Video Game Co-Creation
Exploring how co-creation by vulnerable young people working with video-game developers can build resilience.
Video Game Co-Creation
This research was aimed to empower young people by engaging them in the co-creation of a video game prototype with professional developers, erasing the line between producer and customer, observer and subject, designer and user, in a participatory action research framework.
The near-universal popularity of video games amongst young people provides an ideal opportunity to explore how creative engagement in their development might be an avenue to increased wellbeing and self-efficacy.
This research explored video game characteristics that can specifically address shortcomings of previous ‘serious games’ related to wellbeing, namely that of encouraging repeat visits and sustained use over time.
In order to do so, it used Participatory Action Research (PAR), an exploratory framework that requires researchers to choose methods in response to discovery and discussion. Within this framework, several different methods have been applied to gain and collect knowledge such:
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quantitative data generated by ‘game code’ during playtests
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concurrent think-aloud (CTA) of video game playtests
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interviews and self-generated reflections with developers, young people, and teachers
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artwork and other creative artifacts created by the participating young people, and
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retrospective think-aloud (RTA) in a focus group format.
This resulted in the development of a toolkit that guides schools and game developers in to best engage vulnerable young people in video game co-creation.