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The continual development of technology has led to digital games becoming a widespread phenomenon (Marchand & Hennig-Thurau, 2013). Games are appealing because they use a universal language and allow players to explore problems and uncertainties of everyday life in a secure environment (Costikyan, 2013). Video games play a major role in the general population (Österreichischer Verband für Unterhaltungssoftware, 2019) and early in adolescents’ lives specifically (Brooks et al., 2016; Mittmann et al., 2022). But games offer more than just entertainment, as they can be used to present educational material in an engaging manner. Using game design elements within a nongame context is called gamification (Deterding et al., 2011). Two main reasons indicate the potential benefits of gamifications: First, they naturally embody characteristics that are relevant to learning, such as the repetition of content or the various difficulty levels (Gee, 2005). Second, game elements can be motivating for users, thereby increasing their engagement with the content (Connolly et al., 2012).
While gamification uses game-elements in all nongame contexts, so-called “serious games” are full games with a purpose beyond pure entertainment (Groh, 2012). They have gained attention from both the academic and commercial sectors as a means of intervention and learning (Breuer & Bente, 2010). Serious games can be applied to a wide range of topics and target groups, from employee training to healthcare and social education (Sawyer & Smith, 2008). Studies suggest that serious games are effective in comparison to traditional methods or no intervention at all (Hamari et al., 2014; Lau et al., 2017; Sitzmann, 2011; Wouters et al., 2013). This paper introduces a serious game designed for teaching interpersonal emotion regulation (iER) strategies to young adolescents.
Early adolescence, broadly defined as 10-14 years (Unicef, 2011), comes with a variety of changes and challenges, and most of these changes directly relate to the social lives of young adolescents. For example, the onset of puberty is accompanied by advances in psychosocial development (Valkenburg & Peter, 2011), which results in an increasing importance of friends and peers and more intimate relationships (Buhrmester, 1990). This means that, instead of only “sharing activities,” more focus is put on self-disclosure and being understood and cared for (Reis & Shaver, 1988). Adaptive iER is a vital skill for the initiation and maintenance of friendships and can improve trust in friends (Niven et al., 2012) as well as help with finding new friends (Niven et al., 2015). It is therefore important to focus on iER skills as a teaching goal and intervention outcome during those defining years of early adolescence.