Virtual Baby

This portable game would let children earn points for raising a happy baby, teaching them about sexual health and nutrition.

This portable game is inspired by the popular 1990s game called Tamagotchi. It asks children to reach the goal of raising a virtual happy baby by adopting nutrition and reproductive health actions - without depleting their own energy points. The game intends to normalize behaviors like food diversification, birth spacing, and even social-emotional learning.

Virtual Baby is suitable even for young players, and is targeted to children between the ages of 7 and 15. Many are already caregivers of younger children, and others may soon become parents. It would create a new entry point for family planning and nutrition information to enter and benefit entire households.

The game would be played on a simple pocket-sized device with a digital screen and a few buttons that does not require charging. Game play would center around raising strong babies, selecting options that could strengthen or weaken the baby’s mind or happiness. The game would also measure the parents’ energy to illustrate the effects of poor birth-spacing and eating on both mother and baby.

Virtual baby would test the ability of “gamified” practices to improve uptake of messages around sexual and reproductive health and nutrition, helping girls plan for pregnancy and care for siblings and future children.