Designing Kinect games to train motor skills for mixed ability players

Children who have special needs when it comes to motor skill development, for instance as a result of developmental coordination disorder or cerebral palsy, need to undergo long bouts of physical therapy. This can often be considered boring, to the detriment of the efficacy of the therapy. One way to improve the engagement of physical therapy is to embed it into a video game, e.g. with the aid of Kinect. However, very little is known scientifically on how to design these serious games for mixed abilities in order to be both fun and efficacious in terms of motor skills development or attitude change. In addition, contemporary entertainment games often revolve around competition based on mastery of skills to be engaging, something special needs children feel left out in. In this position paper we survey the field and propose a number of ways to approach mixed ability game design.