Archimage has confirmed that its serious game,
Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space, which is focused on healthy eating and exercise, has entered prototype testing. Archimage is collaborating with experts at the Children’s Nutritional Research Center of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine on the project.
Nanoswarm puts players inside a video game that blends sci-fi action and adventure with evidence-based behavior modification theories. The project is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. Two prototype episodes of
Nanoswarm will be tested with children at the Baylor College of Medicine during the following weeks. The tentative release date for the game is January 2008.
The game aims to highlight the growing concern surrounding childhood obesity and its link to type II diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts one third of Americans born after 2000 will be diabetic in their lifetime.
Unlike type I diabetes, which is a result of mostly genetic factors, type II diabetes is primarily associated with diet and physical activity behavior. Diabetes is already the country’s leading cause of new blindness and kidney failure, and is also the nation’s sixth leading cause of death. The goal of
Nanoswarm is to illustrate these concerns so that players are better equipped to make healthy choices.
