Month: January 2026

Week 12 marked the completion of my research journey. I finalised my critical report and audio-visual presentation, ensuring consistency across all components.

Reflecting on the process, I realised that my understanding of emotional design in cooperative games had deepened significantly. The unit enabled me to combine theory, design analysis and personal research interests into a coherent academic investigation.

This research has not only contributed to my academic development, but has also influenced my future creative practice, encouraging me to consider emotional healing as a meaningful design goal in interactive media.

Presentation

Critical Report

In Week 11, I translated my written research into a three-minute audio-visual presentation. This required me to distil my research into key points and present them clearly.

The process helped me better understand my own argument and research focus. Presenting my findings visually reinforced the importance of clarity and coherence in research communication.

Week 10 emphasised thesis structure, academic language and Harvard referencing. I revised my essay to ensure formal tone, clarity and correct citation.

This process helped me recognise the importance of academic structure in communicating research effectively. I refined my arguments and ensured that every claim was supported by academic sources or case analysis.

Week 10 was crucial in transforming my research into a polished academic essay.

Week 9 focused on literature review structure and academic writing conventions. I reviewed key texts by Isbister, Bopp et al., and Depping & Mandryk, focusing on emotional experience and cooperation in games.

Rather than summarising individual studies, I began synthesising their arguments to position my research within existing academic discourse. I identified that while emotional engagement is widely discussed, emotional healing through cooperative design remains underexplored.

This week helped me clarify the academic contribution of my research and refine my critical voice.

During Week 8, I continued refining my case studies and analytical framework. I focused primarily on It Takes Two, with comparative references to Spiritfarer.

I analysed how mandatory cooperation, complementary abilities and shared responsibility reduce negative emotions such as frustration and blame. This design encourages emotional support and communication between players.

At this stage, I began structuring my essay around three core aspects: narrative design, cooperative mechanics and visual atmosphere. Week 8 was essential for organising my research into a coherent analytical structure.

Week 7 marked a turning point in my research process. The focus shifted to choosing a topic, forming a research question and developing an argument. I refined my research focus to examine how cooperative game design supports emotional healing.

I began to clearly define my research question: how narrative, cooperative mechanics and visual design work together to promote emotional healing in cooperative games.

This week also encouraged me to think critically about argumentation rather than description. I identified a gap in existing research, noting that many studies discuss emotional outcomes but rarely analyse specific design mechanisms in depth.

By the end of Week 7, my research direction was clearly established, providing a solid foundation for my final essay.

Week 6 focused on mise-en-scène, composition, staging and spatial organisation. These concepts highlighted how meaning is constructed visually through arrangement, movement and interaction within space.

Applying this to games, I analysed how player positioning, screen direction and spatial cooperation influence emotional experience. In cooperative games, players must coordinate actions within shared space, making spatial design a crucial emotional factor.

I observed that games like It Takes Two design spaces that require mutual awareness and coordination, reinforcing emotional connection between players. This spatial interdependence reduces individual pressure and supports emotional regulation.

This week significantly advanced my research by connecting film theory concepts to interactive and cooperative game design.

Week 5 introduced animated documentary and political animation, raising questions about authenticity, subjectivity and emotional truth. Although my research focuses on games rather than documentaries, the discussion was highly relevant.

The idea that animation can represent emotional and psychological realities more effectively than photographic realism directly connects to emotional healing. Games, like animated documentaries, often prioritise emotional truth over objective realism.

I began to consider cooperative games as a form of emotional representation rather than simulation of reality. Emotional healing in games does not depend on realistic depiction, but on the authenticity of emotional experience created through interaction.

This week helped me frame emotional healing as a valid research topic within broader academic discussions of representation, subjectivity and affect.

Week 4 explored auteur theory, abstraction and experimental animation. The discussion of authorship raised important questions about creative intention and emotional expression. In animation and games, emotional tone is often a deliberate result of design choices rather than spontaneous player interpretation.

The concept of abstraction was particularly useful for my research. Abstract forms, symbolic environments and non-realistic characters can allow players to project their own emotions onto the experience. This is especially relevant to emotional healing, where ambiguity and metaphor can be more effective than literal representation.

I reflected on how cooperative games often simplify or stylise characters to focus attention on emotional interaction rather than realism. This reinforced my belief that emotional healing in games relies on intentional abstraction, both visually and narratively.

Week 4 strengthened the theoretical grounding of my research by highlighting design intention and emotional authorship.