In MoodMiles, negative emotions like Anxiety and Depression, once part of a balanced emotional world, begin to feel misunderstood and unloved. Believing they are hated, they decide to steal people’s positive emotions, plunging the world into emotional imbalance.
However, they overlooked one crucial factor—the animals! Immune to the attack of negative emotions, the animals step in to help humanity. With the guidance of animal NPCs, players embark on a journey to restore emotional harmony, using physical activity and the strength of their animal companions to regain control of their emotions and bring balance back to their world.
What Is It?
MoodMiles is a personalized exercising mobile game for 18-30 year old young adults experiencing negative emotions, seeking an engaging and supportive way to increase their physical activity levels through digital means.
The game helps these people handle negative emotions by leveraging smartphone data to provide customized exercise recommendations by NPC (Non-Player Character).
The game incorporates engaging gamification elements, such as NPC quests, reward systems, and interactive storylines, to motivate sustained physical activity and promote mental well-being.
Resources
Undergraduates:
Quaid Wilkins
I programmed game mechanics like the animal buddies attacks and intro, being able to go from screen to screen, the code for the boss’s health, the cutscenes being able to play in game, and the breathing exercise and I wrote some of the script in the game for the intros and the script for the conference video.
Maher Fawaz
I programmed back-end features, including device sensor tracking of steps walked and calories burned for mission progress and Google Play Games integration, worked on UI implementation, and did quality assurance of the game using my own phone.
Danielle Borst
I edited the introduction video and created the timeline for the project. I have helped with the art, animated the art designs, created the website and the MoodMiles reel. Finally, I have developed the user testing questions and led the team in our questionnaire for nine Waverly High School students to respond to at the end of the testing.
Lead Designers:
Youngjun Lee
Research, Game Concept Design, Narrative Development, Accessibility Planning, DEI Strategy Development, Scenario Wireframing, Dialogue Creation, Ethnographic Research
Pei-Chi Lin
Research(Influencer Matrix Model, User journey), UI design(Visual Style, Design System, Characters, Interaction elements, Introduction animation, Mockup), UX design(Game Mechanic, User Flow chart, Wireframe, Prototype)
Ting Luo
Research(User Research, User Testing, User Interviews, Requirements Analysis, Data & Analytics Research), User Experience(User Flow chart), User Journey, UI design
Jisun Lee
Research, Game Concept Development, Persona Development, Scenario Narrative, UI Design(Character, Logo, Sample scenario, Animation Design), UX Design(User Flow, Wireframe, Prototype), Video Making, Sound Editing
Special Thanks:
Professor Susan Bonner, Finn McCune - BGM Composer, Valeta Wensloff - Voice Actor, Abrams Planetarium, and the MI839 and Waverly students for their valuable feedback throughout the development of MoodMiles.