Video Games and Mental Health: Perspectives of Psychology and Game Design

ISBN-13: 9783837668568 / Angielski

Federico Alvarez Igarz?bal; Emmanuel Guardiola; Carmen Johann

O autorze

Federico Alvarez Igarzábal (Dr.) works at the Cologne Game Lab of Technische Hochschule Köln as researcher and project coordinator for the ISEDA project. The goal of this project is to deliver a series of tools and strategies, including a serious game, to combat domestic violence in Europe. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher for the project VIRTUALTIMES, aimed at developing virtual environments to treat and diagnose psychopathologies like depression. He conducted his Ph.D. at Universität Köln and Technische Hochschule Köln on the topic of »Time and Space in Video Games«.Emmanuel Guardiola (Prof.) is a veteran of the video game industry with expertise in game design methodologies and over 30 major titles released for publishers and independent studios. With a Ph.D. in computer science, he is now head of research at the Cologne Game Lab - Technische Hochschule Köln. In the field of game design research he focuses on models, processes, characteristics of the gameplay experience, and how we can apply these findings to education, health, psychology or humanitarian causes.Carmen Johann, born in 1987, is a game and UX designer, researcher, developer, and interdisciplinary designer for interactive media. At the Cologne Game Lab, she is in charge of conception, prototyping, iterating, evaluating, and shipping serious games in an agile team environment. In her current project SOLVE, Carmen and the interdisciplinary team created a stealthy mental health game for target groups with specific needs to learn about their personality traits and create change in decision-making through gameplay.Katharina Tillmanns is a researcher, designer and lecturer for interactive media at the Cologne Game Lab, an Institute for Game Development and Research at Technische Hochschule Köln. In her studies and work, she explores and promotes the expressive qualities of games as a means of art and activism. A former co-president and founding member of the Games for Change Europe network, Katharina has been involved as project lead for a multitude of research and development-oriented projects in Germany and Europe. She is currently focusing on her dissertation research, which focuses on collaborative learning in the context of mixed reality environments.