Pow, zap, boom.

One of the many benefits of health games versus traditional health education materials is instant reinforcement and immediate feedback.  When a player does something correct, the game immediately gives the player a reward, such as a visual effect or fun sound.  Great Game Tenet #6: a great health game has a great rewards system.

Keep the player’s brain moving and reward them for doing so.

A sign of a good game is an involved player.  Keep their mouse moving, keep their eyes moving, keep their brain engaged.  From a traditional game design perspective, feedback is used to increase a player’s level of skill in relation to playing the game.  The player is able to progress further as their game-playing skills are refined.  When looking at health games, an additional component must be taken into consideration: health behavior change.  What is the game hoping to accomplish?  Well, ultimately to change a particular health behavior.  Because of this, feedback plays an even more crucial role here as the player must increase their game-playing skills and their behavior change skills.  As skill level increases, confidence is boosted.  The result: increased self-efficacy.  We know from Social Cognitive Theory that self-efficacy (that feeling of “I can do that.”) is essential for behavior change.  Thought that sparkle, clang, and virtual currency was just for fun?  They actually serve a larger purpose.

Health games that do it well.

Many health game developers are using rewards systems that are much more complex than just a graphic and sound effect that appears after a health question is answered correctly. Just watch the trailer for ME2 Universe and it’s easy to see that this online health game world is hoppin’!  Great Game Tenet #6 is the basis for the ME2 Universe concept.  The player performs physical activity, which is tracked on a accelorometer, and is rewarded virtually with online games and customizable characters.  Glucoboy, a blood glucose meter for kids, has a similar concept.  Measure your blood consistently and keep your blood sugar down, be rewarded with online fun.  Patient compliance and good health management meets Game Boy.  From a more traditional perspective, one can look at the website Playnormous Health Games which incorporates both an online virtual currency rewards system along with immediate feedback inside each of their health games.

Recommended readings.

• Bandura, A (1989). Human Agency in Social Cognitive Theory