Recent years have witnessed a rise in Game Jamsorganized events to create playable prototypes in a very short time frame. Game Jams offer a unique and quick way to prototype games. Beyond that, we believe Game Jams can also be seen as a design research method, situated in the research-through-design tradition, to create knowledge in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. The goal of this Game Jam is thus twofold: first, participants will use the Game Jam approach to investigate a research question; second, participants can, through actual practice, identify advantages and disadvantages of Game Jams as a research method. Hereby the Game Jam workshop provides a unique opportunity for HCI practitioners and researchers to gain experience in applying gameoriented methods for research.

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Sedentary time is considered a health risk factor, even when it is compensated with some exercise. Frequent activities of minimal physical exertion throughout the day like walking or climbing stairs are therefore recommended. To promote these activities through social play and collective awareness, we designed a semipublic display that shows the step count of a group of players in near real-time, using a wearable self-monitoring device that senses their physical activity. We included a fictional player that walked at constant speed during the whole day to promote a shared goal. Our preliminary findings suggest that the display motivated players to use a self-monitoring device everyday and enabled new conversations among players without producing privacy issues. Emotional connections with non-collocated participants and creative ways of cheating were also observed. We believe our work highlights the opportunities to extend the potential of selfmonitoring devices, which require little effort and resources to be implemented.

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