2018 Games for Change Festival

Who ever finished Super Mario Bros on the first try? You probably fell into a pit a thousand times before defeating King Bowser. Many children of the 80s, when faced with a challenge in life, recall how we faced the challenge of the deadly surprise attacks by Bullet Bill. Games can present problems and exercise our abilities to solve them. What if the game directly challenged how the player handles tension? What if staying calm under pressure actually helped the player? Mightier is a game platform built around the player's emotions. Players who get flumoxed face dire gameplay consequences. Keeping cool, in the moment, is the key to doing well. Our players, when faced with a challenge in life, recall how they stayed calm racing through the twisty canyons of Race the Sun. Our clinical research shows that our games can have a measurable effect on behavior on par with medication. This talk is a brief introduction to how the technology works, what we have learned, and the impact Mightier has had on real families.