Journey Inside Your Chronic Disease

The Challenge

Adolescents with chronic diseases often become less adherent as they take more responsibility for their own care. Explanations, reminders, and monitoring may tell them what to do, but they rarely let them experience why treatment matters.

Level One can provide a showcase for this direction: it turns blood glucose, insulin, food, and activity into playable systems. Every chronic disease needs its own treatment model and its own mechanics rather than a reskin of the same game.

What a Jam Prototype Could Be

• An initial Crohn's disease world where the player explores an inflamed intestine and uses treatment strategies to reduce inflammation and restore healthier tissue.
• Decisions that connect medication and other clinician-approved treatment concepts to visible changes in inflammation, symptoms, and intestinal function.
• A structure that could later be rebuilt for asthma, diabetes, autoimmune disease, or another condition, with different mechanics for each disease.
• A mission loop connecting symptom choices, treatment actions, and visible body-state changes.
• A clinician-reviewed educational prototype with simplified, non-identifiable content.

Design Questions

• Which Crohn's disease concepts and treatment decisions are most important for an initial playable slice?
• How much biology is enough to be meaningful without becoming a lecture?
• How can the game support autonomy without blaming the patient?
• Can pre/post questions measure treatment understanding and disease knowledge, and can the experience support medication adherence?