Feeling an Itch: A Systematic Review of Games for Mental Health on Itch.io

Abstract

In this study, we systematically reviewed mental health-related games on the indie games platform itch.io. After initial screening and subsequent gameplay, we arrived at a dataset of 60 browser-playable games tagged with “mental health” on itch.io, which were reviewed and classified along a set of categories: targeted mental health topic, game type, player motivation type, method used, theoretical grounding, references to resources, itch.io genre, interaction style, single-player or multiplayer social presence, and playtime. Analyzing trends in this dataset, we found that anxiety and depression were the most commonly targeted issues, while the game experiences were commonly single-player interactive fictions and visual novels. Only 13.33% of the games mentioned a relevant theoretical grounding. In addition to these findings, the research produced a detailed dataset of classified games that assist game scholars and other individuals seeking accessible mental health-focused games. While, to our knowledge, these games have not been evaluated regarding their effects on mental health, this can be valuable for research and practice.