A GLASGOW tech company is developing a computer game to help children prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Game Doctor has secured £50,000 of government funding to develop the mobile game, which is aimed at eight to 16 year olds with more advanced levels for teenagers.
The company was set up by University of Glasgow graduate Carla Brown, and is focused on developing games for science and health education.
It was awarded the funding by government agency Innovate UK, which last week doubled to £40 million the amount of funding it is dedicating to help fast track innovations borne out of the pandemic.
Game Doctor will be working with Covid-19 researchers from the University of Glasgow and Queen’s University Belfast on the game, which will be launched in September for iOS and Android and will be free to download. A health psychologist from the University of Stirling will be supporting the game design and evaluation.
Ms Brown said: “This is a tense time for all of us, particularly for young people navigating ‘the new norm’ who, if things go according to plan, will be returning to school in August. We hope that by educating and equipping children to adjust, they will feel empowered and much less anxious. This funding will enable us to use our expertise to make a difference in these challenging times.”
Game Doctor has worked with the public sector and universities across the UK to create a range of games, focused on areas such as engaging young people with antimicrobial resistance, and educating schoolchildren about sexual health and vaccinations.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article