Developing a mobile game that demystifies Type 1 Diabetes was no small challenge. In this Developer Blog, we’ll delve into the many design tradeoffs and decisions that shaped Level One. We’ll share ‘aha’ moments and player experiences that honed the game and its unique visual style.
We hope these behind-the-scenes stories will inspire game developers and designers to similarly apply their craft to solve other problems in healthcare and beyond!
Every so often, the Level Ex team hosts a Game Jam. This is where the entire company breaks into small teams, and over the course of ~48 hours, builds a playable game prototype from scratch. Sometimes, these game jams have themes, like the one we did in memory of one of our colleagues who died […]
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Next step was to write up the Game Design Document (GDD) for the game. This was a living, breathing, ~30-page document – as the gameplay would change based on iteration and playtesting. Here is an intro section of that GDD: Intro to Type 1 Diabetes In T1D, you have 1 curve (Blood Glucose) which […]
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What games are a good reference for the mental models we need to manage T1D? Level Ex had a lot of experience using particle game mechanics (particle puzzles, etc.) for helping doctors understand complex biochemical systems – where particles might represent molecules or cells. Particle puzzles are an incredibly popular genre – games like Feed Me Oil, […]
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When game developer Sam Glassenberg’s daughter was diagnosed at age five, life changed overnight. Suddenly, running a videogame studio became his “second job” as he embraced his new role as a stand-in pancreas. The onboarding process was brutal and unforgiving. As a game developer, Sam chronicled the experience in a diary/blog. Sam realized that the […]
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