This is a serious game I had to make for my bachelor final project. As I take this class during the summer session, we were only two on this project and had to make a whole game in one month. The subject was given by our teacher, but they just gave us a general idea of what the game was supposed to be about. So we also had to make a design document before starting to create the game and to have it validated by our teacher. That's for the little story.
Context
Introduction
Let's talk now about the game itself. Initially we wanted to make a 3D game but our teachers wanted something more simple. So even if we made a game design document by ourself, it was oriented by the will of our teachers.
The game was part of a huge research project about the Alzheimer disease our teachers were working on. The purpose of the game was to make a person suffering from this disease exercise his brain to be able to do his daily activities. It was thought as a parameterizable game a clinician would specifically configure for a patient according to his problems.
The game was part of a huge research project about the Alzheimer disease our teachers were working on. The purpose of the game was to make a person suffering from this disease exercise his brain to be able to do his daily activities. It was thought as a parameterizable game a clinician would specifically configure for a patient according to his problems.
What is an activity ?
An activity in our case is a very generic term which definition is something like "A group of actions that has to be made in a specific order to reach a goal". For example, we can imagine an activity like "eat spaghetti" composed by the actions: "take the boiler", "fill it with water", "turn on the hotplate", "wait for the water to boil", "open the spaghetti box and put them in the boiler", "garbage the box", "prepare the table",... (I won't learn you how to cook and eat spaghetti, I'm sure you already get my point).
Specific details
It was my first experience making a serious game. Besides, we must consider points that you never had to, due to our specific targeted client. Indeed, we designed our game following an article [1] from one of our teacher giving advices to make your game playable by our targeted client. For example, the general color of the game must be bright, each element must be clearly identifiable, this can be made by having visible border to delimit objects. Besides, GUI must be easy to understand especially as our game was for Androîd.
General Information
- Game: Serious Game to Help Alzheimer Suffering People to do their Daily Activities
- Type: 2D Puzzle
- Environment: Home
- Team: Simon Philippe, Jean Meyblum
- Project: Final Bachelor Game Project
- Engine: Unity
- Platform: Androïd
- Designing Time : 4 weeks
- Production Time: 4 weekd
What I did
Puzzle
I made an XML activity loader. A clinician can put a description of an activity on an XML file, including all actions the patient has to do plus error-actions the clinician wants the patient to avoid. When the XML is loaded on the game, it creates a puzzle where the tiles are the actions. The user has to put the tiles on the grid in the right order which will form a word. When he thinks he completed the board, he press the validation button to see his score.
When the player moves a tile, the description of the corresponding action appears. On the tile is a letter, that will form a word if the player place correctly the tiles on the grid. The player can also double-click on the tile to play a video that shows the corresponding action.
When the player moves a tile, the description of the corresponding action appears. On the tile is a letter, that will form a word if the player place correctly the tiles on the grid. The player can also double-click on the tile to play a video that shows the corresponding action.
Score
The player score was an important part of the developpement, how can we have a meaningful score that will encourage the user but also be useful for the clinician. So I implemented a score based on the time the user takes to complete the board, and on different types of mistakes he made. All scores a registered in a file the clinician can read to analyse his patient progress.
Crosswords
Like I said before, when the grid is completed, it forms a word. This words are titles of crosswords the player unlocks and are accessible in the bonus menu through the main menu. So I also made a crosswords generator and a crosswords game. These parts took a large part of my time.
What I learned
- XML: Working with XML on Unity
- Orthello2D: That was a unity package to work more easily with 2D on Unity (on an old version of Unity that didn't have a 2D mode)
- Android: Scripting for Android through Unity
- Unity: I generally improves my Unity skills.
Additional information
[1] - Developing Serious Games Specifically Adapted to People Suffering from Alzheimer. Bouchard, Bruno, et al., et al. [ed.] Springer. Bremen : s.n., 2012. SGDA 2012. Vol. 7528.
| Serious Game Final Report.pdf |
RSS Feed