Employing Game Design for Forensic Aesthetics

This article explores how game design can serve as a method of forensic aesthetics by investigating and representing social realities through immersive, interactive experiences. It asks: How can practice-based design research, informed by forensic aesthetics, be used to develop immersive, narrative-based VR experiences that communicate marginalized mental health realities and challenge systemic stigma? Drawing on practice-based design research and artistic research, it presents the development of a VR experience (hopohopo), designed to raise awareness for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Through usability and immersion testing the study demonstrates how informed, affective design can convey the lived realities of marginalized individuals. Rather than seeking legal judgment, hopohopo symbolically uncovers societal neglect of mental illness, using surreal aesthetics, narrative storytelling, and sensory immersion to evoke empathy and challenge stigma. This approach highlights the potential of games and game design as investigative and experiential tools within forensic aesthetics.