The use of serious digital games to talk about grief and finitude with children: reports on the design and evaluation process of two games

The discussion of grief and loss is often avoided, particularly when it comes to conversations involving children. The COVID-19 pandemic has tragically resulted in the loss of relatives and friends for thousands of children, bringing this topic to the forefront. Parents and caregivers have found themselves compelled to broach the subjects of death and grief with children, aiming to provide them with an understanding of the global events unfolding around them. Yet, such discussions remain steeped in taboo. Literature underscores the significance of addressing children's emotions during times of loss, offering guidance on how to navigate such experiences to mitigate the risk of long-term trauma in adulthood. This project introduces the development of two serious games tailored to assist health professionals in (1) guiding children through grief therapies and (2) initiating discussions about finitude with this specific audience. Using the SemTh methodology, which guides the design and evaluation of therapeutic digital games, a multidisciplinary team comprising Health professionals (psychologists and occupational therapists), as well as Computing professionals collaborated on the creation of these games. Implemented on the RUFUS platform, developed by these authors' research group, this platform utilizes predefined templates to guide the game instantiation. Notably, the project contributed two new templates to the platform: narrative and inverse narrative, enabling the construction of games through storytelling. The new templates on the RUFUS platform were assessed through empirical and analytical studies to allow usability and effectiveness of them.