Development of Multiplayer Exertion Games for Physical Education

The potential use of serious games in educational settings is huge, because a large and growing population is familiar and engaged with playing games. However, the popularity of games has aroused also problems. For example, obesity has recently become a big problem in many countries. The development of motion-based controllers and the concern over the high levels of obesity has facilitated the new coming of exertion game genre that involve physical activity as a means of interacting with the game. In this paper a design framework for exertion games is proposed. Based on the framework three mobile multiplayer exertion games were developed and empirically evaluated in a junior high school (n = 105). The results indicated that mobile phones and heart rate belts were experienced as appropriate exertion game controllers and simple motion detection can be used to design engaging exertion games. The results showed that motion-based games and team play motivate children a lot and games could be an effective ‘weapon’ in the fight against the growing problem of obesity. Furthermore, the results indicated that exertion games could have also educational value and educational content could be embedded in to exertion games. Generally, it seems that exertion games could provide meaningful and cost-effective solutions for physical education and other educational contexts. In spite of promising results more research, particularly in the area of exertion game design is needed.