Casting a satirical view on the healthcare reform debate, a game called Death Panel is debuting on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch devices today.
Made by developer People Operating Technology, the game tests a user’s knowledge of healthcare reform. It takes its title from the much-discussed “death panels” that reform opponents used to deride Democratic proposals, to let “experts” decide who lives or who dies among patients. If it were serious, the game would be a slam against Obama. But it treats the subject tongue in cheek and is by and large politically neutral.
The game incorporates third-party facts about healthcare reform into a quiz game. When the game is over, players are encouraged to share their scores online with friends via Facebook and Twitter. The hope is to drive awareness and comprehension on the most important social and economic issue of the day, said Jason Petralia, co-founder of Boston-based People Operating Technology.
What better way to get a game noticed than to make it topical and controversial? That happens a lot in the Flash game market, where many developers have learned to churn out a game in less than a month. The iPhone development cycle is equally short.
To the degree that the game is serious, it’s part of the Serious Games effort to use games for purposes beyond entertainment. The game notes that the number of uninsured people in the U.S. increased last year from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million. The percentage of children under 18 without health insurance was 9.9 percent.
Death Panel puts a user in the role of a local politician who has to build a strong constituency. The user must stand on a virtual platform and answer questions correctly about the healthcare reform issue. The game has an integrated location-based feature where players can look up info about real-life politicians in their region. The company was founded earlier this year as an iPhone app creator. It has created other apps including Wildfire Fighter, Kero the Frog, the Fun Time Series, AudioPeople, and Blockdrop iCon Trick.