Using Narrative Game Design to Increase Children's Physical Activity: Exploratory Thematic Analysis.

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Game Design
• Child Psychology

Background:

• Physical activity is vital for preventing and managing childhood obesity.
• Active video games with embedded narratives can enhance children's physical activity levels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify narrative characteristics that motivate children to engage in physical activity within active video games.
• To address the lack of understanding regarding effective narrative design for promoting exercise in children.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory study involving 41 children aged 8-12 years.
• Professionally generated animated narratives across different genres.
• Interviews, digital recordings, transcriptions, and exploratory thematic analysis.

Main Results:

• Dystopian science fiction narratives were favored across all demographic groups.
• Appealing narrative strategies included virtuous characters, extraordinary actions, engaging plots, superpowers, and cliffhangers.
• Unappealing elements were unrelated information, complex plots, passive characters, and repetitive tropes.

Conclusions:

• Narratives possess characteristics that can potentially increase child physical activity in active games.
• Preliminary evidence suggests specific design principles for future empirical testing and validation.