Inspiration
Patch It Up is an educational VR game targeted at children that immerses them inside the human body following a skin wound. Players experience wound healing from their role in each stage of the repair process through a series of mini-games tied directly to the underlying science of wound repair. The journey begins when the player touches a thorn on a rose, which triggers a cut and zooms into the wound site. From there, three scenes unfold: Platelets rush to the wound immediately. Players embody platelets and throw red blood cells upward to physically plug the opening, learning how the initial clot forms. Players move as a white blood cell through the bloodstream, find other white blood cells, and bring them back to the wound to help defend the body.
What it does
Players act as red blood cells, avoiding obstacles created by WBC (from the second game) or wound repair driven by platelets (from the first game). Their mission is to deliver oxygen to maintain normal blood flow. This educates children how red blood cells support healing by bringing what the tissue needs to recover. The game concludes with a full recovery. Patch It Up reminds us of the healing functions of a healthy body. Be sure to exercise and eat healthy!
How We Built It
Patch It Up was built in Unity for the Meta Quest headset. We imported and adapted 3D cell assets, designed physics-based mini games for each scene to guide players through the wound-healing timeline. Keeping the experience immersive, but lightweight enough for young players, required consideration of iteration and scene transitions.
Challenges we ran into
Our biggest challenge was turning real biology into gameplay that young players could easily understand and enjoy. We needed to simplify complex healing processes into clear, interactive actions while still keeping the science accurate. We also designed the game carefully to keep players comfortable in VR, with steady viewpoints and minimal sudden movement. On the technical side, we spent a lot of time refining object interactions and matching narration with important gameplay moments.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We've successfully created a game framework that makes one of the body’s most complex healing processes feel tangible, fun, and easy for children to understand. Each mini-game is inspired by real biology, with gameplay mechanics designed to reflect how different cells contribute to wound repair. Bringing these scenes together into one cohesive and child-friendly story, especially within the limited time of a hackathon, is something we are very proud of.
What we learned
We learned that the hardest part of science communication is knowing what to leave out. Designing for children motivated us to stratify different stages of wound healing and build an entire gameplay moment around it. We also deepened our Unity skills significantly, particularly around VR interaction design, object gravity and physics-based movements, and scene management.
What's next for Patch it Up!
Patch It Up begins with wound healing, but this is only one part of the body’s story. The game framework, built around immersive first-person vision mini-games based on real biological processes, could be expanded to explore more complex immune responses in conditions such as arthritis and cancer. In the future, the project could also grow into a broader biology learning platform aligned with educational goals through collaboration with pediatric specialists and educators. Our aim is to help children learn more about the fascinating stories inside the systems they are already curious about: their own bodies.
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