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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games

Date Submitted: Sep 28, 2021
Date Accepted: Jun 12, 2022

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Developing Serious Video Games to Treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Tutorial Guide

Sújar A, Martín-Moratinos M, Rodrigo-Yanguas M, Bella-Fernández M, González-Tardón C, Delgado-Gómez D, Blasco-Fontecilla H

Developing Serious Video Games to Treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Tutorial Guide

JMIR Serious Games 2022;10(3):e33884

DOI: 10.2196/33884

PMID: 35916694

PMCID: 9379781

Developing Serious Video Games to Treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: a Tutorial Guide

  • Aarón Sújar; 
  • Marina Martín-Moratinos; 
  • María Rodrigo-Yanguas; 
  • Marcos Bella-Fernández; 
  • Carlos González-Tardón; 
  • David Delgado-Gómez; 
  • Hilario Blasco-Fontecilla

ABSTRACT

Video game-based therapeutic interventions were generally effective in improving cognitive areas and decreasing ADHD symptoms. Some authors have proposed using existing video games while others have designed their commercial video games. The results obtained show varied benefits and are not unified. This guide represents a starting point for future game development in ADHD. In this guide, we show the key points that need to be addressed to generate an effective and motivating game-based treatment. Following recommendations from literature to create game-based treatments, we describe the stages which ADHD game treatment must pass and the game elements which must be developed. Game design must take into account the interests of the future users, game mechanics should be based on cognitive exercises, and therapeutic mechanisms must include the control of difficulty, engagement, motivation, time constraints reinforcement. We have used as an example the developments made in our research. In order to elaborate this guide, we performed a narrative review focused on the use of video games for the treatment of ADHD, and mention examples from our experience during the development of The Secret Trail of Moon (TSTM).


 Citation

Please cite as:

Sújar A, Martín-Moratinos M, Rodrigo-Yanguas M, Bella-Fernández M, González-Tardón C, Delgado-Gómez D, Blasco-Fontecilla H

Developing Serious Video Games to Treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Tutorial Guide

JMIR Serious Games 2022;10(3):e33884

DOI: 10.2196/33884

PMID: 35916694

PMCID: 9379781

Per the author's request the PDF is not available.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.