Players assume the role of a safety patroller, stopping cars, bikes and even Zambonis for pedestrians. And there’s a catch. “I wanted to add some kind of challenge,” says Lee. Impatient crossers will try to make their way without help, resulting in lost points if the player doesn’t extend a blocking arm, as a patroller would at a real curbside.
Otherwise, successful crossings earn players upgrades in gear for their patroller avatars.
Since AMA School Safety Patrol launched in late 2024, the game has garnered more than 5,600 visits.
“We've had excellent feedback,” says Cutler. In fact, positive user response encouraged AMA to start work on a new game with NAIT, this time covering pedestrian and bike safety for kids of ages five to nine.
“We're taking our learnings from our first development and applying it,” she adds.
Lee is once again developing the project using Roblox. He expects to deliver it this summer, just in time to help keep riders safe during peak cycling season.
Originally published May 20, 2025