Tom Langhorst

Fontys University of Applied Science

School of ICT

Eindhoven,

The Netherlands

Biofeedback cyclinggame

For children with Cerebral Palsy (CP),

as part of their rehabilitation after

Involving children

Interviewing children about what they would like to see

and do in the game is risky…

Researchers should always critically question whether the test children’s enthusiasm is

really caused by a positive user experience or by something else.

(Vanden Abeele, Zaman De Grooff, 2011)

Laddering

By interviewing patients at the hospital (girls and boys between 8-12 years old)

we were able to recognize three clusters of values.

Me

Around me (the world)

Challenges

Me

Identification

My badges

Badges in real world cycling

Pimp my bike

Badges are not part of the game AI

In some desings badges can replace levels as effective

progress markers

(Zichermann & Cunningham, 2011)

Badges

Extending the gameplay in- and outside the digital

environment

Social negotiation

Bartle’s player types

player world

ExplorerSocializer

AchieverKiller

action

interactionRichard Barlte, 2010 GDC

Around me

The children’s ideas about the exercise surroundings:

Holidays,

Fun,

Away from everyday life, and not realistic.

Explorer

The patient cycles though

different worlds:

Forrest

Beach

Ice

Candy

Achiever

Level

game mechanic hill or wind

biofeedback heartrate

algorithm patient min-max effort

Achiever

Pickups

Game mechanic time

Biofeedback effort

Algorithm effort depending value and

visibility time

Achiever

Tilt

game mechanic avatar tilting

biofeedback power % left/right

% Power Left % Power Right

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

50% 50%

Killer

Ghost

Based on the average score per level of the last exercise a

ghost is calculated

Ghost motivation

Data shows how the patient’s RPM and effort increases

during a more difficult level due to the ghost chase

Conclusion

We only just begun…

Doctors and Designers

Incubator: a new business model for innovation in health

games?

Questions & remarks