We are a group of enthusiastic researchers (Academic Staff, Associates, PhD Candidates) working in the broader area of Software and Interactive Technologies, including:
Learning Technologies and Virtual Learning Environments,
Computer - Supported Collaborative Learning,
Game Based Learning and Mobile Learning,
Serious Gam/ Exergames Development and
User Experience Design
To learn more about us visit our lab's website by clicking our logo below.
LASSO is a web-based simulation, storytelling and interactive game to assess and optimize your soft skills in leadership. You take the role of a chief department manager in a multinational company and experience multiple situations, encounters and opportunities in which you will have to take decisions. Through these decisions, your soft skills in leadership will be tested and a profile based on Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership and their Inventory will be produced. You will be able to improve your soft skills and optimize them with the help of in-game tips provided based on your profile, by replaying the game. You are also able to track your progress and compare your scores with the averages, through interactive graphs.
The principles of gaming-based learning and the technological tools for game support and development, which are widely disseminated in support or replacement of traditional teaching methods, were used in the designing process. A significant part of the time was devoted to reviewing available technologies and specific applications that can serve the purposes of the system and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each solution.
The engine chosen to develop the game was Unity 3D. The additional Fungus visual novel and storytelling tool was used. The implementation of the scenario was heavily based on the inventory and was guided by expert guidance. A model for grading each possible option was also created trying to simulate the grading scale of the inventory. Also o database was created for the users and their scores.
It is known that education and the development of leadership skills can maximize productivity, build a positive culture, and promote harmony. Multiple companies would like to assess and train their possible employees in various skills. But apart from their importance to organizations, one might consider them particularly useful in their everyday life. The game is for anyone interested in developing and improving soft skills in leadership.
There are a lot of educational simulation games for developing both hard and soft skills, but not in a visual novel - storytelling style. Most business focused games are a simulation of managing a store or a company, focusing more on the decision making skills by removing the human interaction part. LASSO tries to simulate realistic situations and encounters in the workplace, in an everyday level.
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TARGET
Anti-doping awareness game for healthy lifestyle
GAME project is motivated by the need to advance anti-doping education intervention targeting competitive and recreational athletes. The project’s consortium recognizes the need to move forward and transform the way anti-doping education is designed, delivered and evaluated.
TARGET is mainly a telltale serious game using realistic scenarios in order to engage users in critical situations which will help them to change behaviors and perspective towards anti-doping awareness. To this direction, the game classifies users into amateur and elite athletes, offering four different scenarios in each level, corresponding to four different learning indicators (knowledge, self-efficacy, moral displacement and attitudes). Each scenario describes a unique story where the user has to take critical decisions and make the appropriate choices, in order to succeed and score as many points as possible.
The game consists of the login page, where each user must fill her/his personal credentials to login to the platform, the level selection screen, where she/he can choose from different scenarios, the actual stories where the main games- scenarios take place and the score screen with user’s scores and users leaderboard as shown in the video above.
The evaluation results of the users' evaluation have shown us that the users found the game easy to use, easy to learn and satisfactory. Moreover, the results indicate that the game offers enjoyment to the players.
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TEAM
Teamwork Evaluation and Assessment gaMe
TEAM is an educational game which, through the simulation of realistic situations, enhances the development, practice and improvement of skills, which are necessary for the people’s professional progress. In particular, this game aims at developing people’s teamwork skills, as they need to work closely with others in order to achieve their common goals.
The user is the one who controls the flow of the game and interacts with the game by choosing among the available options in each situation. On the main game’s screen the script’s characters appear in the center of the screen and below them the dialog box that contains the script’s dialogs. When the user has to choose between the four possible options, the options are displayed in the center of the screen.
If the user has played the game before, seven bars are displayed at the left of the screen, showing the results of his previous attempts. For each type of team skill, there is a bar, which increases dynamically according to the choices made by the user in his current effort.
The evaluation results are encouraging since the student’s opinion was positive. They found the game easy to use, easy to learn and satisfactory. Moreover the results indicate that the game offers enjoyment to the players.
Tennis Attack
Tennis Attack is an interactive 3D video game, that uses the natural user interface Microsoft Kinect, in order to improve response time of, including but not limited to, athletes. The game targets to improve, using entertainment as its vehicle, the response time of the user to important stimuli of everyday life.
Tennis Attack belongs to the category of serious games and in particular, to the category of ActiveVideoGames or AVG that promote exercise and healthy lifestyle converting a traditional sedentary activity into physical exercise. Unity game engine, C# scripts and Zigfu Development Kit or ZDK were used in order to develop Tennis Attack. The game can serve as a tool for measuring and improving simple reaction time (one stimulus - one response). It's partially configurable by the players and allows them to control the number of the balls and the rate at which they will appear on screen.
Scores are stored in a database through a local server and allows the users to monitor their performance and observe their progress.
Healthy Me
The Healthy Me application was influenced by the need of changing young people’s lifestyle. The modern way of living has reduced the physical activity and one in five adolescents and teenagers are overweight. Sedentary lifestyle is emerging as a global pandemic. Besides this, European adolescents typically eat half of the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables and less than two-thirds of the recommended amount of milk and dairy products but consume more meat, fats and sweets than recommended. Awareness of the dietary guidelines seems to be low. In addition, there are many barriers for adolescents and teenagers to physical activity such as lack of self-motivation, non-enjoyment of exercise, lack of self-management skills and etc.
Mobile application on smartphones and tablets can make physical activity more enjoyable and provide an incentive to be physically active. Mobile devices is an effective means for influencing physical activity behavior. Mobile applications that deal with adding foods and counting calories are constantly increasing. The point though, is not just to avoid breaking the calorie limit but to follow a healthy diet. Therefore, what is missing from the Android market is an application that provides daily calorie intake and nutrition control, but at the same time teaches about healthy diet and creates motivation for the user to keep going.
Healthy Me aims at supporting change in daily life and eating habits, promoting a healthy lifestyle and eliminating physical barriers. To be more specific, a balanced diet is promoted. Therefore, this application will advise and guide the user during maintaining or losing weight by helping him to adopt a balanced diet. The user will learn about this type of diet through the application tips. The aim of the tips will not only aim at making the user understand why a diet is beneficial, but will also help with what he can include in his diet if he wants to eat healthy. In order to overcome the problem of lacking motivation, the application has strong game elements. For this reason, in order to add some food to his diet he must first buy it with coins he collected in the game. Coins can be collected by reading the automated and manual diet tips in many different categories that focus on the following:
Healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner recommendations
Healthy snack suggestions
Reading and understanding nutritional data in food labels
Balanced diet
Healthy high fat foods
Nutrients on foods
Empty calories
Also, in order to motivate the user to exercise and stick to a healthy diet, coins can be collected by walking or running while using the pedometer. Another way is by following the balanced diet essential nutrients percentages within your diet schedule.
The engine chosen to develop the game was Unity. In conjunction with Unity, the Fungus visual scripting tool was incorporated. The application is mobile oriented.
The evaluation results have shown that it is useful, easy to use, easy to learn and the users were satisfied with it.
Affective Kitchen (AFFKitchen)
Affective Kitchen is a 2D, roguelike, time-management game with one simple goal, to earn as much money as you can, by preparing and serving food to your customers, before time runs out. Time decreases on a certain rate, which is increased as time passes.
The player can also allow the game to connect to his/hers device’s camera and/or to the Bitalino GSR sensor, in order to let the game adjust its difficulty, to the user’s feelings so as to not feel bored or overwhelmed by the game while playing it.
The game consists of a login window, the main menu, the options menu, where he can enable or disable the peripherals, the actual game screen and the last scene where the user can monitor the gold he/she collected in the last run and where he/she lands among the other players, by scrolling down the leaderboard list.
Skywords
Sky Words is a 2D serious game designed to help young students enhance both their typing and spelling skills. Some words keep falling and the students try to type them before the word reaches to the end of the screen.
The game consists of the main menu, a menu that the student can choose the difficulty of the game, the screen of the actual game and the final screen with the results of the game.
HALT
Combat violence and tackle racism, discrimination and intolerance in sports
HALT serious game is a telltale serious game using realistic scenarios in order to engage users, mainly young athletes, in critical situations which will help them to be aware towards harassment and abuse in sport. There are four different scenarios taking place in different sports. Each scenario describes a unique story where the user has to rate certain behaviours and make the appropriate choices, in order to succeed and score as many points as possible. Finally there is also a fifth scenario which is a quiz to assess what the users have learned by playing the rest of the scenarios.
The game consists of the login page, where each user must fill her/his personal credentials to login to the platform, the map menu screen, where she/he can choose from different scenarios, the actual stories where the main games- scenarios take place and the score screen with user’s scores and users leaderboards.
BATTLE4HEALTH
Battle4Health is a 2D serious game where you have to take care of a creature that has the same needs as yours. You need to insert everyday data such as sleep hours, food consumption, answers to questions concerning a healthy lifestyle and from another app, your steps are loaded. Also, your creature fights other players' creatures, by comparing their knowledge of a healthy lifestyle and their healthy habits.
Battle4Health aims to introduce adolescents to a healthy lifestyle. The way to accomplish this is by gaining knowledge from answering questions, being informed from tips and understanding the importance of having good sleep, good nutrition and physical activity. Questions and tips are from specialists in the fields of nutrition and exercise.
FRIENDME
Friend me offers the opportunity to obtain programming skills via an interactive and fun environment. It challenges you to solve programming questions in order to accomplish certain missions.
Your goal is to make friends at your new school.
iSport
iSport Game is a serious, two-dimensional story-based game intended to teach and train event organizers on how to plan and organize sporting events that are open to people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations and abilities. The game shows different situations and challenges that sports event organizers must face, and gives players a safe place to practice troubleshooting and decision-making. As the game continues, players will receive feedback on their choices and earn points based on how well they deal with each situation.
The goal of the game is to help players be better prepared to deal with real-life problems by providing them with an interesting and interactive way to learn about diversity and inclusion in sports.
