Converting Sedentary Games to Exergames: A Case Study with a Car Racing Game

Abstract

One of the major challenges in designing exercise games (exergames) is maintaining engagement and motivation over time. Previous research has shown that games can increase the motivation exercise. However, these games are typically developed with limited set of specific exercises in mind, which limits genre choices, and potentially long term motivation. To address this critical issue, we are interested in employing any exercise as an interface to common, existing, sedentary games, such as a car racing game. Specifically, in this paper, we aim to take initial steps toward this goal. As a proof of concept, we developed 2 exercised based interfaces for a car racing game - a game genre minimally used for exergames. We present the evaluation of our novel exercise interfaces to the racing game, and offer general guidelines for converting common classes of sedentary games to exergames.