The PERGAMON project (PERvasive serious GAMes suppOrted by virtual coachiNg) aims to facilitate the matching between providers of innovative ICT technologies on the supply side and the creative industry operating in the field of serious games on the demand side. Specifically, the PERGAMON project aims to support the adoption by the creative industry of an innovative technology framework for the development of pervasive serious games able to provide a personalized gaming experience. This is accomplished through a gamification platform that links the user’s experience in the real world with the virtual world of the game, and the use of a ‘virtual coach’ to motivate users with personalized feedback and user assistance. Sensor devices integrated into the gaming platform also contribute to a pervasive gaming experience, by remotely collecting information on user activities.
PERGAMON’s main objectives can be summarised as follows:
• to implement and pilot test a gaming framework that helps the creative SME to provide pervasive gaming experience through gamification mechanisms that support user’s engagement
• to develop pervasive serious games integrated with personalized user assistance by means of a virtual coach and a sensor network
• to set up a flexible gaming framework that is expandable so that additional services can be added at any time
• to connect the creative SME with the business network operating into the serious games international market
• to facilitate strategic business alliance between creative SMEs and providers of leading edge ICT technologies.
At the end of the project we have developed a pervasive serious game framework built on the following components:
• a sensor network for monitoring the player by means of wireless sensors
• a virtual coach delivering personalized assistance to the player in the real life
• a gamification platform that adapts the challenges presented in the game and their level of difficulty to the data collected by the sensor network and to the user's interaction with the game itself
• a series of utilities (dashboard) accessible through a web site.
As an application of this technology framework, the PERGAMON project has developed and tested a prototype of a gamification solution for the empowerment of young diabetic patients. It includes an adventure game, set in a fantasy oriental world, called “The Mystery of TikiTako”, whose characters are small octopuses called “takos” (Japanese for “octopus”). The main character is an investigator called T-Shan, who must explore the various rooms of a temple to find a missing object. He can collect items, solve riddles, and play the embedded seven mini-games to unlock the next location and reach the last room where the object is hidden. The solution of the riddles is strictly connected to the goals achieved by the player in his/her real life, and tracked by the PERGAMON’s gamification that collects data from the sensor network, and turn them into points that affect the game.
