The Child Patient Game (CPgame) is an experimental computer game for hospitalized children (age 4 to 6). The purpose of the game is to design a computer game environment for young patients that can map emotional experiences - and hereby allow hospitalized children to inform staff and researchers about their emotional lives. The concept of the game is developed by designer / researcher Eva Knutz in cooperation with the children ward and research unit at Kolding Hospital. The design of the CPgame is strongly shaped by emotion theory, as described in an earlier paper [10].
3.1 The Design of the CPgame
The CPgame is about a young child's journey through a healthcare system. This child figure is the main character that the player (the patient) will follow and must control in the game. The player can attach certain Emotions to the child figure (fig.1) or give the child figure certain Secret Powers (fig.2) that can help him through unpleasant things, such as the blood test.
Fig. 1. Screenshot from the CPgame: the player is applying the emotion "afraid" to the main figure. © Knutz 2010.
The player must attach one out of five emotions: three negative, one positive and one less articulated (Angry, Afraid, Happy, Sad or Uncertain) that the player thinks fits to the child figure in the game. The emotions are visualized as five animated characters, with five different colours (fig. 1). This action of game play results in the continuation of the story. For instance, if the player attaches the emotion "anger" to the child figure in a particular situation, the child figure will act angry. If the player thinks that "sadness" is more appropriate, the player can change emotion. When the player has arrived at the "right" emotion, the game can continue.
Fig. 2. Screenshot from the CPgame: Catching a "Secret Power" © Knutz 2010.
The "Secret Powers" consist of five different objects that the player can catch (fig.2) before going into the fictitious blood test. If an object is caught, the "Power" becomes visible: A teddy bear that the child figure can hug; an iron armour that the child figure can wear; a magic cape that makes the child figure invisible; a bottle of light liquid that makes the child figure shrink when he drinks it; and a bottle of dark liquid that makes the child figure grow up when he drinks it.
When the player has caught the Secret Power, that he or she think will help the child figure the best, the game can continue with that particular power attached to the game story. So the child figure keeps the secret power in the narrative sequence that follows. All choices of the player are stored in a database, fixing the players pattern of choices (of emotions and secret powers) throughout the game.
3.2 Game World, Game Story, Rules and Players Fictional Worlds (in books, films or games) are by definition incomplete because it is not possible to specify all the details about any world [11]. This is where the player comes in; the player transmits his or her intentions into the game world. The sequence of action that unfolds in a game occurs as a result of the player’s interaction with the game. Since it is a game - and not just a story - the fictional world represented in a game cannot function without the rules [11].
The way the player transmits her intentions into the game world is through gameplay. The gameplay lays down the rules for the player’s interaction with the game world and the game story. Understanding the gameplay, is understanding the pattern you need to play with in order to perceive the fictional world of the game as a whole. A fictional world that can be described through the concepts of:
rGame World: An imagined world, inhabited with fictive characters (objects, sound);
rGame Story: A sequence of events within the game world containing beginning, middle, end;
rRules: What the player "must do" in the Game world, constituted through gameplay;
rPlayers: Who are imagining the fictional world, interacts with game, make choices.
If we drop these concepts upon our case - the CPgame - we have a fictional world that (schematic) can been described as:
rGame World: The universe of a hospital, experienced by the main character: a child patient;
rGame Story: The journey of a child patient (a fictive costumer) going through a fictive healthcare system, with several events taking place over time: the child is sick (begin of game) the child (now a patient) gets treatment (middle) the child becomes well again (end of game);
rRules: The player must control the child character, lead him through the hospital and must attach "emotions" and "secret powers" to the child patient (during his journey) that the player feels must be the right ones; rPlayers: Hospitalized children who are in the middle of
a similar "journey".
3.3 Player Experience and Character Experience in relation to CPgame
The game is build up that way that the main character (the child figure) must go through certain experiences; he will become sick, he must overnight at the hospital, he will be treated and he will become well again (Character Experience). But it is also a game that allows the player to interact with the game world, through gameplay (Player Experience). Table 3 explains the Character Experience and the Player Experience in relation to the CPgame.
Character Experience Player Experience
The main character (a child figure) is at home; he becomes ill and is brought to the hospital by his parents. Here different things are happening to him; he is being treated (examined, measured, having a blood test) and he has to spend the night in the hospital (where he falls into a strange dream). When he wakes up, he feels well again and can be brought back home. It's like a 24-hour circle story, where the end is connected to the beginning.
During this journey (the stay at the hospital) the player must attach "emotions" and "secret powers" to the child figure, that the player feels must be the right ones (the emotions) or the ones that can help the child figure the best way (the secret powers). The game is build up so that that it increasingly becomes more difficult and challenging and that the player slowly gets more control over the main character. What the player does in the game and the way he interacts with the game (the choices he makes in the game, the movement of his play pattern) will form his Player Experience.
Table 1. Character Experience and Player Experience in relation to the CPgame.
In the next section of this paper, we will take a closer look at how the players (children patients) interact with the Child Patient game. We are investigating how persons felt emotion (towards a real hospital situation) relates to the persons imaginary experiences with a fictive character (experiencing a fictive hospital situation). For the sake of clarity, let us define all experiences, before we move on:
r Character Experience: What the character (a fictive
child patient) is experiencing in the fictional world (of the CPgame)
r Player Experience: What the player (a child patient)
is experiencing while playing (the CPgame)
r Real Emotion: Emotional Experience towards a real
situation.
r Fictional Emotion: Emotional Experience towards
a fictional situation.