Abstract
This paper addresses the development process of a serious game - PHOBOS - for hemophobia treatment. Hemophobia, also known as blood phobia, is the fear of blood, wounds, injuries, amongst others. The game addresses the issue through applied-tension exercise combined with exposure therapy on a virtual reality environment. One of the main challenges was to design a game that reconciliate in a balanced way an immersive narrative and plot with the treatment of a phobia that causes great tensions and find the best mechanics to allow a gradual exposure to blood. Artistically we wanted to create the more realistic environment possible, in tune with the sound design. This process was done with the help of a team of psychologists that in conjunction with the team of game developers created a plot that helps the player to adjust his discomfort and challenge himself in his path to deal with this phobia. We present an early stage development process of a virtual reality phobia game, from the brainstorming concept of the game to the development to the first prototype with its requirements and hardware used.
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© 2019 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
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Petersen, J., Carvalho, V., Oliveira, J.T., Oliveira, E. (2019). A Serious Game for Hemophobia Treatment Phobos: First Insights. In: Brooks, A., Brooks, E., Sylla, C. (eds) Interactivity, Game Creation, Design, Learning, and Innovation. ArtsIT DLI 2018 2018. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 265. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06134-0_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06134-0_27
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