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

在开发出疫苗之前，预计COVID-19将出现多波感染传播。为了使曲线变平并减少死亡，各国政府发布了针对公众的指南，重点关注社交距离和卫生行为。我们的试验研究显示，年轻人对冠状病毒感到不可战胜，只有17%的参与者认为他们会感染冠状病毒，35%的参与者认为他们会感染冠状病毒，但不会让他们生病。然而，10%的人表示担心“何时结束”，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循，并减轻焦虑。为满足这一需求，项目团队旨在开发一款移动的游戏，以教育年轻人了解COVID-19。视频游戏将在Unity游戏引擎上开发，用于移动的设备，允许广泛的吸收和传播。后端游戏分析将用于绘制玩家对COVID-19的知识差距和态度。这些数据将用于评估游戏的有效性，并与政府数据相结合，以更好地了解政府指导的障碍以及COVID-19的社会影响。在第二阶段，将与大学出版商合作出版COVID-19游戏（用于消费者传播），并用于未来的健康教育应用。这一阶段还将专注于改进游戏分析数据库，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年种子投资轮的业务计划和文件。

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.