Creativity and Digital Games: A Study of Developing Creativity Through Digital Games

Introduction

Although creativity began to be studied in the early 40s by Maslow (1943), among others, increasing importance is being given to this topic, not only to its consequences to individual life but also to the possible benefits that creativity might bring to society as a whole (Alencar, Fleith, & Bruno-Faria, 2010). As interest in this topic grew, one of the questions studied throughout the years is how to exercise and/ or develop the creative thought.

It seems, therefore, that the interest of psychology in creativity is relatively recent (Alencar, Fleith, & Bruno-Faria, 2010). This interest occurs more intensely from 1950, thanks to various factors such as the influence of the humanist movement. Rogers (1959) and Maslow (1959) both draw attention to mental health as a source of creative impulses. They also point out the human potential for self-realization and explain conditions that ease the expression of creativity. Rogers and Maslow conclude that creativity is the result of a mutually beneficial interaction between an individual and the environment in which this individual is inserted. Rogers also defends that autonomy and protection from excessive social control are fundamental for a creative activity.

According to Alencar et al. (2010) the idea of developing creative competencies is not yet a topic in which consensus has been reached. That said, it is already legitimized by studies that have shown positive results with programs that attempt to develop said creative competencies. Therefore, it is possible to theorize that any and every person has a creative potential that can be systematically explored and developed (Runco, 2014). There are currently multiple strategies that aim at training the creative thought, from programs, to software to digital games (Runco & Jaeger, 2012).

Azevedo et al. (2017) conducted a study on the Future Problem Solving Program International. Developed with the objective of training the creative thoughts of children and teenagers, the FPSPI is a program that has been applied for decades and in various countries. This program came to be in the United States and has spread to other countries including, but not limited to, Australia, England, Singapore, etc. Every year an international competition takes place, in which children and teenagers from all around the world present projects developed with the aid of the program’s methodology. In the experiment conducted by Azevedo et al. (2017) a group of teenagers showed significant positive results to being submitted to this program.

Based on this scenario, it seems that the interest in understanding creativity has consistently grown in the last decades. This brings forth the question of the possibility of aiding the development of creative thought. This study is concerned with investigating the possibility of developing a digital game capable of such. For this the game Luovus was created, based on past research on creativity and digital games as learning tools. The game was tested on a group of users and although the results are not enough to come to a conclusive answer to the main question proposed by this study, there seems to be an effect on the player’s self-evaluation of their own creative capabilities and society’s impact on their creativity.

Other studies and experiments that are similar or relevant to this topic will also be analyzed. Many of them are important to comprehend the relationship of the various factors involved in the exercise of creative thought, such as positive psychology and mental state of flow.