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Cookie Monster

A fun educational game teaching users healthy eating habits and demystifying impacts of fast food.
Nom Nom Nom!

The Story

Cookie Monster is a game I developed to teach myself Open Frameworks. The idea for the game sparked after I witnessed a mother scolding her child for eating too many cookies (are there every too many?!). I wanted to create a simple, but engaging game that would educate users about healthy eating habits, teach importance of a balanced diet and, hopefully, destigmatize some of the foods that long have been deemed dangerous or unsafe and vise versa. GMO, fatty fast food, pesticides created a culture of fear around certain types of food. In Cookie Monster game, the users have the opportunity to become the character and experience the effects of these foods on their body. Through the course of the game, one learns that balancing fatty food with exercise and vegetables will keep you in good shape.

Mechanics

The game system relies on the Face Tracking library developed by Kyle McDonald to enable users to become the character on the screen and use their mouths to catch food items. There are 3 major food categories in the game: fast food that provides a boost energy, but make you fatter and slower; vegetables that don't give much energy, but help set back the effects of fat food by making character faster and thinner; and there are also pesticide infused fruits that might not be an immediate danger, but will kill you after too many of those are eaten. The objective of the game is to keep the energy levels high thus keep the Monster alive and healthy, which was proven to be pretty tricky for users who relies heavily on the old saying "one apple a day keeps the doctor away." Players have to overcome their stereotypes and learn how to balance a variety of foods.

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