Players, Take (Self-)Care: Bringing Humanistic Psychology into a Game Jam about Mental Health
summary
A week‑long remote game jam hosted by the National Videogame Museum engages 19 participants using a Caring Systems toolkit (workbook, ideation cards, template), diaries, pre/post surveys and interviews; organisers slow the pace and allow non‑finished prototypes. Thematic analysis finds two concrete outcomes: a small emergent community that expands how self‑care and games are understood, and collective work in unlearning normativity that produces caring, non‑outcome games and actionable design opportunities for future jams.
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