Justification:
Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by high blood glucose in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, depending on the type of diabetes (American Diabetes Association, 2008). It is common to notice that, in general, patients diagnosed with diabetes have difficulty to follow diets because they do not know how to read the nutrition label or they are not sure about the portion size that they are supposed to have while preparing their meal. Regarding this fact, it would be relevant to develop a gaming simulation to help not only diabetics but people in general to understand how to prepare a meal in those circumstances.
For this research, an educational game (prototype version) will be designed and developed to assist players to prepare a meal considering the following: nutrition label (carbohydrates, glucose and calories) and portion size. Once the game has been developed, alpha and beta test will be conducted to verify the impact of the game and possible attitudinal changes in the player’s life.
Purpose:
The purpose of this project is to design and build an educational digital game (prototype version) to teach diabetics and people in general how to prepare a healthy meal. Moreover, this game will be evaluated to verify its impact and possible attitudinal changes in a person’s life.
Questions:
1. How can an educational game affect learners’ behavior in real-life?
2. What kind of reactions do people have playing the game?
Educational game design and development
First, the game will provide players with a brief explanation of the activity and their tasks. Also, before playing the game, it will be suggest to players that they will go through a tutorial to learn more about topics such as: overview of diabetes, carbohydrates, nutrition label and portion size of foods. (In this case, I am not sure if I will be able to develop the game and the tutorial on time to showcase, therefore, I will be compromising in have a prototype version of the game for showcase).
Once on the game, players will see a shelf with different types of food as it is shown in the screen below:
Figure 1. A screenshot of the beginning of the game.
When players click on one of the desired food, a pop-window will open up. In this new window, they will have access to a summarized nutrition label (carbohydrates, glucose and calories). Players will also be able to choose the portion size of the chosen food ( ¼ cup, ½ cup, etc.). After they have added all the food for the meal, the game will offer feedback information regarding the amount of carbohydrates, glucose and calories on their meal.
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