How Can Games Support Mental Health Awareness?

Introduction

RQs

Method

Key Insights

Guidelines

Reflection

Introduction

What if games could help peel off the labels tied to mental illness?

“You’re just overthinking.” “They’re just pretending.”

These labels may seem small, but for those living with mental illness, they stick. And they hurt.

Mental health challenges are often surrounded by misunderstanding and stigma, sometimes more painful than the symptoms themselves. These portrayals discourage empathy, reinforce stereotypes, and prevent people from seeking the support they need.

This project explores how games, through narrative and UX design, can become tools for raising awareness, reducing stigma, and supporting mental well-being.

Common stereotypes associated with mental illness.

Research Questions

What questions guided this exploration?

Most existing research on mental well-being and gaming has concentrated on mobile applications that incorporate gamification mechanisms, such as mood-tracking apps. This study explores how games and user experience (UX) design can actively contribute to maintaining mental well-being, reducing stigma, and fostering empathy.

To achieve these goals, this study focuses on three key research questions:

How can narrative-driven games effectively raise awareness of mental health issues and maintain mental health?
What are the key challenges in designing games that communicate sensitive mental health issues?
How can game design be tailored to support mental health/well-being?

Method

A cross-disciplinary approach grounded in literature and case studies.

This study followed a qualitative approach, combining a literature review of 45 academic papers with two case studies: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and World of Warcraft.

The findings were organized into three key themes:

Mental Illness in Games
Mental Well-Being and Games
Game Design for Mental Health

With these themes in mind, I created a concept map to visualize their connections and explore how empathy links narrative design, stigma reduction, and mental health support.

Concept map illustrates the relationship between video games and mental health, emphasizing their potential role in mental healthcare and well-being.

Key Insights

How Game Design Can Support Mental Health Awareness

Narrative fosters emotional connection and awareness

Narrative-driven games like Hellblade can simulate the lived experience of mental illness. When paired with thoughtful design elements such as audio immersion or perspective shifts, these stories promote empathy and reduce stigma.

Designing around mental health requires ethical sensitivity

Mental health is a sensitive topic. Games that depict it must avoid harmful stereotypes, triggering content, or overly dramatized representations. Involving stakeholders with lived experience is essential for authenticity and safety.

UX and interaction design influence how players process emotions

From pacing and feedback to interface clarity, UX decisions shape how players engage with emotional content. A well-designed experience supports reflection, reduces overwhelm, and fosters psychological safety.

Guidelines

Practical takeaways for building empathy-driven game experiences.

From this research, I distilled seven design guidelines to help creators build games that are not only engaging, but also emotionally safe, empathetic, and supportive.

1. Use narrative to build empathy

Design stories that authentically reflect lived mental health experiences. Use techniques like binaural audio, visual distortion, or branching narratives to immerse players emotionally and foster reflection.

2. Avoid excessive sympathy and victim framing

Overdramatizing symptoms can lead to pity instead of understanding. Focus on designing characters as full human beings, not just as representations of illness.

3. Involve people with lived experience

Collaborate with mental health professionals and individuals who’ve experienced mental illness firsthand. Participatory design leads to more accurate, respectful, and empathetic representation.

4. Design ethically and sensitively

Avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes (e.g., linking mental illness with violence). Include content warnings and allow players to adjust intensity or skip distressing scenes to protect emotional safety.

5. Support social connection

Integrate multiplayer systems, cooperative missions, or collaborative storytelling to help players build community, combat isolation, and share emotional understanding.

6. Apply UX principles to reduce cognitive load

Use intuitive interfaces, clear tutorials, and progressive complexity to help players process emotional content without feeling overwhelmed. Use supportive feedback and pacing to guide the experience.

7. Promote well-being through gameplay

Incorporate calming visuals, soothing audio, and low-stress mechanics. Balance challenge and accomplishment to help players build resilience, regulate emotions, and recover from stress.

Reflection

What this project meant to me as a designer.

This project helped me see design not just as a way to solve problems, but as a way to shape emotional experience.

By exploring mental health in games through narrative and UX, I learned how even small design decisions, such as pacing, framing, or tone, can shape how people engage with sensitive topics.

Read the full research PDF

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