Phanthera_The Dream Guardian

An Adaptive VR Exergame for Posture-Aware Recovery During Work Breaks

Phanthera is an adaptive VR motion game designed to help knowledge workers relax their bodies and regulate their emotions through engaging VR gameplay during daily work breaks. The Game adaptive system, which offers personalized gameplay and training experiences tailored to each player's behavior.
West
Health & Wellbeing
Service & Innovative Design
Virtual
C1
Next Nature Museum
Noord Brabantlaan 1A
5652LA

Entrance fee

Free access

Hosted by

Ziyan Wang, Zhiqing Wu, Junkun Long, Jiawei Li
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Opening hours

11:00
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18:00
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Free Wifi Free wifi available
Toilets Toilets available
Wheelchair Friendly Fully wheelchair accessible
Wheelchair Friendly Toilet Wheelchair friendly toilet available

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VR Game

Phanthera is an immersive VR-based fitness experience designed for knowledge workers in the digital era. Prolonged desk work and overlooked poor posture habits often lead this group to suffer from muscle tension, mental fatigue, and related health issues. Our research revealed that traditional exercise methods lack sufficient appeal, making it difficult for workers to maintain long-term commitment. To address this, we integrate exercise into a gamified experience. By offering a lightweight, engaging, and highly targeted VR gameplay format, Phanthera motivates users to actively and continuously restore their physical well-being.

Core Gameplay

In the game, players take on the role of a “Dream Guardian,” assisting the protagonist in resisting the invasion of nightmares. Confronted with continuous waves of attacks, players must wield various magical tools and defend through quick bodily responses involving movement of the shoulders, neck, and limbs. Each session lasts only 5–10 minutes, allowing players to efficiently complete phases of relaxation and recovery.

Adaptive

The player's work-time behavior will be tracked and analyzed by AI. Based on this behavioral data, the game will automatically adjust its settings to provide personalized exercise. For example, if a player spends long periods looking down at a screen, the game will introduce more high-positioned monsters and attack patterns to encourage neck movement. If one hand is overused during work, the game will assign more tasks to that side to help the player stretch and relax those specific muscles.

Hosted by Ziyan Wang, Zhiqing Wu, Junkun Long, Jiawei Li

Computational Media and Arts (CMA) is a research and academic thrust area within the Information Hub, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). As an interdisciplinary program for computational and radical creativity, CMA brings together visionaries with backgrounds in art, design, science, and engineering to think critically, reach beyond convention, and make innovation.

Colofon

Game Designer, UX/UI/Conceptual Art Designer
Ziyan Wang
Game Designer, Developer
Zhiqing Wu
Game Designer, Developer
Junkun Long
Game Developer
Jiawei Li
Supervisor
Tengjia Zuo
Supervisor
Hai-Ning Liang