ZEN ZOO WIREFRAMES
ABSTRACT:Cases of depression and anxiety have recently skyrocketed among Americans, leaving many individuals uninformed about coping mechanisms to help themselves. (Glowiak, 2020) The rate of affected individuals has tripled since start of COVID-19. About 109 million Americans, or one in three people, show symptoms of anxiety and depression. Only about 41 million Americans of the affected 109 million are actively going to therapy. This leaves a marginal portion of the affected population without help for their symptoms. Recent studies have shown that video games can be used to treat poor mental health (Dan Brennon, MD, 2021). An example of this is the mobile game Plant Nanny Water Tracker Log (PNWTL). PNWTL aims to promote personal hydration through virtual gameplay. Based off games like PNWTL, this study intends to develop a video game that promotes self-care among individuals who are suffering from symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Additionally, the game will serve as a voluntary virtual database that collects information on someone’s mood, as well as the variables that are contributing to the player’s mood. This means a player can track if they have exercised, eaten a meal, hydrated, and/or other self-written notes all time and GPS stamped. By actively reviewing the collected data, a player can learn a lot about themselves. An example would be a player tends to feel happier when they have worked out once a day. Overtime, a player will notice real-life patterns of how their mood is affected by the daily choices they make.
ZEN ZOO GAMEPLAY
One of the primary features of Zen Zoo, the gameplay, rewards players with in-game currency for working to better themselves. Each game mode is designed to improve a player’s mental health in some capacity. The current game modes are Make a Meal, Walk Outside, Read a Book, Clean it Up, and Limit Screen Time.
Make a Meal enables a player to cook a meal with their character in real time by entering the details of the meal and the cook time. The app then periodically sends push-notifications to the player to check on or stir their food until the in-game timer is up.
For Walk Outside, a daily or weekly step goal can be set by the player. Linking to the health app that is preinstalled on all iPhones, Zen Zoo uses that data to track steps.
The Read a Book mini game lets players select from a multitude of short stories about mental health. These include affirmations, inspiration, and mood-boosters.
Once a game is completed, a player is rewarded a different amount of Smiles, the in-game currency, depending on the longevity of their game. For example, a player would only be rewarded 5 Smiles for walking 1,000 steps, but if a player walked 10,000 steps they would get 50 Smiles.