Cytoplasm
What is Cytoplasm?
Cytoplasm is a device that we designed to assist players with mood regulation, self-care reminders, and positive reinforcement during gaming sessions, ultimately fostering a more sustainable and supportive gaming culture.
Why Cytoplasm?
Our project focuses on addressing the mental health challenges faced by aspiring professional gamers, particularly younger teens, who are at risk of developing unhealthy habits and burnout due to the pressures of competitive gaming.
Why this audience?
We chose Esports professional gamers as our audience because they represent a rapidly growing community that faces unique challenges related to health and well-being. As esports continues to gain global prominence, many gamers dedicate themselves to rigorous practice schedules and competitive events to achieve professional success.
How it works
It is quite easy to use and fit right next to your monitor or laptop. Once activated you will be taken through the features that it offers which are as follows :
Energy Levels
Cytoplasm monitors your screen time as well as your energy levels, helping you stay sharp while you play like a pro. This will help the players know when to quit and not get burnt out or overtrained.
Preventative measures
It is a bot with feelings, and once your energy levels start lowering and you start losing games, it will remind you to take a break by placing your mouse in the dock so that you can bounce back stronger after a break.
Activity suggestions
Other than interacting with you during games using positive reinforcement, The bot also suggests you relevant activities do during your break which range from hydrating to resting your eyes.
Hydrating is very important as a gamer because you tend to not move for hours, this way we are encouraging users to build healthier habits.
Stretching your body becomes just as important when you spend hours sitting in one spot to hone your skills. Moving and stretching your body will help remove the tension that has built up.
Resting your eyes is a no brainer, when you game for hours, your eyes take the most strain and giving them proper rest between gaming sessions is very important.
Quick Tips
Some tips as it tracks your game progress and gives your personalized advice on how you can improve in the next match, Like if you are playing valorant, you would maybe get told to focus on your crosshair placement in the game.
How we got here
After multiple iterations and many interviews later we came up with our solution above. The initial iterations are displayed below.
Next steps
As future scope, we will gather user feedback through real-world testing to fine-tune Cytoplasm’s features and enhance its ability to provide personalized emotional support:
1. Explore possibilities like integrating Cytoplasm with popular gaming platforms (eg - Twitch, Discord) or gaming setups - for seamless interaction without disrupting the player's focus.
2. Further develop the bot’s ability to personalize interactions based on individual player preferences - like integrating customizable break reminders.
3. Find further touch points to further encourage users to back away from the screens and mentally reset.
Using the sensor, the bot understands if you have put your mouse down or not and will start a cooldown period for you. You can obviously skip the cool-down period, but then you will have to deal with the bot being very angry.
If you don't place your mouse on the dock when the bot asks you, take a break. it will get angry be warned.
But if you comply and take a break by placing your mouse on the dock, the bot will be all smiles!