Christophe De bont 
27/04/2018We live in a world where, unfortunately, there’s more calories in a cheeseburger than in a cucumber shake. This blatant injustice results in a growing percentage of overweight kids. To tackle this issue, proud FLEGA member Bazookas teamed up with Socialistische Mutualiteiten to develop Yum Runner, a serious game to inform kids about the advantages of a healthy diet.
In Yum Runner kids have to jump and slide at the right time to avoid obstacles in the level. They’ll have to eat along the way and by choosing healthy snacks over unhealthy food they will be able to run faster and jump further, improving their performance. Next to trying to beat the high score of their friends, kids can use points to unlock new outfits, hats and running shoes, making their avatar the coolest kid on the block.
Using video games to promote a healthy lifestyle might sound contradictory, but it’s an ideal way of reaching out to kids. Gaming is an integral part of their life, so they will be much more prone to embrace advice coming to them through a familiar channel. The health insurance fund is also planning to bring the game to elementary schools in September as part of an educational package on eating healthily.
The game launched earlier this week for free on the App Store and Google Play Store. The story was happily picked up by most national news outlets and VTMNieuws also featured a quick report on the game. Congratulations to everyone at Bazookas with another cool and rewarding project to add to the games portfolio.
