value. Consequently, a digital serious game offers
the potential to support the psychotherapy of children
and adolescents and to motivate them to deal with
therapeutic content, as well as to carry out therapy-
supporting exercises on their own responsibility. The
tests carried out also showed that feedback about their
performance was important to the children. It was
observed that they were motivated by the feedback
about their concentration and were proud when they
reached a high level of concentration. In addition,
the test subjects showed strong interest in the leader-
board, through which they were able to classify their
performance. As a result, there were positive effects
from the EEG-based feedback on the internal con-
dition of the children. A representation of the con-
centration curve could also be included in order to
give users more detailed and individual feedback. Al-
though different sources show that boys and girls have
different game preferences (Kinzie and Joseph, 2008;
Scharkow et al., 2015; Procci et al., 2011), the game
developed in this work was enjoyed by both male and
female testers. It was found here that by combining
action and puzzle elements, an application could be
developed that appeals to both genders. This confirms
the Procci et al. (Procci et al., 2011) that by mixing
game elements that correspond to the preferences of
boys and girls, a game can be developed that triggers
the interests of both genders. It also emerged that the
topic of Egyptian treasure hunt and the role of the ex-
plorer were welcomed by both boys and girls. As part
of the intro, it was observed that the children’s abil-
ity to read was at different levels and some of the test
subjects had problems reading the dialogue. Here it
would make sense to speak the text of the mentor to
relieve the children and avoid frustration. Animations
from the mentor can also be included to make them
appear more alive and to increase immersion. Fur-
thermore, the game tests revealed that some of the
children found aspects of the application to be too
difficult or too easy. This requires an adaptive level
of difficulty, which adapts individually to the skills
and performance of the children in order to maintain
a flow state and to neither bore nor overwhelm the
players. The testing of the prototype was carried out
with mentally healthy subjects. The next step is to
check whether people with a mental disorder still ben-
efit from the positive effects of the game. It is also
uncertain how long-lasting the motivation is to play
the prototype, and this should be tested in a long-term
study.
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