MINI-GAMES
"Hotel Plastisse" consists of 20 different mini-games: The Game Designers aimed at a maximum variety in game play, while considering the scientific requirements:
- the target group had only little game experience.
- the participants had to attend daily training for about 50 days with individualized game difficulty, adapting to the participants’ performance.
- the participants were to be split in four separate groups, three of which were established as different single-domain training groups and one as a multi-domain training group, the latter combining the tasks of all single-domain training groups.
- Significant requirements relate to the scientific quality of the data to be obtained from the four groups. In order to set performance results of single-domain and multi-domain trainings in relation to each other, numerous parameters of the training software had to be comparable to each other, including a common visual framework, duration of tasks, breaks in between training units, frequency and speed of in-game events, etc.
4 MINI-GAME groups:
Games for single-domain group "INHIBITION":
Mini-games of the inhibition categorie are: Washday, Dishwashing, Chasing Mice, Fruit Salad, Labelling Bottles. The participants of the inhibition training practice the suppression of prepotent responses. They must react to go-stimuli and suppress their reaction to no-go stimuli. In „Fruit Salad“, players are supposed to cut every fruit with the exception of kiwis. In „Washday“, the laundry with the stars label must be placed in the bucket to the right. In both mini-games a single tap anywhere on the touch-screen is enough to cause action; for no-go-stimuli, no action is required. Difficulty is manipulated by the speed by which the go and no-go stimuli appear.
Games for single-domain group "VISUOMOTOR FUNCTION":
Visuo-motor mini-games are: Paw Prints, Darts, Marble Box, Model Aircraft, Rolling Fruit. The participants of the visuo-motor training practice eye-hand coordination by hand and finger movements, which are either bi-manual or uni-manual with the index finger. In „Rolling Fruit“, players have to place the cutting knife with a precise uni-manual swiping or tapping motion underneath the center of the fruit which is rolling down from the top of the screen. In „Modell Aircraft“, participants need to guide the flying plane through the center of the rings, by bi-manually tilting the iPad
Games for single-domain group "SPATIAL NAVIGATION":
The mini-games of the spatial orientation are: Room service, Odyssey, Hedge labyrinth, Wine cellar, Pantry. Participants of this category practice the navigation through labyrinths. There are 2D- as well as 3D-solutions for acquiring the directions. In „Room Service” and “Odyssey“, for example, participants first learn a 2D-map and then search the way through the 3D-labyrinth. In the other three minigames, the participants walk through the labyrinth first (via video shot) and memorize the way. Secondly, they have to find the way while walking through the labyrinth. Difficulty in orientation mini-games is managed by the length of the path and the number of junctions.
Games for simultaneous, combined multi-domain training:
Multi-domain games are: “Vacuum Cleaner”, “Model Car Racing”, “Wine Tasting”, “Raking Leaves”, “Pipe Burst”. In those mini-games training participants practice all three functions (visuo-motoric function, inhibition and spatial orientation) simultaneously. Just like in the spatial orientation games, participants first memorize a labyrinth either by a 2D-map (“Vacuum Cleaner”, “Model Car Racing”) or by walking through it in a video shot. Then they need to find the path again, while at the same time aiming at certain targets as precisely as possible and inhibiting their response to no-go stimuli. The training parameters are the same as those in the single-domain trainings. Difficulty increases by the speed and the length of the labyrinths.