The Game
At the start of the game they set their ideal heart rate range, if they go above or below this range the world will begin to fade, they need to keep walking and their heart rate at a steady pace to keep the world alive. Throughout the game there is the sense of being chased. Their responses help create the way the game world changes, when they do well, the landscape blossoms and becomes colorful and light, if they do badly then the light fades, a mist appears, and the landscape darkens.

The aim of the game is to build a new map of the world that represents individual player's response to exercise, when they reach the final destination they receive a map of the new world that they have built. To continue the game the player either expands the world by making new journeys or changes the existing one by improving their heart rate range over the same journey. To keep the game world alive they need to keep walking...

The Science
'Ere Be Dragons is a creative game that aims to encourage people to exercise by walking and to learn more about their body whilst they are doing this activity. It is aimed at people who live sedentary lives - regular computer games players, teenagers and people who work at a computer all day. Through creating a game that links computer gaming with physical activity it is our hope that we can engage people in exercise as a creative experience.

'Ere Be Dragons was devised in response to working with available mobile technologies, researching ways of exploring the environment and how to interpret a personal response to this environment. The project relies on the player/users internal responses to the external environment, both physical and physiological, captured by a heart rate monitor.

The Technology
'Ere Be Dragons has been developed using the following devices.

• HP IPAQ Pocket PC h2210
• GPS
• Sciencescope heart rate monitor
• Mobile Bristol Client and sensor bus