Overview

The treatments for cancer are one of the most invasive procedures that can cause anxiety and sleep problems to children. There is evidence indicating that teaching children with cancer about their disease can help them to cope to the effect of the treatment, and in this way, they could reduce their levels of anxiety and stress during the treatment. 

We designed  KiddyAttack, a serious virtual reality game, to raise awareness among children with cancer about their disease. The awareness is in terms of understanding the disease, what the treatment will be like, and possible side effects (e.g. mood changes, hair loss). The goal of KiddyAttack is to help a farmer save his farm from an infection that has spread to his farm.

Toolkit: Unity 3D, C#, JavaScript

Research 

Research goals

Design a virtual reality game to raise awareness among children with cancer about their illness and treatment. 

Methodology

1.  Interviews with experts

2. Design sessions

3. Prototype

Results

During the design sessions, two visions emerged: the superhero rescue and the fun farm. Since the fun farm vision focuses on providing information about the entire treatment and includes metaphors that are easy for children to understand, specialists suggested it was the most appropriate for the children.

The objective of KiddyAttack is to help a farmer save his barns from infections that have affected them. To achieve this, players must explore a virtual farm composed of various barns. In each barn, the farmer has to complete a different activity (e.g., collecting corn, searching for medicine, navigating a room) (Figure 1).

KiddyAttack features two types of barns: brown barns and blue barns. In the brown barns, children have to complete an activity to eliminate the infection, while in the blue barns, they need to explore the room to learn more about the treatment.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

Use of Metaphors: Metaphors are frequently used by doctors to explain complex information to patients about their diseases and treatments. Therefore, a serious game designed to inform children about an illness should use metaphors to present the information in a concise and child-friendly manner.

Balancing Real Process Information with Entertainment: There should be a balance between the information presented to the child with cancer and the entertainment aspect of the serious game, aiming for learning without compromising the engagement of the game.

Use of Positive Reinforcements: It is suggested to use positive reinforcements while also addressing the potential side effects children may experience, such as hair loss and fatigue. A serious game should clearly depict the possible side effects that the patient may encounter.

Related Publications:

• Arturo Morales-Téllez, Gloria I. Monarca, Franceli L. Cibrian, Monica Tentori, and Juan González-Calleros. 2018. KiddyAttack: A virtual reality game to raise awareness of children with cancer about their disease. In Proceedings of the 7th Mexican Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (MexIHC '18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 10, 1–4. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3293578.3293586