A design framework for arcade-type games for the upper-limb rehabilitation

Abstract

Motor rehabilitation helps impaired patients to regain their motor skills. Video game based therapies are an alternative form of rehabilitation claiming higher therapy adherence. Demands from medical, technical and user centered perspectives have thus far guided the development of these systems. Designing a single game complying with all the suggested principles remains unsolved. A common solution is to create collections of games, each one partially addressing a few demands, but even the design of each individual game is still challenging. Here, the COMFeeDY (Concept, objects, mechanics, feedback, and dynamics) framework is proposed as a response to the need of creating game-based rehabilitation systems composed of a variety of video games in a simpler, reusable, and faster way. The use of the framework is illustrated through the design of a game for upper limb rehabilitation. The current proposal represents the seed to what we envisaged should grow into a full framework further incorporating the medical and user centered principles so that games developed under the framework would have better chances of being therapeutically valid from onset. By using the proposed design framework, it is expected that the design process can be speeded up, components can be reused, and the development of these games be simplified.