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Designing Motivational and Educational Diabetes
Video Games Involving Children as a Creative Resource
Authors: Svein-Gunnar Johansen3,1, Alexandra Makhlysheva1, Eirik Årsand1,2, Meghan Bradway1, Gunnar Hartvigsen3,1
1 Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, University Hospital of North Norway (UNN)2 Department of Clinical Medicine, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway
3 Department of Computer Science, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway
Background
The biggest challenge with creating serious games to motivate behaviour change in children is that behaviourists are rarely game designers. When pedagogic concerns are the main catalyst for making games for children and adolescents with diabetes, the results may often be educational, but usually in some didactic style with limited interactivity. Consequently, they tend to miss the most essen-tial engagement mechanism of traditional games—having fun. Therefore, the challenge is to both take into account the lessons the game is to impart, and how to make the game engaging.
For more information, please contact: Svein-Gunnar Johansen, e-mail: [email protected]
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Our game presents all relevant numerical information through grids and gauges, and the humanoid characters grow their power-level by winning battles, facilitated by properly managing food and blood glucose levels.
Results
We designed a game about characters with diabetes battling one another over access to resources like food and insulin reserves, whilst regulating their hunger and glucose levels through consumption of said resources.
We found that children in this age group are comfortable with tradi-tional game artifacts like numerical levels, grids and gauges. They are also proficient with touch interfaces found on tablets and smart-phones, and also seem to favor games with humanoid characters.
Method
We invited children aged 8-12 with diabetes to a workshop where they were asked to draw a game about diabetes that they would enjoy playing with their friends.
We then combined this input with game mechanics built on a template from “World of Warcraft” - one of the world’s most successful games.
Figure 1: Assorted drawings from the workshop
Figure 2: Feeding screen
Figure 3: Battle screen.
Copyright © 2016 Svein-Gunnar Johansen, Alexandra Makhlysheva, Eirik Årsand, Meghan Bradway, Gunnar Hartvigsen / UNN/NSE
Discussion
The goal was to create a fun game, which allows children with diabetes to play and experiment with aspects of diabetes manage-ment on virtual subjects. Future work will expand children participa-tion by allowing them to create characters and come up with stories. This should increase interest in the game, as well as tailor it further to the specific age group.
Norwegian Centre for E-health Research
