Video Game Explores the Experience of Alzheimer’s [Video]


Alzheimer's

Imagine waking up to what seems to be an unfamiliar yet cozy living room. the grandfather clock chimes the hour, and a fire crackles with warmth in the hearth. You decide to get up and explore the place for clues — sympathy greeting cards on the lintel, wedding photographs of couples, a voice message recording of an annoyed woman (the one who always come to visit with the little kids). Among these, the most telling of them all (but you’d never really be able to make the connection, oh no) is a typewritten note about finding a your slippers in the fridge, the sad look on the young lady visitor’s face, how long it’s taking your life to come home with the groceries, and a secret knot in your handkerchief that tells you you’ve forgotten something.

This is the start of the game Forget-Me-Knot, a game designed to simulate the experience of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. Alexander Tarvet, the game’s designer and a student in Abertay University’s Game Design & Production Management program in Dundee, Scotland, hopes the game will raise awareness of these two mental illnesses. “Through playing Forget-Me-Knot the player gets an immediate sense of the confusion the character feels,” Tarvet tells MOTDMedia.com. “The player is in exactly the same position as the person with Alzheimer’s — both have to explore the room and try and piece together an understanding of photos and letters through clues left on shelves and in drawers.”

Tavet also shares the development progress of the game in the project’s blog, along with a number of current spotlights on the game from local news stations.

A person develops Alzheimer’s in the US every 67 seconds, and 44.4 million people worldwide are affected by Dementia. These two diseases have been more prevalent in elderly people, and may lead to other concerns such as depression, anxiety, memory distortions, speech difficulty, and eating problems.

Watch a short playthrough of the game below:

 

You may also enjoy:

An Elderly Mr. Holmes Faces His Final Mystery [Video]
Your Grandma Might Not Use Facebook, But Health Status Updates May Make Her More Independent

Kossi

0 Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.