S3E12: Joke Veltman ＜＞ Musical Games for Audio Training
Roll on Episode 12!
We’re joined by Joke Veltman, to explore their work and game development for musical and audio training. Joke is a PhD candidate at IQ Health academic center and creator of the Melody Game for Music Training for Cochlear Implant Users. A professional pianist by background, due to a genetic defect, Joke gradually lost her hearing and eventually needed a cochlear implant herself.
In this episode, we explore:
The development of a musical training listening approach, including 1) Habituation, 2) Auditory memory, 3) Attention, and 4) Step-by-step pitch discrimination.
The co-creating and development process of the Melody Game and the game mechanics are integrated into the delivery.
Key lessons for health game designers in the importance of defined goals, team, iteration, and understanding users deeply, especially their emotional barriers and enablers, and to accept that programming requires precision, even when the subject matter (music) is fluid.
Melody Game - https://musi-ci.com/
Research Publication - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37697865/
13 Aug 2025
S3E11: Cyrus Nemati＜＞ Vampire Therapists for Self-Reflection on Cognitive Distortions
We're rolling on to episode 11!
And joining us is Cyrus Nemati!
Founder and Creative Director of Little Bat Games, Cyrus wrote, directed and programmed Vampire Therapist, a fully-voiced narrative comedy game about finding purpose when death isn’t a concern. A BAFTA-nominated game and winner of multiple other awards this year already.
In this episode, we explore:
The journey from political policy to voice acting, games studios, and Cyrus setting up his studio, Little Bat Games
Vampire Therapist: exploring and learning through a therapeutic process, providing the player the ability to take more of a 3rd person perspective on therapy, and the opportunities to learn about cognitive distortions (with humour and side games included), which can aid in real-life cognitive and emotional reflections and processing.
A key learning: knowing what the final game looks like before starting the production to work within your resources and limits, because this can lead to creating a multi-award-winning game
Show notes:
https://vampiretherapist.com/
Game download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2481020/Vampire_Therapist/
30 Jul 2025
S3E10: Stephen McPeake＜＞ Geo-located Digital Dollars for Gamified Community Activation
We've made it to episode 10!
We’re joined by Stephen McPeake
Stephen has been working in the technology industry for 25 years, spending the last 10 focusing on 'Smart Cities' solutions and citizen engagement technology, including the ReportAll app and in the last few years, founding Civic Dollars.
In this episode, we explore:
Stephen's journey that started with working to solve the problems facing cities in promoting health & wellbeing, which led to the idea for Civic Dollars to incentivise activity in outdoor spaces.
The importance of creating the right incentives for each demographic: it’s ‘local rewards for local people’ (and seasonal rewards too).
The opportunity to lean into effective altruism, creating deeper motivations for players through donating their civic dollars to local communities.
Civic Dollars is a great example of how digital gamification can translate into real-life social activities, creating new social connections and overcoming loneliness.
Show notes:
https://www.civicdollars.com/
Civic Dollars Christmas Tea Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbfVRqaQc0U
Inside a recent episode
S2E9: Dom Raban ＜＞ Xploro - Augmented reality games reducing children’s stress & anxiety
Published 6 Sept 2023 · Transcript excerpt
[…] We actually did a research study, I say we did it, our research partners did a research study about two years ago now at the biggest children's hospital in the UK, where they had 80 children, 40 with access to standard healthcare information, and 40 with access to Exploro. And what the researchers found was that those kids with access to Exploro demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in procedural anxiety, as well as statistically significant increases in both knowledge about procedures and patient satisfaction. So absolute gold dust to have that research evidence. But essentially, that's what Explore is trying to do, is reduce that anxiety around coming into hospital. […]
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