Aesthetic Design of Applied Games - Designing Games for Promoting Awareness about Visual Impairment

Abstract

Games can be more than just entertaining, they can be utilized for more purposes, such as spreading knowledge and changing player behaviour. Applied games emphasise these other purposes. This thesis aimed to explore how different parts of Aesthetics could be utilized in order to further the purpose of an applied game. The question posed being “What should be considered when designing aesthetics to promote awareness through an applied game?”. A number of considerations were created, which together would form the parts of a larger SWOT analysis. These were formed through the development of an applied game called Fabian and Fables, which tries to spread awareness about the experiences of those with visual impairments. The game was was created in collaboration with S. Dahlborg and E. Ekroth. They posed a similar question which focused on Gameplay as opposed to Aesthetics, which is the focus of this thesis.