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I wrote a meditative slow game called Calmer (was iOS, sold terribly, no longer available). I was contacted by a US psychiatrist who said he prescribed it for a
by sago 11y ago
I wrote a meditative slow game called Calmer (was iOS, sold terribly, no longer available). I was contacted by a US psychiatrist who said he prescribed it for anxiety patients.
It never occurred to me to try to raise tens of millions of dollars for medical trials and then charge a huge amount to insurers!
It does strike me as dubious that the investors are backing this game. When surely any positive result would hold for any number of similar games. A branding play, presumably 'we're the game that did the trials'. But it does seem like that relies on ignorance of what games are available. It remains to be seen if and when they actually show the gameplay!
- edge17 11y ago@sago There's a fair amount of this going on rightnow, that is, using mobile games to address anxiety. Partly because your phone is always there and having treatment options outside the hospital have historically been limited. Psychiatry is very different compared to other fields of medicine in that things tend to be difficult to measure objectively.
- sago 11y agoI'll respond to your email.
- Kiro 11y agoWhy did you take it down?
- simcop2387 11y agoMy guess would be it needed changes to keep it working with one of the iOS updates and since it wasn't making money sago didn't see that it'd get a return to keep it up to date.
- sago 11y agoI had a bunch of games that I made in collaboration with a friend. When that collab finished, the itunes account expired. I just never got round to going through that again to put it back up. It never made enough money for me to really care. Though I have thought about polishing the game and reissuing it, with ipad support and less mystical mumbo-jumbo.
- bduerst 11y agoWhat were the game mechanics? I've never heard of these slow games before.
- sago 11y agoI'm not sure if it is a genre, or just something I tried. Each 'level' is a figure consisting of nodes and connecting arcs. You start by placing your finger at any node, and you move your finger until all arcs have been traced. Lift your finger, and you lose immediately. Touch the screen with another finger or part of your hand: you also lose immediately. Move too far from the arc and your accuracy bar depletes, move too quickly and it also depletes. If the bar is gone, you lose. Finish all arcs and you have succeeded. The challenge is partly in working out which node to start on, and which route to take, to be able to trace all arcs only once. But that isn't a very hard challenge. The main point is to slow down and move consistently and carefully. It should be meditative if done correctly. It's a digital form of something I've done, personally, for a long time: trace my finger in particular patterns slowly and meditatively. I have a weakness for symbolic, vaguely mystical claptrap, so for me I've given the patterns meanings. It's pointless, really, and maybe pretentious, but it is calming, and not as easy as it sounds to draw a perfect infinity (say) at a constant slow speed without jerking movement. Concentrating on the figure and the symbolism is a form of meditation, I find. So that was the idea. Besides a small number of keen players, it didn't seem to appeal to many. Perhaps it was the slightly pretentious tone: I veered a bit too mystical in the design I think.
- JeremyBanks 11y agoThat sounds very appealing. I'm sorry it didn't do very well; I'd buy it now if it were still available.
- War_Machine 11y agoThat's exactly my thought after hearing this story. Other than the fact that this game has been put through some trials and is backed by drug companies, how is it any different from any other dexterity-intensive videogame out there?