Michael Arthur has an ambition - to take his ethical gaming to the world.
The 23-year-old is the founder of Jumblesoft, a game design studio at Upstart Business Incubator in Dunedin.
Mr Arthur's flagship game, Fruit Squash, is an interactive game aimed at teachingand encouraging children to choose healthy food and drink options.
Originally from Raetihi, Mr Arthur was nearing the end of a computer science degree at the University of Otago when a paper on game mechanics took his interest.
When he ended up doing the paper, one of the first games he came up with was Fruit Squash.
Everyone liked it and he decided he wanted to take it further.
During Orientation Week earlier this year, he got talking to Upstart business coach Rueben Skipper and told him about the game.
Since then, he has been domiciled at Upstart, working mostly on market validation, business plans, research and hiring staff.
He has one full-time designer and a junior on work experience.
Mr Arthur, who saw Fruit Squash as an opportunity to combat bad eating habits of New Zealand children, has been enrolling people to be "testers" for the game, including Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull and his grandchildren.
"We have finished the game design, the programming, the art work and the first series of levels," Mr Arthur said.
"The next step is testing to make sure everything is working as it should and to make sure the game is both educational and enjoyable."
Upstart was a great environment in which to work. He had been introduced to the realities of what it took to run a business, while also having a lot of fun.
Mr Arthur, who enjoys cooking and eating fresh food, said children were heavily influenced by the media, so they should be exposed to positive media.
"Most pre-schools and schools now have gaming capable devices such as iPads, and children are given gaming time as part of their daily activities.
"Ethical games can make `boring' things exciting and competitive.
"Fruit Squash teaches children that drinking juice and eating fruit can be a fun thing as well as a healthy option over things like chips and fizzy drinks," he said.
Fruit Squash rewarded players with free recipes for a variety of fruit drinks that could easily be made at home and got children involved with the food and drink they were consuming.
