NTU Students Develop Computer Game, City Patrol for Health Education

Our Parenting World is pleased to announce and support The Right Choice, a public health campaign to address the rising trend of childhood obesity started by four students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. Together, they designed City Patrol, a 3D game world as part of their final year project. 

According to the Ministry of Education, the national school obesity rate was at 11 per cent in 2011, up from 9 per cent in 2005.

To tackle the problem, the team launched their final year project, The Right Choice, a public health campaign to empower children to make good dietary choices. The Right Choice is organised by Amanda Phoon, 22, Chek Yin Kuan, 22, Crystal Chng, 23, and Huang Shuqun, 25.

The team’s key approach is social gamification, which is the application of gaming concepts such as rewards and character progression to engage kids. In City Patrol’s immersive virtual world, players have the chance to interact with in-game characters, complete mini quests and end up a hero as they save a city from the influx of bad foods. To address this issue, the games and activities are designed to allow children to learn about balanced meals. It also exposes children to a greater variety of fruits and vegetables, to make them more inclined towards trying them. 

A video clip of the game

In the game, players are tasked to save a town by helping the townsfolk. Along the way, they will learn about food and nutrition as they interact with in-game avatars and play mini games, before finally emerging a hero.

With a focus on all the different food groups and a balanced diet, the game aims to inculcate the right attitude towards a healthy diet within their young target audience.

Try out the game and learn more about healthy diet, please click HERE to obtain a copy of the City Patrol 3D Game for your children. 

That’s not all, at the website it has loads of information containing tips and tricks for parents to engage their child on healthy eating and a Q and A section helmed by a nutritionist from its partner, Health Can Be Fun.

Parents, if you have any questions, you can take the opportunity to consult a nutritionist at The Right Choice website on ways to improve the family’s diet as a whole. Please click HERE to go to the Q and A section to consult a nutritionist and for more information.