Storytelling Exploration Games for Wellbeing
General anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions in the UK. Many people continue to face barriers to accessing treatment, and maintaining treatment adherence remains an ongoing challenge. Video games have long been a source of emotional experience, adventure, and joy. But can they also be a tool for managing mental health? We also know that storytelling impacts positively on anxiety. So can we combine game experiences and story to create something new and potentially useful for people struggling with anxiety? Our University of York PhD research project is trying to find out more about that very question.
We hypothesis that story-led game experiences present a potentially effective and engaging avenue that can help users to manage anxiety, but there is still a lot to learn about the design of these games. Not all games are created equal. The specific mechanics and design qualities of a game can make a significant difference in its impact on mental well-being. We posit that games that emphasize storytelling with virtual game world exploration, and scale back on traditional gaming complexity, may provide opportunities for players to engage at their own pace, and participate in autonomous therapeutic experiences through play. Drawing on the design insights of clinicians as informants towards a foundational framework (Catalan et al, 2024), we developed iterations of a game prototype with key game design features that could potentially make games useful as anxiety interventions.
Join Us to Help Shape the Future of Wellbeing Games!
If you’re interested in this topic and have lived experience with anxiety symptoms (such as tension, stress, sleep deprivation and worry), we invite you to participate in our exciting study on games and wellbeing. We're testing a new story-led exploration game designed to help reduce symptoms of tension, stress, and worry.
Actively learn more about video games and their impact on your wellbeing. Your contribution will be essential for shaping a potentially inclusive and beneficial gameplay experience for anxiety. We anticipate this user study should only takes about 35 minutes.
Participants will receive a £10 Amazon voucher for their time and contribution.
To participate, you only need:
- Yourself, with your own lived experience of anxiety symptoms, such as stress, tension or worry. A formal mental health diagnosis is not required.
- Your own smartphone so you are able to download and use the game.
Please visit our study website to participate, or reach out via email to the project lead, Cristobal Catalan, at c.catalan@york.ac.uk. Your insights could help shape how games are developed for anxiety care in the future.