Active Adventure: Creating an Immersive Exercise Game for Kids

Seth Sivak · Garth DeAngelis · Bard McKinley · Ryan Hipple · Nate Morgan

The Active Adventure Project is focused on researching and developing an exercise videogame for children. The goal is to explore the use of new hardware in the creation of an immersive experience that encourages active play. Initially the project was proposed to help combat the national health issue of childhood obesity and attempt to find ways to increase activity in young people. The project utilizes the Nintendo Wii Remote and the Dance Dance Revolution dance pad to involve players in a physical exploration of the game world. Unlike current exercise games that are sports or dance related, our game provides the role playing and story aspects associated with the action-adventure genre. The physical movements of the player directly link to the actions of their character, leading to an active style of play. Our goal in developing this project is to create an alternative to sedentary activities such as watching television or playing conventional videogames, one which provides an equal entertainment value in addition to improved fitness.

During this workshop, we will discuss the specific challenges we faced in creating an exercise game and compare them to those faced when creating a typical game. There will also be a chance to give a post-mortem on the design steps used and also on the playtesting techniques that we created to specifically target overweight children. We hope to have plenty of time for participants to try our game and possibly other exercise games to get an understanding of the new wave of games that promote good health.