Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Eoin Barry 

BSc [Hons] Creative Computing

I have a passion for game design, game development, programming and application development.

Project Description

Mana is the name of the game created for this project, and it is a game devoid of enemies, threats, competitive or addicting gameplay loops, and malicious practices such as microtransactions. This game was created to benefit from the positive effects video games can have on mental health that has been shown in studies.


Can video games be used as a tool to benefit mental health?

My thesis was inspired by various studies which concluded that video games can have positive effects on mental health. I set out to design, create and test a video game that I made for this project to see if players showed any improvements to their mood or mental state. The data from the results of the testing trended towards supporting the studies showing video games can have positive effects on mental health.