Railway is the last and most complex of the serious games developed by Brainstorm for the FrailSafe platform. It calls for high mental, cognitive and physical involvement of the players through the use of multi-component exercises aimed at the following modalities:
- Perception
- Working memory
- Motor Capacities
- Visual and spatial processing
- Executive functions (anticipation, decision making and sequencing)
As in all other games developed for the EU FrailSafe solutions, three basic factors have been taken into account:
- Acceptability of players
- Adaptation to the type of measures
- Technical feasibility
The aim of the game is to monitor frailty patient features related to coordination and reflex, as the radar graph shows. Railway is primarily oriented to executive functions (anticipation and decision making) as well as to motor skills.
To achieve the objectives listed, Railway challenges the user to get the best possible score and longest distance in the game by capturing elements and avoiding obstacles.
Technically speaking, Railway is an “endless run game” and It has been improved to optimize in depth both the graphics and the programming part to allow a comfortable and dynamic gameplay.
Another couple of important technical features of the game are the following:
- The game implements “Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA)” that automatically changes the parameters, scenarios, and behaviours in real-time, based on the player's mental cognitive and physical performance and his/her developed abilities by playing in order to better enjoy the game.
- The visual aspects and movements in the game have been taken into account to avoid sudden changes of scenes and dizziness for the users.
Finally, it should be mentioned that Railway logs some game sessions scores like for example the distance travelled, the maximum velocity, or the patient's range of movements while playing. Based on this data the clinicians can perform an analysis of the patient's evolution, or even detect sudden changes on their condition. On the other hand, taking into account these parameters, the games can automatically adapt to the patients’ condition and capabilities.