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A Review of Indie Games for Serious Mental Health Game Design

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Serious Games (JCSG 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12945))

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Abstract

Mental health disorders present a global challenge being the largest contributor to non-fatal burden of disease. In fact, those who are experiencing symptoms of mental illness often wait ten years before seeking help. This is frequently due to help-seeking barriers such as stigma and cost. One way to combat help-seeking barriers is through increasing the mental health literacy of the public. This has been achieved successfully through digital delivery of mental health information and services, including serious games. Early research suggests that serious games are an effective tool for improving mental health literacy. However, factors such as poor-quality game design and research studies mean that developers face challenges when designing, developing, and analyzing serious games. To address these challenges this paper will provide an analysis of indie games that feature topics of mental health, trauma, and grief. Indie games share similarities to research environments, often being created by small teams on a limited budget. Even with these limitations they can tell impactful and emotional stories, making them a valuable source of inspiration for developers of serious mental health games.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Griffith Film School, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Myfanwy King, Tim Marsh & Zeynep Akcay

Authors
  1. Myfanwy King
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  2. Tim Marsh
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  3. Zeynep Akcay
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Myfanwy King .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

    Bobbie Fletcher

  2. Falmouth University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

    Minhua Ma

  3. Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Göbel

  4. BIBA, IKAP, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge

  5. Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Tim Marsh

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King, M., Marsh, T., Akcay, Z. (2021). A Review of Indie Games for Serious Mental Health Game Design. In: Fletcher, B., Ma, M., Göbel, S., Baalsrud Hauge, J., Marsh, T. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12945. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88272-3_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88272-3_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-88271-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-88272-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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