A look back at the Gaming the Mind Conference 2025

The inaugural Gaming the Mind Conference 2025 brought together experts to explore the fascinating connection between video games and mental health!

Held the Royal College of Psychiatrists in September, we hosted a dynamic mix of talks and panel discussions led by experts in the fields of mental health, law, and game development.

Let’s recap some of the highlights…

Mental health in games

Elin Festøy, research fellow at The Norwegian Film School, presented her game My Child New Beginnings, about raising a Lebensborn child dealing with trauma in a hateful environment. The game aims to build empathy with the child, to create a strong motivator for transformation.

Chella Ramanan, narrative lead at 3-Fold Games, told us about Before I Forget, in which the studio attempted to depict dementia in a non-cliched, respectful way. She and the team worked with psychiatrists for input, including our own Dr Donald Servant.

Ninja Theory’s Studio Head Dom Matthews took us through the development process of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. The studio worked with people with lived experience of psychosis, aiming to create a truthful representation of the symptoms in lead character Senua.

Games as therapy

Dr Andrew Howe, Consultant Psychiatrist & Psychodynamic Psychotherapist, discussed Jungian archetypes in The Legend of Zelda, and his use of the mythology of games in psychological therapy. He guided us through an active imagination exercise based on Ocarina of Time!

Dr Stone Hsieh, senior researcher at BREAD Lab Kingston University introduced us to the neurological benefits of exercise. His lab’s ActiGamer research project looks to see if active video games can reduce ADHD symptoms!

Malachi Gow showed us his project “i love me, i love me not“, a relaxing game focusing on teaching mental health habits. He was the recipient of our first Independent Developer Award, receiving £1,000 towards further development!

We were overjoyed that the event was attended by so many brilliant clinicians, researchers, and developers interested in the overlap of games and mental health. An enormous thank you to our wide range of phenomenal expert speakers for making our conference a success!