EQUILIBRIUM

Sammanfattning: With the solemn reality of modern society, where increasing demand for high achievements and performance in every aspect of life causes people to crumble under the pressure. The negative mental health effects on the public have been called an epidemic and are especially apparent for the youth and children. With this project I wanted to research and promote leisure, relaxation and having fun for the simple reason that it feels good. Through play humans and animals alike develop their main cognitive functions, play is said to be the brain's favourite way of learning. This project starts off in the humble act of play, researching its importance both in cognitive development but also the mental health benefits. Further on looking at the digitalisation of play as well as peeking into the Swedish youth culture and mental health. Deciding on working with digitalisation rather than against it, by developing a video game concept for Swedish teen girls, hoping to target some of the issues stated above. In order to develop a video game concept I needed to research the process. Together with the help of two alumni from the Industrial Design programme (and now active in the video game industry) I constructed a strategy implementing both industrial design methodology as well as game design principles. Lastly I dabbled in animation and a bit of programming in the process of creating a visual representation of the concept.