Astrojumper: Motivating Exercise with an Immersive Virtual Reality Exergame

Abstract

We present the design and evaluation of Astrojumper, an immersive virtual reality exergame developed to motivate players to engage in rigorous, full-body exercise. We performed a user study with 30 people between the ages of 6 and 50 who played the game for 15 min. Regardless of differences in age, gender, activity level, and video game experience, participants rated Astrojumper extremely positively and experienced a significant increase in heart rate after gameplay. Additionally, we found that participants' ratings of perceived workout intensity positively correlated with their level of motivation. Overall, our results demonstrate that Astrojumper effectively motivates both children and adults to exercise through immersive virtual reality technology and a simple, yet engaging, game design.