Kiwi Kai: The virtual farm game teaching kids how food, nature and people connect
Author: Jamie Morton
A classroom can’t always take you to the paddock: but Kiwi Kai comes close. Developed by Geo A.R. with researchers from the Bioeconomy Science Institute, this interactive simulation helps young New Zealanders explore what it takes to grow food sustainably, care for the land, and strengthen the communities that depend on it.
A virtual paddock might not be the same as muddy gumboots, but the interactive learning tool Kiwi Kai has been getting kids out on the farm all the same.
Developed by Geo Applied Realities (Geo A.R.), with funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the simulation invites players to explore what it takes to grow food sustainably.
For Dr Catriona MacLeod, a senior researcher at the Bioeconomy Science Institute, the seed for Kiwi Kai was planted while exploring how to assess biodiversity on Aotearoa’s farms.
Many of the international tools her team examined didn’t reflect the unique conditions, challenges, and values of New Zealand farmers.
“We brought together what people valued on farms, the actions that would help biodiversity here, and the likely outcomes – all of which became a practical tool farmers could actually use.”
The next challenge was how to turn that interconnected web of food, land and people into something young learners could grasp and remember. “You’ve got this tricky balancing act – how to produce food while sustaining the wider system that supports it – and our bread and butter is working in those kinds of spaces,” MacLeod says.
“If we find that hard to articulate every day, how do you explain it to others who aren’t so close to it?”
That question led them to a simple framing: what does healthy food look like? “And not just the food itself,” MacLeod adds, “but everything around it that produces it.”
Rather than build a finished product and hand it over, the team co-designed Kiwi Kai with young school pupils and their teachers, iterating from paper prototypes to a functional beta.
Game developers from Geo A.R. sat alongside educators, agribusiness specialists, ecology and mātauranga Māori experts, and science communicators. At its core, Kiwi Kai invites players to explore the concept He aha he kai hauora? – What is a healthy food? – through a series of nature-based quests that reflect real-world farming.
Across 240 farm scenarios and 140 chores, players balance crops, livestock, and habitats, taking on roles such as Pātiki Protector, Awa Ally, Repo Restorer, Ngahere Nurturer or Pest Controller as they pursue gold, silver or bronze for good environmental practice.
Guided by a friendly kiwi, they discover what taiao (nature) lives in each habitat and work to restore what’s missing, enhancing its mauri (life-force) and revealing hidden taonga (treasures) and rewards.
Kiwi Kai’s integrated, evidence-based design draws on agricultural, ecological and mātauranga Māori expertise, with biodiversity assessments from New Zealand farms informing each quest.
Geo A.R.'s novella-style approach helped bring these concepts to life with five interactive ‘reward rooms’ that visualise on-farm change using more than 500 bespoke graphics of Aotearoa’s landscapes and species.
Designing it, MacLeod admits, “proved to be a lot harder than I anticipated.”
“We brought so many different disciplines together. The game developers helped us think through mechanics and reward systems – but not over-complicating things – while we pulled in the farming dimensions: crops and livestock, seasonal timing, risks, costs,” she says.
“Our biodiversity tool became quests around different habitats and actions and the kinds of species you’d find there.”
For GeoAR’s Melanie Langlotz, the biggest early challenge was translating academic material into something children could play. “When we first started out with the game design concept, Catriona brought to us university-level content and I remember wondering, "How on earth will we make this understandable to eight-year-old kids?’” Langlotz says.
The game design phase alone took around two and a half months of carefully crafting content and game-mechanic approaches to build a system that could hold so much content and so many different decision options, all leading to different endings.
“The architecture required careful planning - and then we had to simplify the content to be suitable for eight-year-olds.”
MacLeod says that weaving te ao Māori through the experience was also deliberate – and careful.
“We wanted to convey the essence of mātauranga Māori without making it a deep central focus, recognising there’s a particular tikanga for that.”
The idea was to create a springboard for classroom discussion, where teachers’ resources – available on the Science Learning Hub platform – build on the ideas in the gameplay.
Students, meanwhile, pushed for features that made the world feel lived-in.
“They told us they wanted a backstory,” MacLeod says, which led to the kiwikai.nz site as an introduction to characters and purpose.
“They were very clear they didn’t want to read lots of text, so we pulled that back. They liked the little hover translations in te reo Māori. The quiz was added on their recommendation.”
Do farmers really have to do all of this?
In classrooms and at science festivals, the team watched tamariki play – and critique.
“They could think critically about game design,” MacLeod says.
“They’d tell us what made a good reward system, that they wanted to be challenged, that if they played again something different should happen.”
Some feedback was joyfully specific. “You’d hear, ‘I didn’t know you could milk sheep,’ and they were really excited about learning something new.”
Others spoke to a bigger shift in perspective: “Do farmers really have to do all of this?”
“That was a particularly poignant moment for me,” MacLeod says.
“It showed them someone’s doing real work here – it’s not easy – and we should be respectful of that.”
Students also experimented with values and outcomes: one session trying to maximise biodiversity; another chasing profits; another focusing on community relationships, right down to the ‘pushy neighbour’ who keeps asking for help. For some, the world felt familiar.
“We had online feedback last week: ‘Thanks for letting me play a game that’s just like my farm at home,’” MacLeod says.
“That was reassuring, that the game was not too alien for kids from rural communities.”
Interestingly, feedback shows older students are playing too.
“We’re seeing responses from 14–16-year-olds,” she says. “I wonder if some teachers are using it for critique in agribusiness classes – go in, analyse it, and come back to discuss.”
If Kiwi Kai works, it’s because it translates without flattening. That was a lesson for the researchers as much as anyone. “What it made me realise is how many layers of translation there are in communication,” MacLeod says.
“You see the stages in game development – mechanics, rewards, user experience – and why it’s so hard to get uptake and connection with the wider community on science issues. You have to invest time and effort.”
That investment also came with some practical lessons.
Even with a skilled, collaborative team, the game had to work within real-world limits: of time, funding, and what players expect from digital experiences.
“Kids are used to games with millions of dollars behind them,” she says with a laugh.
“We framed Kiwi Kai as an online learning tool – built with a lot of generosity – rather than a commercial title.”
Alongside features like the backstory and hover translations, teachers wanted more control in the classroom. “They were asking for the ability to switch parts of the game on or off to focus attention,” MacLeod says.
“That reminded us we have two audiences: tamariki who need autonomy and fun, and kaiako who need to guide learning.”
Early analytics suggest classroom use in bursts (spikes that look like group sessions), with a mix of contexts including home-schooling. With a few more steps, Kiwi Kai could evolve from a single game into a broader learning platform. “If there’s interest, you could add modules – such as climate change or water – and set it up so classes collaborate to manage a catchment together,” MacLeod says.
“You could even compare how different classes tackle the same challenge, almost like a leaderboard, or explore different ecotones – dry systems, wet systems, north and south.”
There’s also potential to tailor Kiwi Kai for different age groups: a simplified version for younger players, and one with richer graphics, deeper content, and more complex challenges for older students. And why stop at Aotearoa?
“Kids could learn about different parts of the world and how social, cultural and economic contexts shape farming.”
Ask MacLeod what she’ll remember most, and she doesn’t hesitate. “At our last Carisbrook School session there were about 30 kids in the room, and it was quiet,” she says. “The teacher said, ‘This never happens.’ They were completely invested. They felt ownership of it.”
There were knock-on effects, too. “We had the game developers come in, and suddenly the kids could see a pathway: what they learn in class can lead to a career in that world.”
If there’s one takeaway she hopes that players carry with them, it’s how deeply people’s wellbeing depends on the natural systems beneath our feet.
“We’re not going to have food, or the community connections we have, if we don’t look after the things that sit underneath at that foundation.”
Resources
Science Learning Hub. (n.d.). Navigating the Kiwi Kai online learning tool. https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/image_maps/128-navigating-the-kiwi-kai-online-learning-tool
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