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Invite Only VR, a game about vaping prevention developed by PreviewLabs for the Yale play4REAL Lab, takes second place in the Business category of the GALA Conf SG Awards 2019. The GALA Conference is an international conference on serious games, organized by the Serious Games Society. Its Serious Games Competition rewards digital learning games in an Academy and a Business category.
Invite Only VR places second among business entries at the GALA 2019 Serious Games Awards in Athens.
Invite Only VR helps teens resist peer pressure to vape. Players step into social situations where friends push them to try an e-cigarette. Along the way, they learn how peer pressure works and practice ways to refuse. The game also educates them about vaping and nicotine addiction. Voice recognition lets players rehearse saying ‘no’ out loud, with their own voice. The project is funded by Oculus.
PreviewLabs has worked on the project with Kimberly Hieftje, PhD, director of the play4REAL Lab, since 2017, when the game was still called smokeSCREEN VR. Over several iterations, the prototype moved from the Samsung Gear VR to the standalone Oculus Go, which makes it easier to bring into classrooms.
Yale researchers are now using the prototype in a study that measures whether playing changes teens’ knowledge of vaping and their intention to try it. Earlier this year, our founder Bernard François presented the game with Dr. Hieftje on a virtual stage for The ENDGAME, a talk show about technology and the future held in the social VR platform VRChat. The show is co-hosted by clinical psychology researcher Noah Robinson.
You can view the full list of winners here on the GALA Conference website.