Tiny Biome Tales is an educational game about the human microbiome. Its aim is to spread awareness about the influence the microbiome has on the human health. Lifestyle decisions can influence the microbiome to a great extend. This is represented in the game by letting the user go through everyday decisions and giving direct feedback on the implications the decisions have on the microbiome. This information is backed by more than 300 different scientific papers that are all cited and mentioned in the games codex, which acts as a interactive scientific knowledge base.
About
The game was created as a shared effort by two institutes of
Graz University of Technology: The Institute of Environmental Biotechnology and the Game Lab Graz and it was implemented by Florian Marcher and Maximilian Wlasak as part of their Bachelor Thesis.
It is playable for free in the browser at https://www.microbiome.gamelabgraz.at
Publications
During Maximilian Wlasak's Bachelor Thesis a pilot study around the game has been conducted. In it both experts and novices on the subject have been asked to play the game and give feedback on how their experience went. Additionally the non expert group was further divided into a test and a control group and their performance on questions surrounding the topic has been measured either before or after playing the game, both showing promising results.
A scientific paper has been created by Matthias Schweitzer and was published in "Microbial Biotechnology" further discussing the results. The article is accessible here: https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14544
Press
Since the initial release the game also gained traction in local media outlets. The Graz University of Technology issued a press release about the game which was picked up by different media from Austria and even world wide. This even lead to the development team (Florian Marcher, Maximilian Wlasak and Matthias Schweitzer) becoming "Steirer des Tages" (Styrian of the day) in the local newspaper "Kleine Zeitung". Below is a small selection of articles about the game: