How Can a Narrative Role-Play Game Be Designed for Participants to Practise Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Mindfulness Exercises Through a Fictional Character’s History and Challenges?

Existing mental health research shows the benefits of participating in a narrative and practising narrative storytelling by working with others’ histories and challenges, which may solve some help-seeking barriers that are related to applying one’s own history and challenges in psychotherapy. However, there is a lack of resources on how to practically design this for electronic mental (eMental) healthcare programs. Therefore, this research explored how to design a narrative role-play game for participants to practise psychotherapy exercises through a fictional character’s history and challenges, using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as an example. This practice-based research followed the research-through-design methodology. Its main goal was to gain knowledge through reflection and inquiry of the design practice. This research showed the practical results of what this knowledge looks like as prototypes or a product; the practitioner-researcher also provided design experience of reflection, discussion, and playtesting of the game-developing process. These can be used to share and communicate new design ideas that may be further explored, criticised or improved in future practice.