Use of proven gaming technology to educate young people on COVID-19, promoting adherence to social distancing and providing a platform for trusted information dissemination

在疫苗开发之前，新冠肺炎预计会出现多波感染传播。为了拉平这一趋势并减少死亡人数，各国政府发布了面向普通公众的指南，重点关注社会距离和卫生行为。我们的初步研究显示，青少年对冠状病毒感到战无不胜，只有17%的参与者相信他们会感染冠状病毒，35%的参与者相信他们会感染，但不会让他们生病。然而，10%的受访者表示，他们担心这场战争何时会结束。为此，迫切需要为年轻人开发可获得的资源，以确保政府的指导得到遵守，并缓解焦虑。为了满足这一需求，该项目团队的目标是开发一款手机游戏，在新冠肺炎上教育年轻人。这款视频游戏将在用于移动设备的Unity游戏引擎上开发，允许广泛采用和传播。后台游戏分析将被用来绘制玩家对新冠肺炎的知识差距和态度。这些数据将用于评估游戏的有效性，并结合政府数据，以更好地了解政府指导的障碍和新冠病毒-19的社会影响。在第二阶段，将确保大学出版商合作出版新冠肺炎游戏(用于消费者传播)和未来的健康教育应用程序。此阶段还将重点改进博弈分析数据库，并使用JSON和R自动化评估过程。项目结果将用于进一步制定2021年种子投资的业务计划和文件。

Multiple waves of infection transmission are anticipated for COVID-19 before a vaccine is developed. To flatten the curve and reduce deaths, governments have released guidance for general public focused on social distancing and hygiene behaviours. However, a standardised strategy to educate young people has not been established.Our pilot research has indicated that young people feel invincible against coronavirus, with only 17% of participants believing they will catch coronavirus and 35% believing they would catch it, but it would not make them ill. However, 10% reported concerns over "when it would be over".To this end, there is an urgent need to develop accessible resources for young people to ensure that government guidance is followed, and anxiety is alleviated. To meet this need, the project team aim to develop a mobile game to educate young people on COVID-19. The video game will be developed on Unity game engine for mobile devices, allowing widespread uptake and dissemination. Backend game analytics will be used to map player knowledge gaps and attitudes towards COVID-19. These data will be used to assess effectiveness of game and in combination with government data, to better understand barriers to government guidance, and social impacts of COVID-19.In this second phase, a University publisher collaboration will be secured for the publication of COVID-19 game (for consumer dissemination) and for future applications for health education. This phase will also focus on improving game analytics database and automating the evaluation process using JSON and R. Project findings will be used for further development of business plan and documents for seed investment round in 2021.