Games can be educational, and raise
awareness of real issues. Ninja Theory’s 2018
action game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice won
a hatful of awards, partly thanks to its often
harrowing and utterly convincing portrayal
of a character in the grip of psychosis. The
Cambridge developer involved a phalanx of
mental health professionals in the game’s
development process, and truly profound
insight into the nature of mental illness was
the end result. Plus, over the last decade,
another trend has emerged: the games
industry and the charity sector have come
together in a big way.Building a better world
Perhaps the world’s most impressive and
heartwarming example of the latter is
SpecialEffect, a charity employing about
30 people in Oxfordshire. It is renowned for
developing and adapting both hardware
and software to enable people with physical
disabilities to play videogames.
“SpecialEffect is all about sharing what
we learn as a multiprofessional team: there
are people here who have backgrounds in
design, occupational therapy, education
and psychology,” explains founder and head
Dr Mick Donegan. “We provide one-to-one
lifelong assessment and support to people of
all ages, with a range of physical disabilities.What we are all about is sharing what we
learn from our intensive one-to-one work with
individuals to benefit people all over the world.
“That probably sounds simplistic and wildly
overambitious, but that has always been
the aim: to start from the intensive one-to-
one support, solving almost insurmountable
problems on a daily basis with people with
the most complex needs, so that we can then
share what we learn with developers.”
SpecialEffect had input into Microsoft’s
Adaptive Controller, having had experienceABOVE The Xbox
Adaptive
Controller is a
landmark
innovation for
inclusivity.
LEFT GamesAid is
a collective for
charitable
activity on
behalf of the UK
games industry,
raising money
for good causes.054 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
OXM INVESTIGATES