Game Connect: A Middleware that Flexibly Connects Games to their Health Goals

Abstract

Gamification, the application of game mechanics in a nongame context to motivate desired behavior, has proven effective in promoting health-related changes. Personalized game elements, such as tailored goals, rewards, and storylines, have been shown to be more effective than one-size-fits-all games. However, existing gamified health interventions are tailored towards a specific outcome, with a fixed combination of sensors tied to a specific storyline, which restricts the ability to change game mechanics without extensive modifications. Likewise, this approach also limits the flexibility to reuse the same game for multiple interventions. We present Game Connect, a middleware that decouples health sensors from game logic, enabling flexible combinations of sensor data sources with multiple game stories. Game Connect provides user interfaces for health domain experts to: (1) identify health data derived from various sensors; (2) define health goals to be met by a user; and (3) define how goals translate into one or more meaningful game construct. Uniquely, Game Connect employs a centralized “point pool” system, allowing different games to consume from the same pool of points earned through achieving real-life goals. We demonstrate the feasibility of Game Connect through an indepth study of 10 individuals building games that rely on the middleware. Our evaluation indicates that Game Connect simplifies the process of integrating health data with existing games, and that its decoupling of health data, game logic, and intervention objectives allows for greater flexibility and code reusability across diverse applications.