Games for Health

Serious Games are often employed in the health sector. Games for health, e.g., for diagnostic purpose, education, and training, are used to address tasks as diverse as rehabilitation, cancer awareness, and understanding of or coping with psychological disorders. One important area in which Serious Games play an important role is education, training, and learning, which is the focus of the present paper. A challenge in the development of Serious Games is the interdisciplinary nature of the project itself. Medical experts, social scientists, computer scientists, and artists need to work together from the early stages of the project on to the development of a game concept. Working with an interdisciplinary team presents advantages and challenges. Bringing together experts from various disciplines ensures using state-of-the-art techniques and offers fresh perspectives. On the other hand, a common terminology and a usable workflow have to be established. This article focuses on the development and the lessons learned from the serious game SANTRAIN, which aims at the first responder training of the German Federal Armed Forces.