A Hybrid Board Game by Using Daily Activity Data of Users as Game Mechanics
Yiping Xu, Oğuz Buruk · 2022
Motivating people for activities that will benefit their physical and mental health through games and gamification has been popular, and prevalent especially throughout the pandemic. While many studies produce tailored gameful apps for this purpose, studies that investigate if the existing games can be used for such purposes by modifying their game mechanics are scarce. Thus, in this research, we customized an existing board game by using the game mechanics to facilitate better habits for physical activity, sleep time and social interaction. We added mechanics granting players permanent skills, bonus moves and in-game currency based on their daily activities with a research through design process which went through paper mockups, game design, development of a web-based platform and iterative user tests. Our preliminary findings show that the social component of hybrid board games can help motivate players to adopt a healthier lifestyle by creating an environment to discuss health issues with others.