Serious games : Mental Health

  




GDC: Lecture Stories that Haunt and Heal: Mental Health and Game Narrative 

In this lecture, 3 women talked about their lived experience of Emotional Abuse, Disordered Eating and Sexual Assault. 

The apps are informed by game design principles and delivered through screen-based tech but could not be considered ‘games’. 


The talk focused on the following: 

Mental Health : Serious Games that engage with mental health issues in a non-triggering way. 

PTSD & Anxiety : The Body in Shakespeare Park - Flashbacks (Affairs/abuse/sexual behaviour)

Domestic Abuse : (Including Financial and Emotional Abuse) survivors of abuse 

Disordered Eating : Anorexia written in 2nd person, relationship issues. 

Sexual Assault : players will have a strong feeling that the female protagonist has healed herself. 


E.g

The body in Shakespeare Park - Lilybard.com 

In the Keeper’s shadow - Lonelyegg.com/games/itks/

Shrinking Pains - Bit.ly/ShrinkingPains


This led me to thinking about a serious game that focuses on financial and emotional abuse - potentially looking at personality disorders such as Narcissistic, BiPolar and Borderline Personality disorders. 


The Dating Game: Living with a personality disordered person - a lived experience of a survivor of Financial, emotional and physical abuse.  


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