MALIGNANCY VR
SKIN CANCER AWARENESS GAME
IN COLLABORATION WITH QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (QUT) & EXCITE SCIENCE
PROBLEM
‘Green the Street’ was an urban design initiative that began in 2018 by urban designer, Catherine Simpson. Her vision was to demonstrate future street design to inspire Queenslanders to reimagine what their street could be using innovative, immersive technology, and to advocate for creating greener, healthier, more inclusive streets in Brisbane.
SOLUTION
Real Serious Games worked with various health experts to understand how skin cancer develops inside the human body, as well as the different treatments available and how they work. Health experts were also consulted to design an accurate virtual human lung.
The final product is played as a seated virtual reality interactive video game set inside a virtual human lung. The gameplay involves a face-off with cancer, as cancer speaks to the player about how it entered the body: “through the mole on your skin”. The game then progresses to the player using a gun that represents different cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy, to eliminate cancer cells from the body.
There are two voices that can be heard in the experience. First is cancer, which talks about how it spreads into the lungs and its response to treatments. The other voice is the treatment technician, which advises what each treatment is and how it combats cancer. Together, they both serve as the informational and awareness piece.
VALUE
The game was showcased at QUT’s stand during Schoolies week to a positive response. Some of the feedback from the young Australians who participated was that the game was engaging and how it changed their perception about skin cancer.
MalignancyVR was created as more than just an entertaining, educational experience, and went on to serve as the research basis for an article and case study published in JMIR Serious Games. Both QUT and Real Serious Games are now working on taking the game across Australia, and future research avenues include exploring virtual reality as a tool to change sun protection behaviour and prevent sun cancer.
LIKELY APPLICATIONS ELSEWHERE
As well as providing the foundations for skin cancer research and prevention, the technology used to create MalignancyVR can be applied to other health prevention programs in the future. It can also provide a method of engaging and educating the public with greater impact than traditional methods due to the active, experiential nature of virtual reality.
PRODUCT VIDEO
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