Asthma Heroes

Taking care through play

Asthma Heroes is a mobile game designed to teach children aged 7 and over how to manage their asthma for life. This non-commercial, open-source game has been designed and tested by game designers, cargivers, engineers and people with asthma. Its content is more comprehensive than the best apps (WidzyPets, AsthmaMD, KissMyAsthma). 3/4 of asthma apps are of mediocre quality.

Asthma in Switzerland

Asthma affects half a million people. In children, asthma is the #1 chronic disease and the #1 cause of hospitalisation. One in two people has poor asthma control, with coughing fits, difficulty breathing and feelings of suffocation. Good asthma control means

• enjoying a good quality of life without restrictions on activities (city, nature, school, sports, pets, etc.),
• avoiding emergency visits (70 avoidable hospital admissions each day),
• reducing medical costs (1700.– per person per year).

Objectives of the game

A 90-minute game session teaches you to

• identify what can trigger an asthma attack,
• recognise the symptoms of an attack,
• learn how to use inhalers correctly.

The game is based on a feasibility study (HES-SO, Neuchâtel), a literature review and clinical trials (Sainte-Justine hospital, Montreal). One of the highlights was seeing a child and his father having a real dialogue about asthma.

Supporting a pioneering team

Today, our aim is to move from a «research» game to a mobile game accessible to young asthmatics and their families. Your support and that of your friends and family will enable us to achieve these objectives.

Stage 1: Fun (5,000.–)

We will improve the game with new visuals (e.g. illustrating the inhaler quiz), new gameplay (including LungLauncher as a mini-game) and add a conclusion (currently non-existent). We will incorporate feedback from testers and fix various bugs. We will add a questionnaire to collect feedback and suggestions for improvement. The game will be downloadable from breathinggames.net.

Stage 2: The label (10,000.–)

We will document the game as a Class I medical device that complies with the regulations of the United States (used by Switzerland) and the European Union, to make our quality process more transparent, and to make it easier for caregivers and the general public to distribute the game.

Stage 3: The app (15,000.–)

We will release the game for Windows on the Windows Store and on the Steam platform so that it is better referenced and easier to download. If we do not encounter any major bugs, we will also release the game for Mac OS on the App Store and Steam. All of this is subject to acceptance by the platforms.

These amounts cover half of the necessary budget (minus 10% for WeMakeIt and max 10% for counterparts and communication). The other half will be covered by a Geneva foundation (10,000.– confirmed), and by the Swiss National Fund (5,000.– if the first level is reached). We will issue a tax receipt for donations of 300.– Swiss francs or more.

Did you know that...?

The player is a hero

Aliens have modified the planet’s atmosphere and everyone has asthma. The player is one of the Asthma Heroes. Their mission is to explore the world and learn how to control their asthma. Throughout the game, players will meet characters who will inform them or test their knowledge (memo on triggers, asthma quiz, association game on prevention, etc.).

The story was translated into nine languages

Thanks to around a hundred volunteer translators, the game’s 6,000 lines of text are available in English, German, Italian and French, as well as Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Turkish, Vietnamese and Korean.

Our association is recognised as being in the public interest

Founded in Geneva in 2017, the Breathing Games Association has been recognised as being in the public interest since 2020. We are a member of the Open Source Initiative, the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (WHO GARD) and the social economy network Après GE. We participated in the documentary ’A new Economy’, which was broadcasted on Netflix, and are at the origin of the ’Taking care together’ festival.

This campaign is a start

This crowdfunding pilot will also give us an idea of the interest generated by the game, and whether we can count on the community to fund the project in the future. Our goal is to be able to employ at least 2.5 full-time equivalents from January 2024 to ensure the integration of various features being tested in parallel in Asthma Heroes (encouraging the sharing of experiences between peers, reflecting on the collective narratives that hold back our health, documenting the evolution of our feelings and our care, assessing our lung capacity and playing with our breath thanks to the sensor we have developed, etc.) and to ensure international distribution, thanks to the fundraising work carried out over the last few years.