ViiV Healthcare is now among the roster of global companies that we’ve had the pleasure and privilege to work with. The pharmaceutical company, a joint venture by Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Shionogi, specializes in the development of medicines for the treatment of HIV. They are the second largest company in terms of the worldwide HIV treatment market share.

We built a sliding puzzle game for ViiV that highlights the goals of individuals seeking treatment for HIV, which are aligned with the company’s commitment “to deliver innovative new options for the care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS.”

The puzzle game features 8 blocks on a 3x3 grid

Sliding puzzles have a timeless classic appeal to them, and they actually caused quite a craze in 1880s, and have not ceased to be popular even in the internet age. The puzzles require that a block be missing to give a space for sliding the other blocks, which can only move on a 2-dimensional plane.

The original puzzle invented in the 19th century involved arranging 15 numbered blocks on a 4x4 grid in order. In recent decades though, the use of pictures has become more common.

Unlike the physical version of the puzzle which will always have a space, online versions have the advantage of being able to show the final missing piece once the puzzle is solved, thereby showing the entire picture.

Goal Slider Gameplay

Positive sentiments towards HIV treatment are highlighted in the game

The sliding puzzle game we made for ViiV is called Goal Slider, and it features 5 persons showing positive sentiments towards getting a treatment for HIV infection:

Masonia’s MOTIVATED to get treatment that fits the way she lives
Stephanie’s EMPOWERED with her healthcare team
Dekota’s COURAGEOUS and feeling less afraid of side effects
Devin’s CONFIDENT about his treatment decisions
Yuri’s DETERMINED to find the best treatment options for him

Instead of having 15 moving blocks, Goal Slider has 8 blocks that you can slide around a 3x3 grid with the use of the mouse pointer (for computers) or finger/hand (for touch screen devices).

Player has 2 minutes to solve the puzzle

The whole picture is flashed at the start, then the blocks are scrambled. The player is then given 2 minutes to try to unscramble the picture. A thumbnail version of the original picture is visible on the screen to aid the player.

If the player doesn’t solve the puzzle within the given time period, they are shown the solution.

Sliding puzzle games appeal to people of all ages, probably because their simple mechanics are easy enough to understand, yet they can often be quite challenging to solve.

The solution is shown at the end if the player doesn’t solve the puzzle in time

We used an HTML5 game engine to create this game. This has enabled us to meet the time and budget requirements of our client, while at the same time delivering a high quality product that global companies like ViiV expect in anything that carries their trusted name.

The HTML5 games we develop are cross-platform, which means they will work on any gadget or device that has a browser and are compatible with any operating system. And since they are browser games, users do not need to download them from an app store. Sharing is also made simple by just forwarding the URL of the game.

Working with ViiV Healthcare to create a game that features the goals of their patients undergoing HIV treatment has been a fulfilling experience for our team. The sliding puzzle game is a classic that has simple mechanics yet can be challenging enough to solve, making it enjoyable for a wide range of players.

The use of HTML5 allowed our team to build a great quality game with a low turnaround time and at costs that are significantly lower than creating a native gaming app from scratch.

Interested to develop HTML5 games for your brand or company? Feel free to contact us!