How the COVID-19 pandemics inspired the development of analogical games: database review and game development

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemics impacted everyone's lives. Risk of infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus imposed severe restrictive measures, submitting the population to home isolation, daily use of face masks and restringing social encounters. In this work we present the results of a research on analogical game databases where we searched for COVID-19-themed tabletop games, discussing which health concepts were presented on these games and what kind of structure and mechanics were used. Subsequently, we present the development of a serious board game, thought to call attention of the prevention measures to reduce the risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses. We discuss the rationale for the selection of game mechanics and how do they fit on the health concepts that we wanted to reinforce. The product is a print and play serious game that will be available as an open educational resource.

Keywords

• Serious game
• COVID-19
• public health
• prevention
• viral transmission
• game mechanics