Journaling and representing traumatic grief through RPG video game storytelling: an artist autoethnography

Storytelling and creative interventions are beneficial for mental health wellbeing when coping with grief and bereavement, but currently many of these activities are conventional analogue-based activities. Innovative digital means of journaling, expressing and representing grief are worth exploration. This study is my artist autoethnography that investigates the making of a specific part of my RPG video game project that aimed at recording and coping with my first experience of traumatic grief. The game was not intended to be published, but to explore the advantages and limitations of game-making in cathartic storytelling, creative journaling and representing life events. Based on theories of autoethnography, grief models and existing methods of game analysis, this study explores the representation of bereavement through games, and the power of game-making applications as digital creative journaling tools. Through a case study, I discuss how I have made my grieving journey into interactive game elements, how these elements respond to Bonanno’s four-component framework and Stroebe’s Dual-Process Model, and whether making/playing the game was effective in improving mental wellbeing. The aim is to encourage grievers who seek creative means of coping and catharsis to consider unconventional, innovative digital tools for journaling, representing and reflecting on their bereavement.