Cloudy

This project is game-based therapeutic intervention for burnout patients to increase their engagement with their therapy. The concept consists of four levels. The first level is the abstract level, where patients have to match negative thoughts with positive alternative thoughts. During the second level patients have to pay off with negative thoughts by shooting them away with the best counterarguments. Now the patients are sensitized with these thoughts, the third level places the thoughts in a work related animated scenario. During the dialogue thoughts pop up and patients have to decide whether these thoughts are positive or negative. The last level is a virtual behavioral experiment, where patients have to practice a conversation with an actor, representing their manager. Their response is recorded, which gives the patients the opportunity to review their response and evaluated it. After the game, patients can decide to share the recording with their therapist in order to receive feedback.
The purpose of the game is to develop skills in the virtual world to make a burnout patient more confident in dealing with others. Since the game will be designed for this serious purpose it can be placed within the serious game genre.

Daphne L. van den Brule
V. T. Visch, M. Melles
master thesis, May 2011