Peru, Colombia and Ecuador develop video games against depression and anxiety

Students from Peru, Colombia and Ecuador create video game against depression and anxiety, inspired by ideas of children and adolescents from schools of the Fe y Alegría educational association, the promoters of this initiative reported in Lima.

The video games were made during the “Game Jam: start over”, a “hackathon” International that brought together professionals and students from the video game industry from the Peruvian school Toulouse Lautrec, the Colombian University Foundation of the Andean Area and the Ecuadorian Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.

Toulouse Lautrec told Efe on Tuesday, in a statement, that in alliance with Fe y Alegría of Peru, five video games were developed “Whose objective is to help face this reality” and they are ready to download on the Internet.

This is “The Journey”, which seeks to help people who suffer from stress and anxiety by completing small levels and unlocking new paths, and “Samay”, which offers to burst plastic bubbles and calm anxiety while listening to relaxing background music.

The others are “Sunflower”, which proposes helping a cat to reach a state of tranquility; “Control anxiety”, which teaches how to avoid colliding with an unwanted emotion, and “Moot”, which proposes avoiding a shower of mouths and eyes that represent people who judge and do not validate the feelings of people with depression.

“The responsible use of video games brings great benefits to people’s physical and mental health. In fact, at the beginning of the pandemic, the WHO promoted its use as a tool to reduce anxiety about confinement ”, The Renzo Guido institute professor of videogame design and digital entertainment design said in this regard.

For his part, Andrés Martínez, director of the Animation and Audiovisual Postproduction program of the University Foundation of the Andean Area of ​​Colombia, stressed that the development of videogames allows us to take, from analog to digital, all the elements that can generate relaxation in the anxiety and depression.

“This tool has become an opportunity for education, for health, for marketing and even for sports,” he said.

The games are hosted online on the website https://gamejam.toulouselautrec.edu.pe/, where the public can download them for free and make donations throughout December, as it seeks to raise funds so that more children and adolescents have access to a quality education.

Toulouse Lautrec reported that this has been the third edition of the “Game Jam”, which on previous occasions developed video games in alliance with organizations such as Casa Magia and Aldeas Infantiles SOS, with the aim of raising awareness about child abuse and violence against women.

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Deshawn