An Antibullying and Therapeutic Interactive Visual Novel: TheraBuddy

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34190/ecgbl.18.1.2835

Keywords:

antibullying games, bullying participant roles, social-emotional health

Abstract

This proceeding is an ongoing doctoral dissertation that will examine the effect of a serious game on bullying participant roles and social-emotional well-being. "This serious game, which is called TheraBuddy, is a Turkish interactive visual novel that is aimed at helping children and youth using cognitive-behavioral counseling and solution-focused counseling techniques." The protagonist of TheraBuddy is the player. According to story, the player is transfered to a school where bullying incidents occur. The player makes friends named Elma, Den, and Lu at this school. The player’s goal during the story is to offer solution-focused or cognitive-behavioral help to friends involved in bullying incidents, whether as victims or perpetrators. TheraBuddy consists of nine parts, including an introduction and eight chapters. Throughout the story, two characters named Ozguro and Bilgin help the player make choices, and the story of TheraBuddy continues according to the player’s choices. TheraBuddy was coded and hosted using the Ren'Py game engine. Characters and backgrounds were designed through Canva, and the TheraBuddy characters were voiced using Elevenlabs AI Voice Generator. As a result, an interactive anti-bullying game that is currently only playable offline has been developed. Work is currently being done to make this offline game a web-based game. It is believed that TheraBuddy will be helpful in combating bullying and strengthening students socially and emotionally. In the future, when the online version of TheraBuddy is completed, this belief will be tested under experimental conditions.

Author Biographies

İsa Özgür Özer, University of Cukurova

İsa Özgür Özer is a research assistant of guidance and counseling at Ufuk University, TR. He has been a PhD student in guidance and counseling at University of Cukurova since 2020. His main research areas are mental health counseling, gamification in school mental health services and positive mental health.

Mehmet Bilgin, University of Cukurova

Mehmet Bilgin is an associate proffessor of guidance and counseling department at Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. He received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from Guidance and Counseling Department of Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. His main research areas are mental health counseling and school counseling.

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Published

2024-10-07