Playing against dengue design and development of a serious game to help tackling dengue

Dengue is a global public health challenge. The dengue virus is transmitted mainly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also a vector of other diseases such as zika, chikungunya and urban yellow fever. Its transmission dynamics is complex, involving several actors, factors and processes. Acting against vectors is still an important strategy, mainly due to limitations in efficacy and accessibility of vaccines. We believe that including and awareness of population is an important factor to address the problem. This project aims to design and develop a serious game to support actions and strategies based on prevention and epidemiological surveillance. In order to raise awareness about vector ecology and disease transmission dynamics, the game design presents information and seeks to encourage behavior changes in a playful environment. Moreover, gamification strategies are being used to stimulate concrete actions in real world. A mix of 2D-based game, augmented reality, virtual reality and the real world itself, will provide the proper environment to offer fun with the purpose of helping to deal with this complex problem. This paper presents the game design and current development stage. The artifacts are being developed in an iterative and incremental way, involving activities of conception, design, construction/prototyping and evaluation. Results include the game design, prototypes and the release of a demo version.