"miPlay" as a Transmedia Strategy: Co-designing a Movie-Based Digital Game for Older Adults.

The rise of ageing population, alongside with the use of digital technology by older adults, brings new challenges to the development of digital solutions for this target audience. Online communities and digital games can be seen as examples of increasingly popular digital contexts within older adults, while playing an important role in promoting active and healthy ageing. The purpose of this study is to report on the development and evaluation of miPlay – a transmedia game, based on the Portuguese movie “A Canção de Lisboa”, developed in the context of miOne’s senior online community. A Development Research method was adopted, which embodied a literature review of other digital games developed for online communities; brainstorming session with four specialists; design of a lo-fi version of the prototype; first evaluation with 20 older adults resorting to a Guerrilla test; implementation of the high-fi version of the prototype using Unity; and the final SUS evaluation with 13 older adults. Results suggest that the following key features should be considered when developing a digital game for older adults: (i) build a narrative that is familiar and dear to the audience; (ii) organize the game in a hub-world for easier navigation; (iii) provide accessibility features, like sound control; (iv) have a tutorial screen explaining the main mechanics and interactions of the upcoming level; (v) not mixing multiple game controls; and (vi) design levels with simple mechanics, while being intellectually challenging.