Creating games to tackle real-world issues is no small feat, but Greyland Games is up for the challenge. One of their most ambitious projects so far has been a game aimed at the healthcare sector, developed to support the professional journey of nurses and doctors who move to a foreign country.
In countries with high immigration rates among healthcare professionals, language can be a significant barrier to integration. Greyland Games set out to address this issue, creating a game that would help professionals overcome language challenges in medical settings. With shifting teams of interns, however, progress was slower than anticipated. The healthcare game was eventually completed after a similar project for the hospitality industry, but the vision behind it remained clear: Secure funding through a universally relevant tool for the medical field.
To make the game as realistic as possible, Greyland’s CEO, Katerina, worked closely with Siru Syrjynen, a nurse who provided valuable insights on healthcare localization and lesson authenticity. Katerina then teamed up with Emmi Rukkila, a local Game Designer, for the initial stages of the game’s design. Later, interns—Teija Peltonen, and Valmu Alasaarela, joined the team to bring the game closer to completion.
On the development side, interns Yusuf Enes Doganay, Sardorbek Mukudinov, Joel Visakorpi, and Matias Jääskö worked hard to push the project forward.
When Iulia Alexandru joined as the final artist for the healthcare game, she took on the critical task of moving the game toward completion.
Iulia recalls her experience:
“This is one of our older projects, I believe it started sometime around end of 2022 and beginning of 2023. When I joined the team in February/March 23, I started working on it right away, at that point, we only had the character art done, but quickly moved forward.
I had a lot of fun working on this prototype. I designed the backgrounds, directed the art vision and helped here and there. I was also in charge of most of the technical art and Unity duties, designing the environment, creating the animations and fixing some bugs. We all had great ideas and the prototype was evolving.
We even consulted with a Finnish nurse to increase accuracy of the experience of working in a healthcare center. At a point the ideas we had took over and the to-do list was loooooong, we ended up running out of time and interns and shelfing the product in late 2023. I remember I tried working on it alone for a while, but it was way too much.
Then we met Maria [for whom the hospitality game was built] and well, we started fresh with the cooking game, learning from our previous troubles and this time with more realistic expectations. It ended up working well, I’m happy we came back to the healthcare prototype as it holds a place near and dear to my heart.”
With a demo version now complete, Katerina’s early work exploring potential partnerships with medical schools and healthcare institutions will be key in the next phase. Greyland Games is looking to partner with hospitals, medical schools, and doctors’ offices to develop the game further and secure funding. This project could be a game-changer, helping create a future where language is no longer a barrier in healthcare and enabling healthcare professionals to work seamlessly across borders!
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© Greyland Games 2024
