Immersive Game Narratives and Disability Representation

Project

This project explores representations of disability and madness in the narratives, gameplay, and interactive controls of video games with the aim of emphasizing the importance of disability artists’ demand of “Nothing about us without us.” The work seeks to highlight the need for authentic and diverse characters and narratives that present the full spectrum of lived experience for those with disability and mental health conditions, as well as cooperative and interdependent game design that goes beyond mainstream (and typically harmful) representations of disability. Some games that will be analyzed include Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and Disco Elysium.