FoodKnight: A mobile educational game and analyses of obesity awareness in children

One of the main contributing factors to child obesity is the absence of education and knowledge children have towards certain foods when they are making food choices. In most cases, children will pick energy-dense food over foods with more nutritional value and do not understand the consequences of their decisions. Our proposed solution to help overcome this problem is an educational gaming application called FoodKnight. Games have the ability to engage children more than traditional teaching methods used in schools, and capitalising on this exciting approach would be beneficial for children. FoodKnight incorporates stealth learning to disguise the teaching of healthy food choices while playing a game; a step-counter is also included to encourage the user to be active. The overall feedback FoodKnight received from 38 participants regarding the initial prototype was positive. Minor issues found with the game were addressed and implemented in an update. FoodKnight has been implemented in the Android mobile platform to increase accessibility.