1. GLOW Concept Document CONFIDENTIAL
Overview
High Concept
GLOW is a thrilling augmented reality game (AR) that merges virtual world, cell phone,
and Web technologies to promote real-world fitness. Through verifiable measurement
devices and real-world check-ins a la Foursquare, players collect virtual supplies,
uncover clues, and participate in an epic race to recharge an ailing society decimated by
an insidious virus.
As operatives from the digital colony and virtual world, Lumeria, players have access to
all the greatest minds of Lumeria and can explore the expansive, serene landscapes. The
holistic approach to life is ever-present in Lumeria’s famous Chi Gardens, where players
can engage in meditative mini-games, practice yoga, and converse with non-playing
characters (NPCs). Over time, players can view a comparative progress report based on
individual health or community health.
Game Highlights
Epic adventure full of
twists and surprises
Real-world activities
affect virtual world
Virtual world elicits
serenity and teaches
stress reduction skills
Vision
According to a study conducted in 2012, 73% of respondents with fitness resolutions fail
to commit to a lifestyle change. By enlisting players as protagonists in an engaging story,
GLOW motivates players to make fitness a part of their lives. Lumeria itself is also a
draw, as a virtual oasis away from the harried stresses of the real world.
Audience
GLOW appeals to adventure gamers, virtual world enthusiasts, ARG players, and people
who want an engaging way to track daily health and progress.
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2. GLOW Concept Document CONFIDENTIAL
The World of Lumeria
In a parallel universe far, far away…
Lumeria is the last refuge of humankind. As an inexplicable virus ravages the populace,
the remnants of the digerati download their minds into avatars that live in this vast virtual
world. Most Lumerians exist only in digital form, but a few have bodies on stasis.
Like the others, you, the player, are well aware of the world’s main center, Chi Gardens,
where you can be trained in the art of tai chi, guided visualization, yoga, and so forth.
You can even try one of the meditative mini-games to win credits, the land’s currency.
Vendors selling everything from castles to the latest fashions are hawking their wares.
You can communicate with other avatars, even leave notes or gifts at their homes. A
Social Committee Chair provides a list of scheduled activities, which ranges from
Community Challenges to Poetry Corners.
Life for you, though, is about to change. Lately, the virus has found its way into the
digital networks, threatening life in Lumeria. As one of few with available bodies, you
are selected for a special mission and sent via side-stepping technology to a parallel
world with no taint of the deadly virus. It is there where you hope to put together a cure
to stop the virus while at the same time, unravel the mystery behind the virus’
beginnings.
Since the virus can be spread to Lumeria, it is imperative that you check your vitals and
go through a health check before each re-entry to Lumeria. And of course, you wouldn’t
want to lose that body of yours…
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3. GLOW Concept Document CONFIDENTIAL
Fitness Merged With Gaming
At times, your missions will require supplies from Lumeria. To facilitate transfer, the
professors in Lumeria have rigged your cell phone to show an overlay of the projected
drop points. If you happen to be in a mall, you would see the route mapped out inside the
mall.
You can walk, run, canoe, swim, bicycle, or whatever, as long as it is exercise
measurable and registered through your cell phone. Once you start the mission, it is
imperative that you reach the drop points within the time slot.
An Active Community
Social bonds in the GLOW community encourage players to commit to fitness goals
through various means:
Notes and Gifting
Players can leave notes at another player’s home and can “gift” items.
Badges and Leaderboard
Player achievements are celebrated with badges that can be displayed on the Player
Profile. A comparative leaderboard (based on communities) shows how well one
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4. GLOW Concept Document CONFIDENTIAL
community is doing compared to another. The leaderboard can be sorted for various
measures, such as obesity or lowest blood pressure.
Community Quests
Communities can also have quests and require certain number of members to reach a goal
in order to complete the Community Quest. The members who helped to complete the
Community Quest receive in-game currency and a monument is placed in the Chi
Gardens to commemorate the event.
Posting to Facebook or Twitter
Badges and images can be posted on Facebook or Twitter.
Data Collection and Usage
Data Collection
There will be two levels of data collection, general and preferred:
 General data will include automatic activity data generated from cell phone apps
for exercise and heart rate.
 Preferred data will come from users linking personal Wi-Fi health data devices
such as scales, blood pressure cuffs, and glucose meters. Players sharing this type
of specific, verified health data will receive access to special content.
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5. GLOW Concept Document CONFIDENTIAL
Data can be collected through these methods:
 Manual Input from Player—Personal data and physical statistics input through
web forms. Player’s health goals may be to increase activity, reduce stress, lower
blood pressure, manage weight, manage diabetes, or improve mood.
 Automatic Input from Phone Apps—Region check-ins, accelerometer
(distance, speed, altitude) and GPS activity data. Various cell phone apps check
for exercise and measure heart rate.
 Automatic input from game world—achievements, currency earned, content
purchases, in-game changes in heart rate, strategy elements.
Virtual World Health Benefits
Recently, it was reported that through self-identification with avatars, it is possible for
players to receive real-world health benefits by viewing avatars perform exercise and
meditative routines such as tai chi. In addition, the impact of playing a game with a
calming virtual environment has been shown to have a calming effect on players and has
even been compared to the act of meditation itself.
Research into the impact of calming game environments and avatar exercise routines
merits further study. This is where GLOW can break new ground. While promoting
physical activity, GLOW can also collect data on how virtual world activities can
translate into tangible, real-world health benefits.
Data Usage
Target AF4Q geography--Ohio
Use of Aligning Forces for Quality and County Health Rankings Data
AF4 and County Rankings data from the Ohio region will be used for a motivational
challenge to Glow players.
Glow Community Challenge
The entire community’s challenge will be to beat the County Health Rankings percent
obese, as determined by BMI.
Glow Elite Community Challenge
Elite members must beat the 2011 average of unacceptable blood pressure and glucose
levels for the Aligning Forces Ohio county data at the end of the year.
Rankings board will display community progress. Users will be able to see their personal
ranking on their private dashboard.
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6. GLOW Concept Document CONFIDENTIAL
Software Description
This project delivers exciting and motivational content for users, while collecting
valuable data for researchers and delivering flexible and sortable datasets. The software
development is done by a team experienced in the design of multi-use sortable data
collection.
Game play and task tracking will occur across three different platforms:
Cell Phone App
Cross-platform application designed delivers location-based-map-driven content, activity
tracking, and communications from in-game NPC mentors. The underlying architecture
for this portion of the game is complete. It allows Foursquare check-ins at parks in the
Aligning Forces Ohio region where a player can complete real world activity challenges.
An augmented reality layer shows players location of digital content on a map. They can
click and capture that content when they approach within target range. Captured content
and calorie burn numbers earn game currency and special content.
Virtual World
The initial game world is an expandable 2x2 region running Opensimulator –
“OpenSimulator is an open source multi-platform, multi-user 3D application
server. It can be used to create a virtual environment (or world) which can be
accessed through a variety of clients, on multiple protocols.”
http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page
The platform includes a physics engine and allows for customized scripts in-game in a
variety of languages, including LSL/OSSL, C# and VB.NET.
 Allows for Prim and Mesh content, as well as scripted NPCs, and avatar
health/damage tracking.
 An entry region with basic content and a greeter NPC is already in place.
Interactive Website
The website is the hub driving the game:
 Collecting initial personal information, health goals, and physical data from
players via form input.
 Delivering feedback to players via data driven graphs
 Displaying Aligning Forces and County Health Data in the community challenge
center and comparing those statistics to statistics generated by Glow players.
 Gathering specialized, verifiable health data (blood glucose, blood pressure,
weight) from premium players via Wi-Fi linked devices.
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7. GLOW Concept Document CONFIDENTIAL
Community Deployment
Since GLOW would need widespread community adoption for a meaningful social
experience, we intend to ask clinics, doctor associations, and medical groups in the
targeted region to support a pilot program. The pilot program would be a shortened
version of entire game. Various communities can go through the pilot program at the
same time.
The full game is intended to last one year so that researchers can obtain meaningful data.
It is certainly possible to extend the program beyond one year, but additional content like
a sequel to the story would need to be added.
We can also partner with local businesses, schools, and medical device makers to
promote sign-ups.
Research References
Au, Wagner James. “Woman With Parkinson’s Reports Significant Physical Recovery
After Using Second Life – Academics Researching,” New World Notes, February 7,
2013, http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/02/second-life-possible-parkinsons-therapy.html
Staub, Mary. “Relaxing Video Games May Calm Players in Real Life,” Tech News Daily,
June 13, 2011, http://www.technewsdaily.com/2719-relaxing-video-games-may-calm-
players-in-real-life.html
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8. GLOW Concept Document CONFIDENTIAL
About the Team
Sande Chen has over 10 years of experience in the game industry as a writer, producer,
and designer. She is the author of the book, Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train,
and Inform, and has spoken at conferences around the world on the topic of virtual
worlds and serious games. She is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, the London School of Economics, and USC’s School of Cinema-Television.
She has been nominated for Grammy and Writers Guild of America Awards.
Dorothy Hurtt is an award winning poet and author of several published short stories,
novels and games. She developed the story, characters, dialogue and contributed to the
gameplay design process for the casual adventure game, Spirit Walkers: Curse of the
Cypress Witch, just released by Orchid Games. In addition to ten years of experience as a
writer, she ran her own computer repair shop, supporting networking, software, web
design, and repair needs for the local business community. Program languages include
Python, Javascript, HTML5, LSL and OSSL scripting languages. Her diverse interests
and skill set provide a resource of knowledge and connections for pulling together and
guiding a unique development team.
Stuart W. Templeton is a community-engaged musician, artist, and software developer.
He is the director of the Open Form Foundation, creators of innovative products such as
Xamalga and Flyer Zero. In addition to his 15 years of hands-on development
experience, Stuart is studied in visual culture and history, ultimately creating his unique
business perspective.
Thomas Hurtt has 15 years experience in the Software industry with a background in
QA as well as development; 10 years software development experience at all levels from
device drivers, desktop applications, application servers, and applications for web and
mobile platforms; and 5 years working in an agile environment using Extreme
Programming, SCRUM and Kanban. Experience using the following
languages/technologies in a production development environment: C++, Python, Ruby on
Rails, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, PHP, Perl, Java, C#, and Intel x86 assembly.
Stacey Taylor has been building virtual worlds and developing virtual reality based
games since 2008. Projects included: An interactive game Survive!, a Survivor-esque
tropical paradise with challenges, puzzles, and a built in mystery. Dark Carnival, a full
grunge killer clown sim, which produced a static, ongoing game called Diary of A
Madman. In opensim-based Kitely she put up a freebie world, Virtual Clover, and started
the Kitely Mentors Group leading residents in the building of Kitely Beach, a sort of HQ
for Kitely and intended originally to be a place to host Kitely's breakout mega launch
party.
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