Original game · ANDAR Association
Family HHeroeSS: the video game for working on social skills as a family
HHSS stands for Habilidades Sociales, Spanish for social skills. The ANDAR Association's psychology team designed it for an adult and a child aged 6 to 12 to play together on a phone or tablet.
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Trailer · 1:41 No cookies until you press play
- 2 players: the child and their adult escort
- 6 to 12 years old, with or without difficulties
- 5 kingdoms, each with its own attribute
- 22 real-life challenges
A game by an ADHD association in Navarre, Spain
What Family HHeroeSS is: social skills for children with and without ADHD
Family HHeroeSS is a cooperative family video game for improving social skills and emotional intelligence. It was created by the ANDAR Association's own professionals in Tudela, Spain. The association supports people with ADHD and their families, and presented the game as the first of its kind.
It is designed mainly for children aged 6 to 12, with or without difficulties. It is free and is played on a phone or tablet.
It takes two players. The child controls the hero and an adult plays alongside them as their escort, the game's name for the accompanying adult. Without the adult taking part, the story does not move forward.
It was presented in May 2021 at the Lestonnac civic centre in Tudela. It was developed from 2020 under the InnovaSocial programme of Fundación "la Caixa" and Fundación Caja Navarra, with support from Tudela City Council and the Government of Navarre.
It is the original game in the saga. Its virtual reality follow-up is Virtual HHeroeSS (opens in a new tab), which the association uses in sessions with Meta Quest 3.
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- Works on
- Social skills and emotional intelligence
- Managed by
- ANDAR Association
- ANDAR psychology team
- The attributes, the missions, the initial test and the notes for the adult.
- OverFuture with Androtiyas
- The Unity programming, the game server and the mission system.
Today the game is managed by the ANDAR Association. Its website is hheroess.com (opens in a new tab) and the association's is asociacionandar.com (opens in a new tab) (both in Spanish).
The escort and their PIN
A PIN so the adult and the child play together
The game can't know whether the child said thank you or tried a new food. The adult can. That is why the association's psychologists came up with the escort's PIN.
- The child creates their profileOn the phone or tablet, with their name, their hero and the adult's email address.
- The adult validates the accountOn the game's website, which explains the method, the educational aim and how missions are validated.
- A PIN arrives by emailA secret four-digit PIN and a save code, in an email signed by the Grand Master.
- No PIN, no progressMissions that need the adult can only be completed when the escort enters their PIN.
The email recommends that the adult plays the tutorial with the child. The save code lets you recover the game on another device.
There are also objectives that the adult plays themselves. When one comes up, a large button appears on screen and the escort takes the phone. There are 18 of these objectives in total.
From: The Grand Master
Subject: HHeroeSS account created successfully
Secret PIN, to complete the Dream World missions: 2021
A test PIN for this page. In the game, each family receives its own. The email and missions are in Spanish in the game; this is our translation.
Dream World
First mission
Find your ideal escort and ask them if they'd like to go on this adventure with you. Once you've found them, enter the secret code and press Complete.
“You shouldn't be here; I no longer know who I am… But perhaps you can help me. Remind me what Resilience is!”
Challenge 1 of 3
The escort enters their PIN
Do the challenge together and, once it is done, enter the PIN.
Five kingdoms, five attributes
What each kingdom of PandarA works on
In PandarA the adults have forgotten the values that kept the peace, and it is the children who still remember them. Each kingdom holds one of the five attributes and the specific skills that make it up.
-
Friendliness Humans · Ribería
Basic social skills.
- Saying hello and goodbye
- Saying thank you and sorry
- Asking and answering questions
- Laughing and making others laugh
In real life Go to a shop and let the child do the shopping: greeting, question, thanks and goodbye.
-
Wisdom Elves · Roble Eterno
Conflict resolution and self-awareness.
- Knowing your strengths and weaknesses
- Looking for solutions to problems
- Self-control
- Thinking ahead about consequences
In real life Imagine a classmate has been insulting you for days and write down at least three solutions and their consequences.
-
Resilience Giants · Fandom
Tolerating frustration and bouncing back.
- Losing well
- Dealing with rejection
- Standing up to peer pressure
- Not giving up easily
In real life Lose the next game on purpose, without the other person noticing, and congratulate them.
-
Courage Valkyries · Asgard
Making decisions and assertiveness.
- Accepting who you are
- Standing up for your opinions
- Fighting for what is fair
- Standing up for others
In real life Pick a house rule you don't like and suggest a better one, explaining why.
-
Kindness Fairies · As Shi
Altruism and emotional intelligence.
- Knowing your feelings
- Expressing them
- Accepting other people's
- Putting yourself in their shoes
In real life Do a favour for everyone you live with and talk together about how they felt.
KAOS, the demon who also returns in Virtual HHeroeSS, waits at the end. The Armoury, the sixth portal, is where you customise your hero. Mission texts are our translation from the Spanish game.
The initial test
Fifteen statements to begin with
Before the adventure starts, a Valkyrie asks the child to respond honestly to fifteen statements.
Each one is answered on a five-point scale, from "Never" to "Always". Based on the answers, each attribute starts with a score from 0 to 10.
The hero doesn't level up like in other games. It is the attributes that have their own levels, and they grow with the missions.
I try to be kind to the people around me.
Even when I'm really angry, I can control myself.
I don't play if I know I might lose.
I say sorry when I know I've made a mistake.
The missions
The four types of objective
These are the names the tutorial uses. The game contains 192 objectives of the first three types, across 17 main missions and 15 side missions. The escort plays 18 of them.
- 120
"Talk to characters"
Talking to the inhabitants of each kingdom. It includes dialogue tests with three possible answers, such as when the Watcher of the North asks whether you know how to lose.
- 50
"Send demons back to their dimension"
The fights. The demons don't die: they go back to their own world.
- 22
"Dream World missions"
Real-life challenges the child does with their escort. They are completed with the adult's PIN.
- 18
"The escort's objectives"
The adult plays 18 of the 192 objectives themselves. A large button appears and the escort takes the phone.
Real-life immersion missions
Real-life missions for working on social skills as a family
These are the game's big teaching idea. Part of the action happens on screen and part at home, at school or out and about, and it is then validated in the game.
Each mission comes with notes for the adult. They explain what is being worked on and how to support the child, for example that losing well means controlling your anger and recognising the other person's achievement.
The full list is on the game's website (in Spanish) (opens in a new tab).
- Think of three things you and your escort like about a family member, and tell them.
- Sit on the floor for ten minutes with your eyes closed and beat the boredom in silence.
- With your escort, write down three things that would make someone happier.
- Thank someone in your family for an effort they made for you.
- Pay a compliment to the next three people you know that you bump into.
- Try a food you both think you won't like.
- Buy your favourite sweet and wait 24 hours before eating it.
- Find a charity together that does something important and think about how you could help.
The voices
Voices recorded by the association and its friends
The characters in Family HHeroeSS weren't recorded in a studio. They were recorded by people from the association and children from ANDAR, and also by the AsdeT theatre group, friends and family.
The recordings were then cleaned up and normalised for the game, line by line. Here you can listen to three of the giants of Fandom (adult voices only, in Spanish as in the game; the English text is our translation).
-
Gulnar welcomes the hero to Fandom
“Greetings, welcome to Fandom. Lyanna said you would come. Resilience seems to be in danger… The three Guardians of Fandom need our help. Head north and start there.”
-
Argos, the Watcher of the West
“You shouldn't be here; I no longer know who I am… But perhaps you can help me. Remind me what Resilience is!”
-
The God of Resilience
“You really are resilient. You have overcome every difficulty and you haven't given up. Perseverance is always rewarded!”
Project history
The first game in a saga
The design meeting
The association sets the five attributes, the kingdoms and the initial test.
Trailer and launch
A trailer on the association's channel and a launch event in Tudela.
TDAH Virtual Fit
The association moves into virtual reality with TDAH Virtual Fit (in Spanish) (opens in a new tab).
Virtual HHeroeSS
PandarA returns in its virtual reality follow-up (opens in a new tab), for therapy sessions.
How we developed it
Developing a mobile video game with Unity
Missions as data
The association wrote the missions and they changed often. We built them as data: each objective says what type it is, whether the escort does it and what happens when it starts or ends.
Those "eventualities" (our name for mission events) trigger enemies or characters, change the music or load another scene. That way, a change to the script never meant touching the code.
One code for the whole family
Progress is tied to the family's code and saved on the game server, with a protected copy on the phone. On another device, you just enter the code to carry on where you left off.
A hero of your own
The association wanted children to identify with their character. You play as a warrior boy or girl, equipped in the Armoury with a weapon, armour, helmet and shield.
Four of the seven helmets in the Armoury.
Unity and C#
The whole game, with 31 scripts of our own.
Laravel
The game server, with the family codes, the PIN and the progress.
Anti-Cheat Toolkit
A protected copy of the progress on the phone.
Mission system
Objective types, escort missions and mission events.
Related services
The result
What you play in PandarA
The Dream World window. 
Dialogue, the most common type of objective. 
Portals between the five kingdoms. 
Demons that have to be sent back to their dimension.
The association presents the game at hheroess.com (opens in a new tab) (in Spanish), with the list of Dream World missions.
Virtual HHeroeSS, its virtual reality follow-up (opens in a new tab) · How was it made? The development story (in Spanish) (opens in a new tab) · Family HHeroeSS in our projects (in Spanish) (opens in a new tab)
FAQ
What people ask us most about Family HHeroeSS
What does HHSS stand for?
Habilidades Sociales, Spanish for social skills. That is what the game works on, together with emotional intelligence, through five attributes: friendliness, wisdom, resilience, courage and kindness.
What ages is it for?
It is designed mainly for children aged 6 to 12, with or without difficulties, who play with an adult beside them.
Is it a video game for children with ADHD?
It was created by the ANDAR Association, which supports people with ADHD and their families. It is designed for any child aged 6 to 12, with or without difficulties, who plays with an adult beside them.
Do you need an adult to play?
Yes. It is a cooperative family game. The adult is the child's escort: they validate the account, receive the PIN and complete the real-life missions with the child.
How does the escort's PIN work?
When the game is set up, the adult receives a secret four-digit PIN by email. Dream World missions can only be completed when the escort enters it, after doing the challenge together.
What are Dream World missions?
Challenges completed in real life with the escort, such as doing the shopping while saying hello and thank you. They are then validated in the game.
Is it free, and how do I get it?
It is free. Today it is managed by the ANDAR Association, which presents it at hheroess.com (in Spanish).
How is it related to Virtual HHeroeSS?
Family HHeroeSS is the original game. Virtual HHeroeSS is its virtual reality follow-up, set in the same world of PandarA, for sessions with a professional.
Who developed Family HHeroeSS?
OverFuture, a software and video game development company based in Zaragoza, Spain, together with Androtiyas. We programmed it in Unity with the ANDAR Association, whose team defined the content.
How much does it cost to develop a game like this?
It depends on the scope. Our gamification and video game projects start at €2,000, excluding VAT. The final price depends on the mechanics, the levels, the art, the platforms and the server.
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