The field of genetics is no stranger to simulation and serious games. A recent count of the number of interactive games and simulations at one of the most popular sites for online genetics content, http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/, produced no less than 22 different online activities for students. Other online gaming environments like Phylo (http://phylo.cs.mcgill.ca/) (Kawrykow A., et al., 2012) and eterna (http://eterna.cmu.edu/web/) are designed to bridge gaming and scientific research. Many of the serious games about genetics that have been developed thus far focus on Mendelian genetics, simple inheritance patterns and/or structures of molecules involved in inheritance. Although these games align with traditional teachings that occur in many middle school, high school and college classrooms, there is much room for expansion in complex genetics and complex disease. Using, common good practices of simulation, social interaction and student feedback (Swanson, 2014), Touching Triton was developed as a serious game focused on common complex disease and how genetic factors, environmental factors and family history all play a role in a lifetime risk of developing these diseases.
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