Högskolan i Skövde

Games for health is one of the most prominent areas for serious games, i.e. games with a purpose beyond only entertainment. The purpose of a health game may be to inform about health related issues; promote healthy lifestyles and even to drive behavioral change. This paper outlines the initial game design considerations and some future research directions for a game focusing on cardiovascular health. As the overall aim of the project is to promote a healthy lifestyle through diet and physical activity to prevent future cardiovascular disease, we focused on “taking care of your heart” as the basis for the game. Hence we call the game Happy Heart and use a heart symbol as a non-playable character (NPC) that the player needs to take care of. To some extent we are inspired by the electronic Tamagochi toys (Bandai) where players need to take care of a digital pet. The heart symbol is universal and is also an ideograph that expresses the concept of love and as such it transcends language barriers.

The burden of non-communicable diseases (NCD) is rapidly increasing across the world. Today they are the main drivers of morbidity, disability, and mortality in low- and middle income countries (LMICs), and are expected to increase due to unhealthy lifestyles in the wake of ongoing societal changes [1]. Among the major risk factors in many LMICs are poor diet, insufficient physical activity, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and exposure to hazardous substances, e.g. from air pollution. LMICs currently contribute three quarters of the deaths from NCD.

Among the NCD, cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of hospitalization in Nepal [1]. Digitalization and collaboration with the education sector (e.g. community schools) in health promotion interventions could further improve children’s behavior by targeting factors that affect their lifestyle outside the family environment [4]. Hence, the Digital Game Based Learning approach.