#sprintone

In order to ensure that the game being developed and deployed is plausible and not a direct copy of another idea we first need to research all important avenues. That being the technology that is being used, how we work with that technology and whether that technology or similar technologies have been used to make similar games in the past.  

Technology Research – Kinect

The Kinect contains an RGB color VGA video camera and a depth sensor. The camera detects the red, green, and blue color components as well as body-type and facial features. This is the main component that helps in body recognition. The depth sensor contains a monochrome CMOS sensor and infrared projector that help create the 3D imagery throughout the room. It also measures the distance of each point of the player's body by transmitting invisible near-infrared light and measuring the time after it reflects off of objects. These components are applied together to detect and track 48 different points on each player's body and repeats 30 times every second.

As mentioned previously the games are being developed for the Xbox Kinect. This has been decided as it will allow the students to use their body as the controller and will mean that they won’t need fine motor skills to play the game and don’t need to use complex controller inputs to play the game.

https://www.jameco.com/jameco/workshop/howitworks/xboxkinect.html

Coding Research – C# / Unity Plugins

Luckily there are Microsoft supported plugins so that the Kinect sensor can be plugged into a pc with the appropriate adapter and then used within Unity 3D to create game environments. Essentially the Microsoft plugin allows the Kinect to pass information to the pc and the Unity plugin can manipulate that information to develop a game using human joint movement.

https://andreasassetti.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/develop-a-game-using-unity3d-with-microsoft-kinect-v2/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHGlLxh6a88&list=PLmc6GPFDyfw-gF4aGw4Etgo0hJSWQcrYQ

Existing Solutions

When it comes to exergames there are a surprisingly small amount of games that utilize Kinect technologies. Most exergames need large and bulky external technologies, such as exercise bikes or large dance pads. There is some further research from a previous blog post available here.

https://www.exergamefitness.com/solutions/what-is-exergaming/

https://www.pecentral.org/activegaming/whatisactivegaming.html

https://www.motionfitness.com/Exergame-s/272.htm

Working from a previous post that can be found here, I plan to deconstruct my ideas and discuss the feasibility and scope while giving a more in-depth explanation to the processes and reasoning behind the game’s creation and possible impact on the gaming market.

Why Make This Game?

When I look at my exergaming proposals I see a terrific opportunity for them to be implemented into a school room setting. Having a family member in the school system I am aware that most (not all) school rooms have access to smart boards large enough to house Kinect software. I also know how difficult calming down a room of 20-30 young students in the morning can be, and because of this, I believe that the games mentioned above will have three major impacts on the users.

For teachers: They can use the game to facilitate the early morning rowdiness and attempt to quell some of the energy

For students: They have somewhere to constructively and safely expel their energy with a controlled environment

For students: They can passively learn through play, an extremely beneficial way to learn. The best way to learn is when you don’t even know you’re doing it

With this, it can be seen that my game isn’t being made purely just for young children to have fun, it is being made to help teaching staff and allow both themselves and the students to have a new, interesting avenue for learning.

Does This Have the Right Scope and is it Feasible?

Luckily developing games for Kinect is quite simple. Using a unity plugin creating a Kinect game becomes no more difficult than creating a normal game. The only true difficulty being faced at the moment is that in order to work on a pc with Kinect the Kinect needs a special, expensive adaptor that is no longer in production. This problem is currently being remedied, however, it may take up some valuable prototyping time. Other problems may arise in the future with playtesting results and this ultimately would increase the project's scope to something beyond the timeframe I have been allocated. This could be things like:

The games are too boring

The games are too hard

Teachers aren’t fond of the game

There are multitudes of possibilities, however, as it stands at this time the game creation and testing is completely within the scope and feasible.

Will it Make Waves?

In this short post, I plan to walk through a basic timeline on how I plan to implement my motion-based Kinect exergame for young children with important milestones marked out. Although I may not be able to follow the plan to the letter it is imperative to have one ready, so I can keep track of my overall process and ensure I am making reasonable progress.

As can be seen, I plan to meet my project mentor(s) every 2 weeks. At every meeting, I plan to have a new section of my game completed, even if it happens to be completed only to an early alpha stage. I have also worked my prototyping and game creation around work presentation milestones in the hope that I can maximize my efficiency and have the most possible work completed at every milestone date. I also plan to playtest my small games while I am developing the others. If this becomes too difficult and time-consuming I will push my playtesting to the end and complete it in a large chunk instead of smaller pieces.

4:00pm, 7 August 2018, GP PS1010

This week our group was introduced to one of our mentors for the project, Peta Wyeth. As a team, we were able to use this time to effectively get her opinions on her expected outcomes of the project and also share some of our own.

Asking Smart Questions:

It is imperative when having short meetings with stakeholders and mentors to come prepared with deliberate and smart questions as to not waste their time or our own. Below is a small sample of our questions from our meeting.

Are there expected outcomes besides just a game for kids? - Analytics etc

Do you suggest any readings that would aid further research?

Is there a specific reason the games target audience is aimed at 4-6-year old’s?

Can the project be expanded away from mobile gaming?

Can we put in on the cube?

Will we have access to different technologies throughout the design process? E.g. Mobile devices, tracking technology, etc (Whatever is needed)

Is a completely new idea expected or can we iterate on previously designed games?

What amount of access to our target audience will we have?

Notes:

From the scribbles above it is important to note a few important parts that were discussed during the meeting.

We are asked as an individual to work to our strengths but are also urged to attempt to push our own boundaries and subsequently normal exergaming boundaries

We are urged to keep the game universal. Don’t make a game for girls or a game for boys, make a game for kids

We are encouraged to read up and learn about the Early Years Learning Framework and attempt to implement its teachings into our final product.

4-6-year olds are the chosen demographic because of how they interact with items at that age and because it is a time where they become most open to new content

As a team, we can iterate on previously made games and ideas, however, a completely original IP is encouraged

Ethics can become a large issue when working with children. We need verbal consent before testing and can’t ‘push’ the child into trying anything

The game must be intuitive and easy to use. A child won’t bother trying to learn a game if it’s too hard

Presenting Preliminary Ideas:

During our mentor session, we also got time to present our preliminary ideas to Peta if we had any. Below are some simple mockups I created for the meeting. A more comprehensive rundown of my ideas can be found on a previous post here.

Adding Game:

Grammar Game:

Tug-Of-War:

4:00pm, 6 August 2018, GP P413

This week was great for getting to know my new project team and was incredibly important as I got to learn what they all individually want to both gain and create while working on this project. It was also great to see that the team is diverse in ability, it definitely helps to alleviate some worry about creating high fidelity deliverables. This particular blog post aims to refine some of the items created by the team in a condensed format.

Generating Context: - #process

In order to create a base to work off we as a team needed to identify the key people, places and things that would ultimately be associated with the exergaming project.

People:

Young children / Students - Early primary or PREP, Sporty, Unfit, With or without siblings (Older/Younger)

Family Members - Parents, Aunts & Uncles, Grandparents, Cousins (Younger/Older/Same Age)

Teachers - Grades 1 and below, After School Care, Day-care, Prep Teachers, PE Teachers, Art Teachers, Music Teachers

Health professionals - GP, Physiotherapist

Places:

Schools - Schoolyard, Class Room

Housing - Backyard, Living Room

Public - Park, Shopping Centre

Things:

Mobile Devices - Phones, Tablets, Laptop

Non-Mobile Devices - Xbox, PS4, Kinect, VR(Vive / Occulus)

Sporting Equipment - Balls, Hoops, etc

Events - Supported by App, Sports Day, Cross Country, Fete

Tracking - GPS, Camera

Exercise

Competitions

Mapping Scenarios: - #process

Expanding off of the generated context the team mapped out some possible scenarios that would require and exergaming solution.

Scenario 1: Teachers - Schoolyard - Sports Event:

There is a sporting event, such as a sports day. The children can implement the following idea to fully participate given their abilities, whether athletic or not. Therefore the app would measure participation and effort in:

The actual sporting events - Sprints, High Jump, Long Jump, etc

Students not currently participating - Teachers start separate activity to occupy them and support students participating

Teacher hands students a device (tablet) - Each student gets a task/game to further involve them in the events. Points awarded for best picture

The games include would be as follows:

Cheering game, students get measured on their cheer volume and are awarded points

Points are also awarded points for competing

Team with the most points gets a reward - such as a ribbon or a trophy

 Use photos of events taken by students online

The plan being that these events, games, and rewards lead to the desired outcome:

Desired outcome: Competition between students urging them to get more involved regardless of their skill level.

Short Scenario 2: Family - Living Room - Mobile Devices:

A small mobile game that challenges the parents against their children. At random intervals, they need to complete a randomized challenge that is scaled to their age and skill level. First, one to complete the challenge gets a point. Hopefully, the family competition leads to the desired outcome:

Desired outcome: Increased exercise for children and possibly parents / Parent-child bonding. Keep kids occupied and away from parents.

Creating Interventions: - #proposal

Branching off of the last 2 sections the group finally generated some interventions that can be scoped towards project solutions. Essentially avenues where games could be made to benefit the project brief and where things need to be considered as to accommodate all participants

Unfit children or children have health issues

Challenge the child given their abilities

Every child will have different abilities, some will be better at running than others, etc

Gamifying the problem

Point systems are independent of the exercise so children aren't discouraged from different activities

Disrupt the system

All children can be involved, large rooms aren't required, and expensive technology aren't required

If exploratory, the rewards system can be time-based, therefore, less sporty children won't be disadvantaged

Use the game to track student data to discover underlying health problems/issues. Could also be used to track student improvement

Link back to project challenge:

Encourages children of all body types and abilities to get more active and interact differently with their technology.

Solution Validation: - #procces, #research

Working with the idea of exergaming for unfit children it is fair to note that exergaming is not a new concept and there are plenty of design avenues, however, in some cases, does not fully accommodate all play styles and abilities.

https://www.exergamefitness.com/solutions/what-is-exergaming/

https://www.pecentral.org/activegaming/whatisactivegaming.html

Using the two websites above it was clear that exergaming is full of interesting ideas and approaches to fitness but not all are helpful or do much to accommodate a wider diversity of children.

As a greater break down of certain exergames, this small blurb about Dance games can be used to see the barriers present to unfit children. (issues bolded)

Dance Games are the pioneering series of the active gaming genre in video games. Players stand on a platform or stage and try to hit colored arrows or characters with their feet to musical rhythm and visual cues. Players are judged by how well they time their dance to the patterns presented to them and are allowed to choose the music to play during each game.

As can be seen there is nothing inherently wrong with Dance games, however, without rhythm, the players' score will be diminished. Our solution (mentioned above) aims to incorporate all types of players and give them a score based on their skills instead of measure them on a single skill, such as the dance games’ blurb suggests.

Deconstructing Our Own Work:

Although it’s easy to deconstruct another teams’ work it is important to measure our own and see the possible shortcomings it may possess. With this in mind it can be seen that although our game idea strives to ‘break down the wall’ between unfit children and exergaming it ultimately also discourages said children from attempting or trying something new and ultimately means that we could end up rewarding laziness which flies directly in the face of the point of the exergaming brief.

Innovation is called for in all fields. This small blog post aims to discuss two topics that I was presented and that I believed I could most effectively innovate for. These are my original ideas for projects pertaining to two client briefs (Hybrid Worlds for Kids in Hospital and Exergaming for Young Children) and are highly subject to change.

Hybrid Worlds for Kids in Hospital (VR Based) This project immediately caught my eye as I have already had quite a lot of experience with working on VR projects purely for Hospital use. Because I am currently working on a VR project for the Herston Bio Fabrication Institute a large amount of patient-oriented ideas came to mind that were originally planned for previous projects but never really left the ground.

Innovative Ideas:

Race Simulator – A game that turns the patient's bed into a race car.

“Dehospitalise” – A virtual reality experience that attempts to mentally remove them from a hospital.

Disease Attack – A ‘shoot-em-up’ style game that has children attacking and defeating their forms of disease.

Idea Breakdowns:

Race Simulator: The main idea of this game is to use VR to make the patient feel like they are racing a car. It would be primarily designed for bed-bound patients; however, it could always be used for any patient. Its use would be to give a fast-paced and fun feel to the usually mundane and boring hospital bed.

Simple Visual Concept Ideation:

“Dehospitalise”: Whenever I’ve spent time in hospital, whether it be as a patient or a visitor I am always concerned about the drab nature of most hospital rooms. A feeling which I feel safe assuming is multiplied for young children. The idea behind “Dehospitalise” is to use VR to ‘transport’ the user away from their bed. This could be to a magical wonderland setting or a science fiction setting or even just a house setting, not everyone wants to go on a magical adventure all the time.

Simple Visual Concept Ideation:

Disease Attack: A common way therapists approach ailments of the mind is by getting their patients to face them directly. Although it is impossible for a human to physically attack the germs or diseases in their body with the help of VR they could quite easily at least get the virtual sense of attacking their individual diseases.

Simple Visual Concept Ideation:

Exergaming for Young Children (All designed for school environments, Motion tracking based) This particular project is something I’m very interested in as I have many family members who work in the schools. Therefore, my ideas leaned immediately to using technology to increase both the learning potential of students whilst also giving teachers a product they could use in their classrooms.

Innovative Ideas:

Action Based Addition/Subtraction Game – A game designed to take students out of the classroom and engage them both physically and mentally about basic math problems.

Action Based Grammar Game – A game designed to take students out of the classroom and engage them both physically and mentally about basic grammar problems (similar to above).            

Movement-based tug of War – A game designed to get groups of students active outside of the classroom.            

Idea Breakdowns:

Action Based Addition/Subtraction Game: Let’s face it, classrooms are boring, ESPECIALLY when they are used to teach maths. Sitting at a desk all day hearing someone at the front of the room talk can be mind-numbing. However, with the inclusion of movement and Kinect motion tracking students may be able to continue their learning outside in a fun and active way. The idea is that students are placed against each other in groups and must grab numbers to finish simple mathematic equations. The team that does it the fastest wins.

Simple Visual Concept Ideation:

Action Based Grammar Game: Very similar to the above addition/subtraction game. Two teams are placed against each other where they must either spell simple words or complete simple sentences using the correct grammar and punctuation. The team that answers the most questions correctly wins. Another more interesting way to approach learning than just sitting in a classroom.

Simple Visual Concept Ideation:

Movement-based tug of War: This game compared to the others has no real benefit to learning. It is designed to get students to active, maybe as a start of the morning routine. It works by measuring the amount of movement each team is making. The team that makes more movement pulls the rope closer to their side. Eventually, one team will out move the other and a winning team will come out.

Simple Visual Concept Ideation: