Join Rosie and Sky as they chat to Danielle Udogaranya (aka Ebonix), and learn about the ways Dani has worked directly and indirectly with The Sims to create more authentic representation in character design.

To learn more about Safe In Our World, check out the website at https://safeinourworld.org!

On this episode, Rosie chats with Magic: The Gathering enthusiast, games researcher and Class of 2024 Ambassador - Sahar Mirhadi.

We discuss iGGi, (The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence), which is a leading PhD research programme aimed at the Games and Creative Industries.

Links:

https://linktr.ee/saharmirhadi

Rosie chats with Dr Raffael Boccomazzo, or Doctor B, who is a clinical psychologist and clinical director at video games mental health non-profit Take This.

Raffael discusses the intricacies of intersectionality within diagnosis and marginalised groups, and the differences in mental health and neurodiversity such as ADHD and Autism.

How to ADHD

Dr Russell Barkley

Content Warning: In this episode there are non-graphic mentions of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, drug abuse, overdose, emotional abuse and violence. Please proceed with care and remember you can pause the episode and step away at any time.

Charlie Mullins from Companion Group joins Rosie on the podcast to discuss Borderline Personality Disorder, better known as BPD. Whilst uncovering the common misconceptions about BPD, we discuss Charlie's experiences with the disorder and how it's affected his life, relationships and coping mechanisms.

Charlie explains how getting a diagnosis can be bittersweet, and the path to recovery is often much longer than people anticipate. He talks about his support mechanisms, and what has helped him in his journey in the hopes of supporting other folks experiencing BPD or traits of BPD.

We chat about what the games industry (and beyond) can do to better support employees and gamers with mental ill health, such as borderline personality disorder, and the future of accurate representation of personality disorders in popular media.

Rosie is joined by two guests; Charlotte McBurney, BAFTA-nominated actress known for her role as Amicia in the Plague Tale Series, and Hannah Rutherford, content creator and SIOW patron.

We deep dive into both A Plague Tale Innocence and Requiem to uncover what goes into emotionally preparing for a character such as Amicia's. Charlotte talks about her experiences in bringing a heart wrenching, beautiful story to life. Hannah talks about the journey of playing the games live with an audience, and managing her community whilst exploring the world of A Plague Tale.

This episode looks at specific themes of joy, grief, desperation and family within the Plague Tale universe, dissecting the Charlotte's personal highs and lows, and how the game connected so many players.

This podcast is split into two parts; the first part being spoiler-free, and the latter going into detailed spoiler territory.

Follow Charlotte

Follow Hannah

Follow Safe In Our World

In this episode, Rosie chats to Demi Fortson, Co-Founder at Mendu and Doctoral Student Researcher at Columbia University in the City of New York.

We talk about the origins of Mendu, and it's purpose. Mendu is a self-care app built with a culturally competent AI to talk through your problems with you. It promotes the premise of prompted audio journaling, whilst educating users on topics and feelings built on science and data.

"Our journaling prompts were made by diverse women for others facing similar life events. We are transforming the way therapeutic journaling and meditation is done by providing relevant and inclusive audio pieces you can connect with."

We discuss how mental health stigma differs across cultures, countries and wealth, as well as how this discussion can be broadened to include more experiences, and how diagnostic criteria is linked to group (mis)understanding around certain topics.

Demi explains the differences in therapy and how we can look to become more inclusive and informed when looking for/recommending therapists for example. We look into the concept of audio journaling vs traditional journaling, and why it might be more appealing to many folks, and the usefulness/convenience of audio features.

Finally, we touch on our go-to games for anxiety and stress, whilst highlighting active participation from games vs passive consumption of media and how it can aid in distraction during stressful periods.

Links

Mendu

Demi's LinkedIn

STEM Groups to follow

BlackWomenPHDs

BlackInChem

BlackInNeuro

CohortSistas

BlackInMarSci

BlackInPhysics

In this episode of the Safe Space Podcast, Rosie and Harry chat to Adam J. Harrington, the wonderful voice of Sindri, from God of War.

Now, before we go any further, this is an official spoiler warning.

In this episode we will be discussing heavy spoilers from God of War Ragnarok. If you'd like to avoid spoilers, please don't listen to this episode!

We were delighted to invite Adam J. Harrington to discuss the evolution of Sindri within God of War Ragnarok, and dive into the role that grief played in his character progression throughout the story.

Adam talks about his experiences playing Sindri, and his portrayal of loss within a game which is very much focused on healing and acceptance in many ways. We discuss the challenges that Sindri faced following the death of his brother, and how that translated to Adam's performance.

We also talk about how actors can bring lived experience to performances when tackling heavy emotions such as grief, and the expectations that Adam had for the sequel to God of War (2018). Adam shares memories and experiences that he had whilst performing scenes for God of War Ragnarok, and how the actors were such a tight knit community, and brings to light behind the scenes perspectives of creating this masterpiece of a game.

Sindri's theme also played a part in bringing together the character to the screens, and Adam talks about his relationship with Bear McCreary and the inspirations behind creating the music that accompanied Sindri as a character.

Follow Adam on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about Mrs. American Pie, a new TV show Adam is working on!

In this episode, Rosie is joined by Dr Emma Reay, Senior Lecturer at the University of Southampton, who researches Games Studies and Game Design. 

Emma has previously looked at exploring the therapeutic effects of games for mood repair, building resilience and community, and joins us to discuss games and grief. 

We chat about how death is interpreted in gaming, as a fail-state, and how we can look more closely at games who look at death within games as a win state. What happens when we start to uncouple loss and losing? We dive into games such as Spiritfarer, and What Remains of Edith Finch to elaborate on this. 

Rosie opens up about her grief during university, and how she used Kingdom as a way to recuperate and process what had happened. We look at how technology has started to change the way that we can grieve loss, and in many ways immortalise who/what we have lost. 

We also chat about very real narratives and storytelling through games such as That Dragon, Cancer and Before Your Eyes, and how games can be used as an immersive tool to be a part of the grief process - not just for the player, but for the developer as well. 

Emma's Twitter

Emma's Writing

In this episode of Safe Space, Rosie talks to JJ Fox about neurodiversity - specifically, JJ's experiences being an autistic game dev and how it links to mental health. JJ is an indie game developer currently working on Hymble Ventures, as well as a Safe In Our World Class of 2023 Ambassador. They are also a fan of cosplaying, kung-fu and heavy metal. 

We discuss the common stigmas and misunderstandings surrounding autism in the games industry, and the ins and outs of autism awareness and acceptance. We chat about JJ's game in development Hymble Ventures, which is a 3D puzzle platformer about an insect-like alien on the autism spectrum.

The core mechanics of Hymble Ventures are based on controlling the five senses (touch, taste, sight, smell, hear). For neurodiverse people, they can be hypersensitive to sensory information and may overreact to increasing stimuli. This autism trait is an inspiration to aspects of Hymble’s world such as quirky, organ-shaped berries that grant enhanced sight, or smell etc.

We cover JJ's experiences of when they have not been supported in the workplace, and highlight the importance of valuing and supporting neurodiverse people at work. 

Follow Hymble Ventures on Twitter, Instagram and Ko-Fi.

On the first episode of 2023, Rosie talks to Ladell Smith, the Associate Social and Community Manager at Auroch Digital, Safe In Our World Ambassador in our Class of 2023, and owner of They Play Podcast - which is a space for gender non conforming people to share their stories and love of games!

We kick off the episode discussing their history of most treasured games, how they started streaming and working in the industry. We focus specifically on how folks can understand BIPOC Mental Health in a more equitable way, and be a better ally for BIPOC folk in the mental health space.

Ladell discusses how stigma can fluctuate depending on socioeconomic status, culture, and location, as well as how that has an effect on BIPOC when opening up about their own mental health.

Finally we celebrate Ladell's favourite moments in their career so far, and look to the future of the industry! 

You can find Ladell's personal twitter at @Pastelbat90, or follow their podcast They Play Games at @TheyPlayPodcast on Twitter.