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NANOSWARM: INVASION FROM INNER SPACE
SERIOUS VIDEO GAME TARGETS OBESITY AND TYPE II DIABETES PREVENTION IN CHILDREN
Houston, Texas (January 23, 2006) -- Archimage, Inc., a Houston-based design
firm, is creating video games for preventing obesity and type II diabetes in
children. One of these games, Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space, is a story of
four teenagers and the game player piloting a miniaturized vessel through a
human body to defeat a virulent plague of microscopic robots. The video game
project is a first person, role-playing science fiction adventure that uses live
actors superimposed inside computer-generated three-dimensional
environments. The four-year project is funded by the National Institute of
Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
Diabetes has been called a global “stealth epidemic.” The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention predicts one third of Americans born after 2000 will be
diabetic in their lifetime. Type II diabetes used be called “adult-onset diabetes”
because the disease commonly struck late in life. Today, however, an increasing
number of young adults, teenagers -- even children -- are developing the disease.
Poor diet and lack of physical activity are widely blamed. Diabetes’ societal and
economic costs are predicted to be staggering.
Archimage is collaborating with experts at the Children’s Nutrition Research
Center of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine. The CNRC is a recognized
leader in nutrition and behavior change research. Nanoswarm uses highly tailored
behavior change technology to motivate children to adopt healthy lifestyles.
Players must set and achieve diet and exercise goals in real life to successfully
play their characters in the game.
Nanotechnology may be tiny, but there is nothing small about the Nanoswarm
game project. Work began in 2003. More than 15 computer artists and game
programmers are now working on the project. A five-week “blue-screen” film
shoot included a crew of 20 and cast of 10 actors. The game will incorporate more
than an hour of “cut scenes,” which are movie clips integrated into game play
activities. Archimage envisions Nanoswarm spin-offs will include a novel and
children’s theatrical production.
“Serious games” use video games’ rich immersive capabilities to deliver positive
messages. Players participate as characters in a story to learn through actual
experience. Archimage believes the same technology some believe encourage
children to behave badly can also be used to encourage healthy living. As
Archimage and Baylor College of Medicine develop video games for health,
others are using the technology to simulate public policy decisions, aid
education, and train corporate managers and military personnel. Activists are
using video game technology to reach large numbers of people through “social
impact games.” Advertising companies are experimenting with “advergaming”
to increase brand awareness.
Archimage develops serious video games played on the Web, PCs, handheld
games and Nintendo’s Gamecube. The 23-year-old visual design studio has won
over 30 international awards for everything from architectural building projects
to broadcast television commercials, computer imagery and print graphics.
Clients include Time Warner Communications, Knowledge Adventure, Ziff-
Davis and IBM. The firm has also worked on projects for The Walt Disney
Company and Nintendo.
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Contact:
Richard Buday, FAIA
Archimage, Inc.
tel: 713.523.3425
email: rbuday@archimageonline.com
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CLICK IMAGES TO DOWNLOAD LARGER IMAGE FILES
Promotional Poster
All action was filmed on a 40' x 50' blue-screen sound stage.
Nanoswarm actors are then composited into computer
generated environments in the completed game.
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