Gaming Against Obesity

Ben Falconer

Supervised by: Kurt Debattista

Introduction

Climbing game Aimed at children Using Nintendo Wii hardware

Background - Obesity

Obesity among children is growing In 2006 over 17% of Year 6 children in the

West Midlands were obese Department of Health priority

Background – Serious Games

Serious Games Games with serious applications Used for

Education Corporate training Health

Background - Exergames

“Exergames” - games requiring exercise to play

Examples Dance Dance Revolution Wii Fit Playstation Eye Toy

Used in schools for PE

Idea

Create a game that: Requires exercise to play Introduces the player to a new sport Is attractive to children

Implementation

We aimed to create: A game using the

Nintendo Wii A rock climbing game A fun game

Development - Tools

C++ Object Orientated

OGRE Easy 3D engine

WiiUse Use of Wii Remote over Bluetooth

All cross platform

Development - Cycle

Feature driven development Define intended product Create feature list Design each feature Write each feature

Development – Feature List

Basic Framework Basic Controls Wii Remote Connectivity Wii Remote Controls Character Movement Wii Balance Board Connectivity Wii Balance Board Controls

Development - Features

Basic Framework Initial basic framework Used OGRE to create basic 3D engine Allowed loading and displaying 3D models

Development - Features

Basic Controls Keyboard and mouse control Used the Open Input System (OIS) Allowed control of the camera

Development - Features

Wii Remote Connectivity Making the Wii

Remote interact with the PC

Bluetooth connection to PC

Used the WiiUse library to access the Wii Remote

Development – Features

Character Movement Movement of

hands and character separate

Grab onto holds to move

Let go of both hands and fall off

Development - Features

Wii Remote Controls Hard to find movement in specific direction

Rotation much easier Assumes the Wii Remote is held vertically

High pass filter eliminates most rotation Very buggy

The game often has over a seconds lag The characters hands will jump about the

screen

Development - Features

Wii Balance Board Connectivity

Could not get the Balance Board to connect

Others have reported success before

Wii Balance Board Controls Lack of connection meant

that the Balance Board could not be used

Result

Playable game Hard to play with Wii

Remote Placeholder models

Conclusions

Needs more work to be viable Wii Remote controls

One of the main features of the game No exercise with keyboard controls

Graphics The current place holder graphics are unlikely

to appeal to children

Thank you for listening

Questions?