Games
Below is a list of some of the projects that came through the IMMERSe network. Visit the Multi-Disciplinary section for a full list of the games and research that came through IMMERSe.
Play the Knave
UC Davis
This project uses our Mekanimator platform to enhance understanding of Shakespeare in performance. Play the Knave is a Kinect-enabled game for Windows that offers players an immersive, embodied experience of staging Shakespeare. We believe that interactive, gamified engagement with theatrical production not only stimulates audience interest but also helps spectators build the competencies required for theatergoing. The game is designed for theater installations, K-12 education, and literary entertainment.
Quantum Cats
University of Waterloo
Quantum Cats (2015), a game that allows players to learn and engage with concepts from quantum physics, is currently featured at the Ontario Science Centre exhibit "Quantum: The Exhibition," an exhibit created by the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC).
Blueberry Pie Under the Martian Sky
Concordia University
Anishnabe artist Benesiinaabandan recounts a story he was told by Cree Elder Wilfred Buck about Spider Woman. From her home at the centre of the Seven Sisters, Spider Woman wove a long thread along which the Anishinabe people travelled to Earth. Some modern interpretations of this legend say that this spider thread is a metaphor for a wormhole. Another story says that some day, a young boy will return to that place from where the Anishinabe came. Blueberry Pie Under The Martian Sky is a virtual reality (VR) artwork that takes place seven generations in the future, when human beings are able to travel through wormholes. It follows that young boy as he journeys back to his people’s place of origin
Bodyzone
Ontario Tech University
This project is focused on the development of two elementary school curriculum-based applications. Foodbot Factory is the first Body Zone application and is focused on grade 4 healthy eating curriculum. The game is structured into 4 levels: Drinks, Grains, Vegetables & Fruits, and Protein Foods. In each level the player will learn healthy eating messages about foods relevant to each level, understand the health impacts of key nutrients in food, engage in interactive game play, help characters in the game make healthier food choices, and review information on selected food items in an interactive food log.
Act it Out is the second Bodyzone application and is focused on promoting physical activity.
Buypartisan
UC Davis
Buypartisan is a video game based on a board game. It illustrates the impact of money on elections. Players take on the role of poltical parties in competition to win an election in an imaginary nation. Voters are located on the opinion grid based on their opinions on 3 different axes of issues, but money can be used to pull them closer, throw out shadow positions and many other moves. The dynamic of the game is such that it gradually illustrates the corrupting influence of unregulated money on the democratic process. Variables such as time limits on elections, spending limits, the number of parties and many others can be toggled.
Allergies and Allegories
Ontario Tech University
Allergies & Allegories is a web-based game that utilizes multimodal rhetoric to train players to recognize the social, cultural, and emotional experience of life with a serious food allergy. The game constitutes a portion of the graduate student’s dissertation as it pertains to his research on using multimodal media to translate knowledge between audiences. But it is also a collaboration between the graduate student and researchers at GET-FACTS (Genetics, Environment and Therapies: Food Allergy Clinical Tolerance Studies). Allergies & Allegories translates that knowledge into an interactive, multimodal experience through which players can learn to perceive and recognize the environmental, social, and cultural challenges food-allergic children face. In order to ensure that this knowledge reaches the widest audience, Allergies & Allegories is being developed as an accessible website, open to any with access to a web browser.
Merlynne
University of Waterloo
Tina Chan, an MSc candidate in the School of Public Health and Health Systems, discussed how she uses gamification to study Peer-to-Peer (P2P) support as a strategy for bolstering mental health treatments. Chan developed a digital game entitled "Merlynne" to simulate P2P support: players offer empathy to in-game characters in order to save the kingdom and win the game.
Frack the Game
UC Davis
Frack the Game is a video game project initially conceived by Professor Joseph Dumit in board game format to explore the ethical and socioeconomic landscape of fracking. Players of Frack the Game assume the role of fracking corporations that compete to survey, drill, and extract as much natural gas as possible to become the largest and wealthiest corporation before the world ends. Through the course of the game, players encounter difficult decisions as they must negotiate concerns around profits, environmental health, policies and laws, and public reception of fracking practices.
