At the beginning of May, Deutsche Telekom launched the game, Sea Hero Quest, globally. The initial creative concept came from Vasilije Corluka, creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi Macedonia, and the game was developed by Saatchi & Saatchi. It’s a fun game, but fun isn’t its main aim. Sea Hero Quest is the world’s first mobile game designed to aid research into dementia.
Saatchi & Saatchi: To help science solve dementia all you have to do is play
Within 16 days of launch, more than one million people throughout the world had downloaded the mobile game. This week it was shortlisted in Lions Innovation at Cannes Lions.
Because of Sea Hero Quest, dementia research has taken a huge step forward, with scientists receiving 1,770 years’ worth of similar lab-based dementia research. It has become the largest trial to date into the cause of the disease. The game has also gained an average rating of five stars across more than 45,000 reviews in both the App store and Google Play globally.
Hans-Christian Schwingen, chief brand officer at Deutsche Telekom, commented: “The positive response to the project has been overwhelming. People around the world have been inspired to download Sea Hero Quest and game for good. The game has entered the top 20 in 40 markets on the App Store and Google Play and is even the number 1 game in many markets. That’s already a spectacular success for research and science in the fight against dementia.”
University College London will lead the analysis of the anonymised data generated by the game over the coming months. Professor Michael Hornberger, professor for dementia research at the University of East Anglia and one of the lead scientists on the project commented, “The navigation data that players of Sea Hero Quest have generated so far would have taken scientists hundreds of years to collect in lab based settings. In order to create a true benchmark for human spatial navigation, it is important that as many gamers as possible from different countries, players of different ages and gender all take part, answer the key science questions and game for good!”
Sea Hero Quest is available globally for iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded now for free from the App Store and Google Play. Visit its website to find out more. #gameforgood
