Turning the Classic Snake Mobile Game into a Location–Based Exergame that Encourages Walking

Exergames (video games that combine exercise and play) could encourage physical activity by making it more enjoyable. Mobile devices are an interesting platform for exergames because they can support outdoors activities such as walking and running. Different mobile exergames have been proposed in the literature, and typically evaluated with informal interviews and ad–hoc questionnaires. The research we present in this paper had two main goals. First, we wanted to design a fun and easy-to-use mobile exergame to encourage walking. To this purpose, we propose a location–based version of the classic Snake mobile game, in which users can control the snake by walking. Second, we wanted to introduce important measures (such as users’ attitude towards walking) in the evaluation of exergames, by adopting validated questionnaires employed in the medical literature. The results of the study presented in this paper shed light on how differences in users’ lifestyle can be related to exergame enjoyment and to attitude change fostered by the exergame.