A 2014 scoping review of health games developed for health professions contained a survey of around 37 unique health games. 22 When the search focuses on studies investigating the efficacy of health games, a 2012 scoping review 18 identified 149 peer-reviewed research articles studying the efficacy of 166 unique health games available to the healthy public published between 19. 21 A 2011 study indicated that the total number of health games had increased from 45 in 2002 to 104 in 2009. A 2009 study suggested that there were less than 50 health games produced between 19. 17–20 The grand picture is still missing.Įfforts to use existing scholarship to paint the grand picture have yielded varied estimations limited by the scope of available information due to the lack of a systematic database. Almost all publications have focused on the development and/or application of one or a few specific health games 12–16 or have described a synthesis of findings of games designed for a certain health issue. Many fundamental questions about the game facts have not been fully explored, such as: How many health games are out there? Where are they made? What kind of games are they? Which health issues do they address? Who are the games designed for? How long does it take to play a health game? How much do they cost? What are persisting usability issues that aspiring health game developers should pay attention to? Few publications have examined the games on a macroscale to answer these questions. However, the academic literature on the health games has been limited. 9–11 Multiple conferences dedicated to games for health have been launched and numerous academic articles, books, and journals have been published across multidisciplinary fields.Īs games for health have enjoyed an exponential growth, it is crucial to document the field's scale of growth, identify design patterns, and to address potential design issues for future health game development. 8 Games for health have been also found to be a powerful technology that improves learning and skills development for health professionals. 7 All major console and mobile game companies offer devices that can be used for health purposes, such as active videogaming. 5 Currently, 67% of the households in the United States own a device used to play videogames, 6 91% of children play games and 87% have a game console at home. 3Īs an important part of the serious game movement, 4 recent decades have seen a surge in games for health, or games and gaming technologies designed to improve health and healthcare. 7.9%), suggesting much more potential for development. 2 While this number may seem small when compared with the global videogame revenue (more than $200 billion), the serious game industry's compound annual growth rate is much higher than the latter's (16.4% vs. Comparison with game efficacy publications suggested that a further understanding of the scope for games for health is needed on a global level.Ī dvances in the pervasive technology and internet connectivity, and improvements in gaming devices have significantly enhanced the availability and development of serious games, or games designed for a purpose going “beyond entertainment.” 1 By 2020, the projected total market value of serious games will be $5.45 billion.
Plant simulation game brainpop software#
While most of the usability problems have improved as did the software and hardware technology, the players' ability to skip nonplayable contents has become slightly more restricted overtime. The main game usability problems identified included a lack of customization, nonskippable contents, and a lack of feedback and instruction to the players. Most games (75.66%) could be completed within 60 minutes. Popular health topics represented included: cognitive training (37.41%), indirect health education (13.33%), and medical care provision (9.98%). We coded 1553 accessible games for an in-depth analysis and further assessed 1303 for usability. Approximately four out of five (79.12%) of the games were available at no cost.
Plant simulation game brainpop windows#
The most popular platforms included web browsers (72.38%) and Windows (14.41%). The majority of these games were developed in the United States (67.18%) and France (18.59%). We offer the first comprehensive systematic content analysis of digital games for health by examining 1743 health games released between 19 in 23 countries extracted from nine international English health game databases and directories. Few studies have explored the attributes and usability features of games for health as a whole over time. As the field of games for health continues to gain momentum, it is crucial to document the field's scale of growth, identify design patterns, and to address potential design issues for future health game development.