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Escape from diab website wins another interactive award
“Serious” videogame promotes children’s healthy lifestyle
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Houston, Texas (May 14, 2007) -- Archimage, Inc., a Houston-based
design firm, announced today that the website for its Escape From
Diab videogame has won a 2007 Horizon Interactive Gold Award. This
is the website’s fourth international honor. In 2006,
EscapeFromDiab.com was given an Interactive Media Awards - Best in
Class award under the Kids category. In April 2007, the website was
recognized for its excellence in interactive media production when it
was nominated for Best Youth Website in the 11th Annual Webby
Awards. Currently, EscapeFromDiab.com is a top nominee for a 2007
Index: Award in the Play category.
Escape From Diab is a sci-fi, role-playing, PC videogame adventure in
healthy eating and exercise. The project is one of two videogame
based behavioral interventions funded by a $9M grant from the
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of
the National Institutes of Health. Archimage is developing Escape
From Diab and it’s sister title, Nanoswarm: Invasion From Inner
Space in collaboration with experts at the Children's Nutritional
Research Center of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine. Both games
run on Windows personal computers and have dedicated websites that
feature elements from the games.
Twenty-seven year-old Archimage graphic designer Iva Yeon Jung Kim
says she created the website “to seed interest in the videogame,”
which is scheduled to enter the consumer market in 2008. “An
important part of the design was creating the sensation of gameplay.
I treated the site as a collection of toys that keep the eye moving
by using motion graphics, easter eggs, and interesting content.”
Escape From Diab takes place in a dark land where an evil King has
imprisoned his population by denying them good food and access to
exercise. The website’s navigation ties its themes to the storyline
via boxes of junk food that pop open. Kim says, “The site is
intentionally heavy on graphics and light on text as a way to appeal
to the game’s audience; 9 - 12 year old children.”
The Horizon Interactive Awards is a leading international interactive
media awards competition. The sixth annual international competition
recognized excellence in interactive media production among multi-
media developers worldwide. The 2007 winning entries showcase the
best developed interactive media solutions including web sites, CDs
and DVDs, online ads, video and more.
The Interactive Media Awards recognize the highest standards of
excellence in website design and development and honor individuals
and organizations for their outstanding achievement. Created by the
Interactive Media Council, Inc. (IMC), a nonprofit organization of
leading web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers and other
web-related professionals, the competition is designed to elevate the
standards of excellence on the Internet.
Hailed as the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, The
Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence
on the Internet, including Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online
Film & Video, and Mobile Websites.
INDEX: is a global non-profit network organization that focuses on
design to improve life – e.g. design that substantially improves
important aspects of human life – worldwide.
“Serious” games use videogames’ rich immersive capabilities to
deliver positive messages. Players participate as characters in a
story to learn through actual experience. Escape From Diab and
Nanoswarm: Invasion From Innerspace are videogame behavior change
interventions targeting obesity and type 2 diabetes prevention in
children. Both games are nearing completion and will soon begin a
one-year field trial to test their effectiveness.
Archimage is an architectural design firm that also develops serious
video games played on the Web, PCs, handheld games and Nintendo’s
Gamecube. The 24-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 The National Institutes of Health,
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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For more information, contact:
Richard Buday, FAIA
Archimage, Inc.
tel: 713.523.3425
contact: Richard Buday
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Escape from Diab Website
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