- Title: Ellie Beagle Therapy Dog
- Technology: Unity 3D
- Team Members: Kelli Dunlap
- Date Completed: 6/2017
- Design and Development Time: 12 weeks
- Course: COMM 702 Capstone (American University)
- Concept: You are Ellie Beagle, a therapy dog with her own private practice. Your first client is a Golden Retriever named Mister Toots who has started barking at the mailman again. Your second client is a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Collie, who are experiencing marital difficulties. Last is Rizzo, a Pitbull arrested for “conduct unbecoming a good dog.” Ellie investigates the memories of each client and uses skills of deduction to uncover what ego defense mechanisms (as defined by Freud) each client is using to cope with their current stressor.
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The goal of Ellie Beagle: Therapy Dog is to…
- Introduce and engage players to basic processes involved in therapy
- Provide introductory information about psychological phenomenon, specifically defense mechanisms and how they manifest in the therapy room
- Create interactions which model complex therapist-client interactions including rapport and confidentiality
- Demonstrate the potential for the game as a teaching tool for topics related to fundamental psychological knowledge and ethics
- De-stigmatize mental illness and the therapeutic process through abstraction (i.e. the use of cute dogs) and investigative play
- Play Game
- Screenshots
