Focus: A Detective Game about Cognitive Distortions

Abstract

Cognitive distortions are biased perceptions, irrational thoughts that will affect individuals to a lesser or greater extent. In its worst form, it can lead to depression. Increasing awareness can help prevent this outcome. In this paper, we present Focus, a serious game, aimed at teenagers. Focus helps the player identify cognitive distortions. The environment illustrates the various effects of the distortion to provide a visual interpretation to the player. Exploring the world of his inner thoughts, the player is investigating and documenting strange artifacts present in his world and the reasons behind them. The investigation is providing a playground to discover the effects of cognitive distortion on the player's world perception. Focus is built around one cognitive distortion: "All or Nothing", but the concept can be applied to other distortions.