Review: Exploring Food Games: Cooking Mama vs. Okinawa Foodmaster

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Exploring Food Games: Cooking Mama vs. Okinawa Foodmaster

This paper describes a research design aimed at two separate mobile applications involving food: Cooking Mama and Okinawa Foodmaster. Although the topic is similar, the methods used to engage the audience is quite different.

Research Questions:

The authors states her purpose as being:

  1. Which game to players prefer?
  2. Which game was more engaging?
  3. What where the high points in both games?
  4. What where the frustrating points?
  5. Will the player learn about nutrition? If so, which game is getting better results?
  6. Could these games influence a players eating habits?


All of the above questions are very interesting, and would make for an interesting and useful research design for someone looking to develop a game in this genre. The one that might be difficult to get a valid read on is #6. Children 6-9 years old don’t have much choice in what they eat, and nutrition is probably directed by the parents.

Analysing Participants:

This study will consist of two sample groups consisting of twelve 6-9 year old children from a local after school program. Once of the group will be accompanied by their parents, who will also take an active role in the study with their child.

Suggestions:

Due to my previous concern, i would suggest that 1-5 and 6 be split into 2 separate studies. 1-5 does not need parental involvement, since the focus is on children 6-9 and the comparison of the 2 games. Since question 6 may be out of the hands of the children to have any control over, I would invite all 12 parents to join the study, although it doesn’t necessarily need to be the parents of the children in the study. The only important prerequisite should be that the adult who joins the study, should be the person that is most involved in cooking and grocery shopping in the household. The adults should then be split in 2 separate groups and each group should play “only one game”. This would allow for investigating if either of these games could influence better nutrition, and if so which one was most effective based on your sample.

The chapter “The Strange case for Casual Games” mentions that 50-70 percent of the downloadable market is predominately women in their forties and fifties. These women would also most likely be the owners of the mobile devices purchasing the games. It might make sense to represent the younger end of this market, who may have children in the age range you are focusing on.

Analyzing Procedure:

Parent & Child Think-aloud:

This session is set at 25 minutes, as apposed to 15 from the group without parent involvement. A few questions that i have are:

  1. Who is playing during these 25 minutes?
  2. What is the exact reason for this decision, and is it possible that 5 minutes extra using a game would invalidate any results due to more exposure?
  3. If both are playing, are they playing at the same time or separate?
  4. If separate, is the parent/child not playing observing “over the shoulder”, or are they in another room? # If observing over the shoulder, will that influence their turn? Will they be able to resist calling out instructions to the player, interfering in their game play?

I am wondering how blunt and truthful would be if their parent in next to them. I’m also questioning how many parent would be able not to influence a child’s performance. It makes me think of many parent/child “science project” dynamics, where the parent takes the reigns, and overrides the child’s participation.

Using a mounted camera to record the users face:

I think this would work, however there might be a lot of shakiness, do to the being fidgety. That being said, using a handheld camera probably would not work either since that user is playing on a handheld and will most likely be looking down the entire time. The only other option might be to mount the iPad somewhere so it is stationary, and then record the persons face. Not sure if removing the ability to freely move the iPad would effect the game experience. My recommendation would be to do a few proofs of concepts before using the mounted camera idea, and hopefully my suspicions are wrong, and allow for free movement.

Using a flipCam to record screen:

This seems like a difficult approach due and may be susceptible to jumpiness from both the camera and the player. Instead I would suggest rigging the iPad to support HDMI output so the screen shows up on a TV, and either record from there, or place a camera on a tripod to record the TV screen and not the iPad. Here is an example of someone getting it work (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW0vxyJ6ydc).

Allowing participants to continue playing after their two 15/25 minute playtest: I understand the reason for this, my only concern is time. You only have the participant for a specified amount of time, so in the event that the participant uses up most of their time on the first game, it is possible that they (or you) may be forced to cut the second game short due to running out of time, and not based on the game at all.

Analyzing the Data Analysis

All of the usability questions provided by the author are great, and would be very beneficial in answering the research question 1-4. I would only suggest that question #3 be more clear on what is meant by “appropriate”. Is this in terms of the game itself, or the target audience?

Analysing the Questionnaire

The questionnaire look good, but I would reword the following:

  • From: Do you play computer games
  • To: Do you play video games

Reason: The person might take “computer” game literally and not include console and mobile games.

  • From: What platforms have you played games on?
  • To: Select all platforms that you have played games on: _ Wii _PS3 _Nintento DS _mobile phone _computer ….etc

Reason: Child might not know what is ment by platform, or what encompasses a platform (ex: mobile phone)

  • From: Can you name a healthy food or good food? Can you name a unhealthy food or bad food?
  • To: Can you name a healthy food? Can you name a unhealthy food?

Reason: I am assuming that good and healthy are meant to mean the same thing, unless you mean good tasting, in which case you should specify that.

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