About Echo’s Awakening
Highly-stressed and overworked Echo wakes up from a nap in a childhood fantasy world filled with old imaginary friends who desperately need her help. The world’s been overrun by different goblins and monsters whom Echo must defeat through a series of puzzles and interactions to collect fragmented soul pieces (emotional regulation techniques). Using the repaired stone (collected techniques), Echo can defeat the monster and return to the real world with new skills to implement in her personal life.
Skills: UI Design, Research, Prototyping, Wireframing, Illustration
Approach
Using Goal-Directed Design, my team had 8 weeks to craft a game design for the Nintendo Switch that gamifies the therapy experience.
Team Lead
Tools
MS Teams, Discord, FigJam, Figma, Clip Studio Paint, Blender, Filmora
Why Design This Game?
Games serve as a therapeutic escape for many, including myself, offering relaxation and socialization. My interest in gamification sparked the idea of combining therapy with the engaging aspects of gaming. The sense of achievement, exploration, and escape in games, along with the motivation to win and collect rewards, drive user engagement. Furthermore, the widespread appeal of games enables mental health interventions to reach a broader audience, potentially helping those who may not seek traditional forms of support. Ultimately, the gamification of counseling tools and therapies would help users learn new skills in a safe yet reactive environment, where the immersive experience acts as a rehearsal of new behavior models.
The Research
Studies of game-based approaches to psychological and behavioral patterns for symptom relief are in their infancy, with therapists often resorting to non-therapy games like Uno and Candyland as icebreakers. While these games foster discussion, they lack engagement. Conversely, games requiring extensive thinking hinder conversation. We explored articles where therapists incorporate video games into their sessions and found:
Applying coping skills can be a struggle for those who have trouble regulating themselves. Usually, after each session, the client promises to practice these new strategies the next time they feel dysregulated, but they forget the recommended strategies or are unable to recognize their triggers/stressors.
Video games allow clients to rehearse these techniques and build awareness of their stress signals while therapists covertly monitor body language. When agitation is evident, they pause the game, practice mindfulness through breathing exercises, and discuss the reasoning behind those emotions.
Therapists can model behaviors, such as losing gracefully and laughing at their mistakes instead of an impulsive, emotional outburst. Demonstration of these behaviors helps gamers, particularly young gamers, understand how to react calmly to their in-game losses (and real-life mistakes) without jeopardizing relationships or acting out of frustration.
For the more engaged user to improve their mental health, strong gaming features must be prominent. Without the sense of achievement or stakes, it diminishes the enjoyment and starts to feel like “work” instead of play.
Competitive Audit
We also audited games such as Tell Me Why and It Takes Two to gain insight into how to handle the intricacies of narrative storytelling through choice-based interaction, passive therapeutic elements, and dual co-op setups. Additionally, we checked out meditation apps Headspace and Calm to evaluate the positives and negatives of the user experience
Key Takeaways:
We need a middle ground between mindless distraction and mindful interactions. If we lean too heavily onto the counseling/educational side, we may end up alienating the more casual player.
The game should feel like an emotional journey that lets the player grow with their character. Similar to play therapy, the game acts as a medium of expression while the engagement video games offer fosters connection and builds rapport.
The Interviews
While games have the potential to be a great coping technique, we have to acknowledge there exists a chance for enjoyment to veer off into obsession. This is why I felt it was imperative we talk to therapists, specifically play and video game therapists, to explore a healthy balance between engagement and education. .
Originally, we had planned to take a more assertive approach, explicitly displaying exercises and their purposes throughout the game. But the results of our interviews helped us learn:
Interviewees prefer the game involves more passive learning with tips and skill highlights at the end of chapters.
While choice-based interactions in the game enthused them, they found the concept of a timer for decisions anxiety-inducing.
Interviewees highlight their desire to collect all items in a game to feel a sense of achievement, often replaying sections of a game multiple times just to achieve this goal.
The therapists want opportunities to facilitate conversation with their clients, particularly citing the pause menu as a chance to discuss in-game progress and decisions.
I created an interview guide comprised of questions my team and I thought would best help inform our design decisions. Of our five interviews, two of them were therapists while the others ranged in age from early twenties to thirties.
At the conclusion of each interview, I posed the question “What did we [the team] feel was valuable about what our interviewee said and why?” to aid my team in finding and analyzing those common patterns within our affinity mapping.
The Personas
The research and interviews confirmed we have two user types: Therapists and Casual Players. The therapist would use it as a counseling tool whereas a Casual Player may use it for entertainment and pick up coping skills along the way. Both need constant progression throughout the game and save points to control their journey.
Joanne Michaels, 40
A remote play therapist from Ohio who enjoys gaming and karaoke in her free time.
Therapist
Joanne’s Goals:
to play the game with patients to observe behavior and teach lasting coping techniques during sessions
to have the game feel personable and allow opportunities to build rapport/converse in a safe space
to feel a sense of accomplishment for both themselves and the client
Joanne wants to be someone who uses more effective therapy tools to help their clients and become a better therapist
Clementine Martini, 25
An audiobook narrator and writer from Ohio who enjoys gaming in her free time.
Casual Player
Clementine’s Goals:
to use the game for entertainment while passively picking up coping skills
to explore a digital game environment that allows immersion and relaxation through constant progression
to feel a sense of achievement by overcoming the challenges of the game
Clementine wants to be someone who can translate therapeutic coping skills from a digital world to a real life scenario and gain control of the stress in her life
Defining Requirements
This stage played a crucial role in tempering our enthusiasm and refining the focus of our project. Since we were crafting a prototype from an original game idea, it was easy to become excited by the myriad interaction possibilities, increasing the risk of veering off course. The concept of gamifying therapy is expansive, offering numerous potential directions to explore. We needed to bear in mind that our primary purpose was to address a specific issue and aid users in accomplishing their objectives.
The requirements list served as a guide, enabling us to strike a balance between enriching user interactions and streamlining our concept without compromising our core intent or the user experience.
Frameworks
Wireframing for a game differs from that of a mobile app or desktop application because it requires consideration of button mapping and controller inputs. Even screens that appear visually identical for both the Therapist and Casual Player required subtle adjustments based on their respective controller interactions.
Lo-fi Sketches
Prototyping
In crafting our prototype, we adhered to a 1280 x 720 frame size to mirror the pixel dimensions of a Switch screen. I implemented an 8-pixel grid system comprising 8 columns, complemented by 64-pixel margins and 20-pixel gutters. To aid each member in their frame setup, I had a “Spacing and Measures” section to our Figma that highlighted the margins and placements of elements.
Usability Testing and Refinement
The primary focus of refinement week was application of usability notes, consistency, and clean up. We invited three participants from the research phase back to test our game design. I went back into each frame and made sure elements adhered to our style guide. I fixed margins, file hygiene, and edited controller/gamepad interactions.
Usability Test Notes:
Ultimately found the flow of content and FTUE settings logical
Requested a longer delay in the beginning to read the disclaimers
Felt the collectible mode disclaimer needed an explanation
Requested we use the word ‘replacement’ instead of substitute to ensure our message is clear -- fifth grade reading level
Requested clearer indication of hover effects by using an enlarging effect in addition to the highlight
Key Changes:
Buttons were given a slight enlargement so the hover/selection indication was clearer
Disclaimers delay were extended to give them time to read and I applied the vocabulary change suggestions
An explanation was added to the collectible mode selection
Before
After
Before
After
The Art of Echo
I took inspiration from various games to develop our art style and theme, such as: Life is Strange, It Takes Two, Little Nightmares and Dreams (PS4). In addition, I watched tutorials on YouTube to teach myself how to 3D model our main character and other game assets.
Tools:
Clip Studio Paint
Blender
Filmora (for the introductory cut scene)
Lessons Learned🤯
Embrace ambiguity and abandon ego.
We were enthusiastic about crafting a game, which is great. Yet, the endeavor of gamifying therapy presented us with many avenues to explore, and our enthusiasm sometimes led us astray, overwhelming us with possibilities. However, it was crucial to maintain focus on the project's scope and our users' objectives. Throughout each phase, we consciously narrowed our focus and remained steadfast in our commitment to the overarching goal. Embracing uncertainty was a key aspect of this process, trusting that despite the unknowns, the journey would ultimately lead us to the right path.
Communication and organization is key.
Delegating and tracking tasks for this team was essential to the design process. Without my taskboards to track our progress and creation of features, we could have missed important interactions and screens. In addition, fostering an environment where my team felt comfortable to express their opinions and ideas led to a collaborative creative process that optimized our strengths.
When designing for individuals with disabilities, you're essentially designing for everyone.
We made concerted efforts to provide clear explanations beyond mere color alterations and visual shifts. Ensuring clarity in button mapping was a priority, and I entrusted a team member who had a strong passion for accessibility with the responsibility of creating settings that empower users through customization. This approach aimed to cater to a diverse range of user needs and preferences, putting control directly in their hands.