Norman video game company gives lessons on diabetes
Hero must monitor blood sugar

The Norman resident decided to make the most of those realities last year when he formed the company Game Equals Life, which recently completed the prototype for an action video game designed to teach people the value in managing diabetes.

By creating "The Magi and The Sleeping Star,” Grantham hopes to combine two other worlds: education and entertainment.

"It looks and handles like a regular action adventure game,” he said. "Usually, education games don’t feel like regular games, they seem too academic. But with this game, we’re kind of sneak-teaching them the fundamentals of diabetes.”

The hero of the game’s prototype, a boy named Oz, fights dragon-like robot monsters that are defending various kingdoms in which his relatives are being held captive. As the robots are killed and a king captured in each kingdom, Oz liberates a relative and the rescue gives the hero a new type of magic for future battles.

Grantham, who was diagnosed with Type I diabetes at age 10, said the game ultimately will allow players to model the hero after themselves. Either way, the hero keeps track of his carbohydrate ratio and insulin sensitivity as he or she wages battle.

Two important fundamentals in managing diabetes are testing one’s blood sugar often and being patient to let food or insulin take its effect on the body. Oz’s fighting and magical capabilities are based on him maintaining a healthy blood sugar level.

When it’s between 90 and 110, the optimum range in real life, he is at his best. The further his count is from that range, the less he is able to compete against the robot monsters. The hero eats or drinks when the level is too low or takes insulin when it is too high.

"One thing a game like this does is show people that diabetes isn’t taking over them when they do all the testing, it’s actually you take charge of your diabetes so you can live your life.”

"It’s like I can totally kill thousands of monsters just by staying on top of my diabetes,” he added. "It’s a tool for empowerment rather than bringing them down, and we’re using game play as a language to teach complex ideas. A kid thinking that way can apply it to real life at school or soccer or anything else.”

The game’s other key lesson is patience. Unlike most action games in which recharged fighters instantly get more power, Oz must wait for the food or insulin to gradually take full effect.

Grantham said diabetics who don’t realize it can take time for the carbohydrates or insulin to kick in sometimes ingest more too soon, and thus risk going from one extreme to the other.

The game was developed by Grantham’s four-person company and contracted production artists in other locales. Game Equals Life now is negotiating with companies, primarily nonprofit organizations and pharmaceutical companies, to further develop the game.

Grantham looks forward to the game helping kids and adults learn about a disease sooner than he was able to.

"I didn’t know what diabetes was, but I could tell it was bad because everyone was freaking out,” he said. "I don’t think I had a good idea of how to manage it until I was 16 or 17.”

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