Dr. Sandra Danilovic on Gaming for Recovery: Transforming Trauma into Play

Gaming for recovery

Though video games are typically designed for distraction and escapism, Sandra Danilovic (Game Design and Development) is using them as a tool of reflection. She is working with community members to design video games based on their experiences of mental health and addiction.

In the spirit of musical jam sessions, Danilovic organizes game jams: workshops – typically over the course of a weekend – that provide the technology and skills to create a game.

“We give participants the platform to tell their illness and disability narratives and empower them to connect with others and make something creative,” says Danilovic. “It’s a regenerative process of confronting your lived experiences and reconstructing yourself through storytelling, metaphor and alter egos, which are often safer ways to explore trauma.”

Together with her colleagues Michelle Skop (Social Work) and Vanessa Oliver (Youth and Children’s Studies) and 15 Laurier students, Danilovic led three game jams for adults with a history of opioid addiction at the Grand River Community Health Centre in Brantford and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) in Hamilton.

“It was a beautiful, challenging process,” says Danilovic. “We worked with 21 adults in total, the majority of whom had no experience making games. Through the creative process, we explored how hard it is to navigate the healthcare system while experiencing addiction and tried to destigmatize drug use.”

The finished games were exhibited at CMHA Hamilton in May 2024 and are hosted on a website called Recovery Game Café. Danilovic studied participants’ experiences with the game jams, which many found to be healing and helpful for their recoveries. She published a framework called the Game Jam Equity Toolkit, providing guidelines for other researchers to use game design with other marginalized communities.

“We are demonstrating that video games can be a tool of advocacy, empowerment, self-insight, discovery and community building.”