Positive impact game as a contribution to movement rehabilitation

With the continuous improvements in surgery and the rapid development of bioelectrical interfaces, a new type of prosthesis with a higher quality is developed every year. Although a major step is taken every year, a considerable time gap is between an amputation and the first time the patient can use a fully functional myoelectrical prosthesis. To minimize this gap the ac{IMS} created in combination with the Otto-Bock company a virtual exercise tool that helps patients to start the learning process for using the prosthesis in the middle of the healing process. The following thesis builds upon this topic but replaces the exercise environment with a video game environment. With the help of this thesis, the reader should be able to understand the problems after an amputation, to understand the major fields of gamedesign and to distinguish between general game genres. Special attention is payed to the game genre "Positive Impact Game". Its main purpose is the positive feeling/impact the player gets for his or her life while playing the game and afterwards. At the end of this thesis, a full working showcase for a psychological and physiological rehabilitation game is given. Furthermore, future developments on the showcase are discussed.