This work presents the design and evaluation of a set of three mini exercise games (exergames), called “Ellic’s Exercise Class,” which allows people to play in virtual reality (VR) using a head-mounted display (HMD) with the intention to promote physical activities. The exergames require the player to move hands, arms, and body to interact with sporting gameplay events. The game design methodology considers both display advantages and physical limitations in VR technologies. The games are evaluated in a usability study with the goal to understand participants’ performance, gaming experience, effectiveness in motivating them to move, and their exercise intensity levels. In the study, we compare play of games in a VR environment simulated through an HMD with the play in front of a standard large flat-screen display (LFD), while ensuring the difficulty level of gameplay to be same in both. The participants’ moving distances and their answers in questionnaires show that they become more active and engaged when playing exergames with HMD, but according to heart rate data, there is not significant evidence that playing with HMD would be better than that with LFD in terms of increasing the energy expenditure. We discuss the findings in accordance with the relationship and independence between engagement and exertion in exergaming.

这项工作介绍了一组三个迷你运动游戏的设计和评估（exergames），称为“ Ellic's健身课程”，人们可以使用头戴式显示器（HMD）在虚拟现实（VR）中玩游戏，目的是促进体育锻炼。exergames需要玩家移动手，手臂和身体以与体育游戏事件进行交互。游戏设计方法论同时考虑了VR技术的显示优势和物理局限性。在可用性研究中对游戏进行了评估，目的是了解参与者的表现，游戏体验，激励他们移动的有效性以及锻炼强度水平。在这项研究中，我们将通过HMD模拟的VR环境中的游戏玩法与标准大型平板显示器（LFD）前面的玩法进行了比较，同时确保两者的玩法难度水平相同。参与者的移动距离及其在问卷中的答案表明，他们在玩HMD的游戏时变得更加活跃和投入，但根据心率数据，没有明显的证据表明玩HMD会比LFD玩的更好。增加能源消耗。我们根据锻炼中参与和努力之间的关系和独立性来讨论研究结果。