Founders: Jamie Bankhead, Connie Reid, Luke O'Brien

The Problem

Cystic fibrosis is a lifelong genetic condition which causes a thick sticky mucus build up in sufferer’s lungs. To remove the mucus, sufferers must perform rigorous Airway Clearance Techniques or ACTs on a daily basis. However, despite being proven to extend life expectancy and improve quality of life adherence is poor, especially in children. This is because these routines are incredibly boring and can take up to an hour every single day. They are essentially just sitting still and breathing these long, slow, controlled breaths for up to 12 sets of 12 breaths. Imagine trying to get your kids up an hour before getting ready for school to just sit still and breath… pretty much impossible. That’s where games come in!

The Solution

Konglomerate Games is a video games company specialising in developing healthcare and other serious games. Using a device developed for Project Fizzyo, an initiative by Microsoft and UCL, we can detect a player’s breath which is used for their ACTs and turn it into input for the computer. We can then take that input and use their breath to play our game, which turns their boring routine into a fun, playable experience. The game focuses around a series of minigames which the player can play with their breath, each of which incentivise good technique through the gameplay. The game then rewards the player for good technique and adherence through scoring, achievements and in game currency which the player can then use to customise their player and game world.

The Company 

Konglomerate Games started as a group project at Abertay University. We all believed that people’s love for video games could be utilised for something good, as often the media can portray games as something addictive and bad. We initially began with 9 students working together as part of Project Fizzyo, whose goal was to improve the physiotherapy care of CF sufferers. We were a perfect fit and built a game designed around their physiotherapy routines to be used for a clinical trial and was a great success. The following year Konglomerate Games Ltd was founded. Using money raised through competitions and grants like the UK Games Fund as well as the Converge Impact Challenge and the Unloc Enterprise Challenge, we were able to begin working full time back in June 2020. Konglomerate Games is now employing four full time staff and we now provide gamification and serious game development services for various clients as well as working on our CF physiotherapy game. We have already completed multiple contracts for multiple clients including a leading university.

A Quote

"So far TATA Varsity has been fantastic. It has been really interesting taking part in both the online peoples vote as well as the semi-finals as we have been able to clearly see the quality of the other companies, as they are all incredibly high. It has also been great to network with them and see some of them pitch during the semi-finals."

Top Tips

"Just go for it! Apply for everything you can and don’t be disheartened with rejections as applying will get easier every time. Have *some kind of* a plan before you jump in but be prepared to change it"