Dartanan

Hearing aid calibration/assessment for children 


Developer: XTeam

Dartanan is a classic platform game in a similar style of Nintendo’s classic Super Mario. The player is a “dwarf” version of D’Artagnan (from Alexander Duma's Three Musketeers). The player needs to jump over platforms, kill enemies, avoid traps, and collect coins, in a quest to free his penguin friend, who has been captured by a villain.

A level from the main game of Dartanan

The main game has three levels, it is fun, fast, and colourful, with the game's target demographic being children. Dartanan uses a simple gamification technique: after progressing through each level of the main game,the player unlocks a new mini-game, with each mini-game focussing on a different aspect of how hearing aids work. It has the potential for an infinite number of mini‐games that can teach players on how to calibrate the different settings of their hearing aid, and they can use this learning to progress through the different levels. For example, by clearing a mini-game successfully, in the next main game level Dartanan will start with a bonus (+1 life, fire sword, etc.). 

A mini-game level from Dartanan, teaching about directionality

This structure is designed as a leisure game that also contains a serious game: children can play the main game with their friends and parents, and the mini-games can be adapted to different target devices for training and learning purposes.

Dartanan can be downloaded and purchased from www.hearingamestudio.com