Super Dreamy World
Client Requested Serious Game Prototype | Platform: Phone App & Smartwatch | Engine: Unity | Team: 6 | Role: Programmer, Designer
A gamified sleep hygiene and data collection conceptualization to detect and combat mild cognitive impairment.
Prototyped and designed in February 2022 to March 2022 for the Foundations of Serious Games course.
A gamified sleep hygiene and data collection conceptualization to detect and combat mild cognitive impairment.
Prototyped and designed in February 2022 to March 2022 for the Foundations of Serious Games course.
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Client Requested Serious Game Prototype:
Our client was the Interstellar Initiative Healthy Ageing research team. They requested we tackle making a gamified experience or game is needed to support healthy sleep behavior change and slow onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Changes in sleep-related biomarkers (wake-sleep cycle) have been found to correlate with Alzheimer's Disease. My Contributions: • Conceptualized and brainstormed overall narrative and core gameplay mechanics • Collaborated with subject matter experts and client in creating a substantial deliverable based on client's needs • Researched cognitive impairment root cause and effects and activities that help maintaining a healthy sleep cycle • Detailed proof of concept with paper and digital prototypes • Programmed various tasks and actions in Unity • Opening and closing curtains • Turning lights on and off • Recorded playtest data and iterated prototype based on feedback from research team and playtesters Team: Jessica Wei, Keyu Lai, Raghu Mina, Sam Shields, Yuxiao Wang, Kendra Shu |
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Project Details:
Super Dreamy World conceptualizes a gamified experience aimed to support healthy sleep behavior change and slow onset of mild cognitive impairment/Alzheimer’s Disease. The idle cozy game entails taking care of your brain, represented by Dreamy, a cute brain shaped pet. The core of Dreamy World revolves around taking care of Dreamy while doing tasks that encourage sleep hygiene and promote healthy sleep behavior in real life. |
Target Audience: For our design consideration, we need to make the game playable for those suffering from mild cognitive impairment. Older adults prefer bigger screen, larger font size, and buttons that make intuitive sense. Players can interact with Dreamy on their phone and adjust UI to their liking. They can take Dreamy with them on a portable smart watch and Dreamy gives feedback to improve sleep habits based on sleep score from the watch's bioinformatics. |
Core Game Loop
Each morning, the player wakes Dreamy, transport them on their watch, and put them back to bed. Dreamy will have a mood corresponding to the user’s sleep score, and has several tasks they can do. The tasks follow a morning routine of opening curtains (get natural light), drinking water (start metabolism and rehydrate after rest), etc.
The player can neglect activities and force Dreamy out the door, but this will make Dreamy frustrated during the day. If Dreamy is angry after leaving the room, the player gets feedback from Dreamy indicating missed tasks in the morning - such as a thirsty symbol or a light thought cloud. Dreamy will mimic and measure user activity through the day - walks, metabolism changes, and so on. At night, the user will check Dreamy back into their room. At this point, the user can tell Dreamy to go to bed immediately or do things to improve their sleep quality. Turning off lights, turning off distracting noises (TV), setting an alarm, putting out a glass of water are all things that improve Dreamy’s sleep. |