Healing Spaces (2018)
Healing Spaces is a smart platform that allows caregivers to transform spaces through light, color, sounds, and visuals, turning any environment into a place where older adults living with dementia can focus, engage and relax.
Inner Activity (2016)
Inner Activity is a series of immersive, multi-sensory virtual reality experiences.
The Being Academy (2019)
The Being Academy is a digital gymnasium for mental clarity, spiritual growth, and practical exercises to help believers live the very good life God created us for.
Tracking Ida (2017)
Tracking Ida is an educational alternate reality game about Ida B. Wells.
The Voice in the Garden (2013)
The Voice in the Garden is a narrative-based game using player's voice as the main input.
Octobo
Octobo is an educational multi-sensory smart plush robot that enables development in an interactive environment.
Palimpsest (2018)
The Palimpsest Program was a high school program designed to signal belonging to all women of color and nonbinary individuals to study computer science in college.
Nevermind (2016)
Nevermind is a biofeedback-enhanced adventure thriller game that takes you into the dark and twisted world of the subconscious.
Blowing Blues (2013)
Blowing Blues is a breath-controlled artistically crafted interactive application that explores improving player's resilience in the face of life's stresses and worries.
Adventurous Dreaming High Flying Dragon (2014)
Adventurous Dreaming High Flying Dragon is a Kinect-based set of mini games for kids with ADHD between ages 6-8.
Pluff (2010)
Pluff is a plush sensor-filled toy that emotes through his own avatar to help teach social skills and empathy to children or provide companionship.
Alma (2021)
Alma is an interactive narrative that puts you in the role of a pediatric nurse.
Chaos (2021)
surreal world caused by psychosis.
Wing Wor (2021)
Inclusive Character Creator (2022)
the long standing issues of sexism, racism, sizeism, and ableism prevalent in most 3D
character creators in interactive media.
Hedge Hug (2022)
Defectum (2023)
Prism of You (2025)
Alibi (2025)
Tianxi Ren paper (2025)
Cards of Heart (2025)
Ready Teddy
Ready Teddy is a VR tool that prepares kids for an MRI.
Project Shelldon
Shelldon provides an easily accessible, child-friendly tool for parents to quantitatively assess the child's development.
Ama's Momento
‘Ama’s Momento’ is a mixed reality museum dedicated to Awu Chen's grandmother who dreams of building an art museum to preserve Taiwanese culture.
Soundtoy
Soundtoy is a multi-sensory training game designed to assist hard of hearing children in their journey to the auditory rehabilitation.
Soulfarer
Soulfarer is a mixed reality game that innovates on the way shoulder pain rehabilitation is conducted for manual wheelchair users.
Social Clues
Social Clues is a puzzle-adventure game for children with autism and developmental disabilities that teaches pragmatics and social skills.
Trainer
Trainer is a game inspired by Pokémon (Gameboy, Nintendo), Trainer gives Players the responsibility of caring for creatures who all have dietary and fitness needs.
Christina Lelon | Spring 2018
Summary: Formative research activities (literature review, theoretical framework, participatory design with stakeholders, concept prototyping, evaluation) of the game Listen - a more engaging and efficient way to train clinical psychologists and the general public in metacognitive empathy skills.
Deliverables: 3300-word reflective and technical report, playable concept game prototype using Twine platform.
Rationale: Christina was the study manager for Skyfarer and also a concept developer for many lab projects. As an aspiring concept developer, she wanted to showcase her skills of working with a client (i.e. faculty at the Psychology dept) to respond to a challenge they set forth with a unique concept that was grounded in theory. She produced a low-fi demo and early concept spec.
Sydney Rubin | Spring 2019
Summary: Manuscript co-editing for multiple completed studies and contribution ongoing game projects.
Deliverables: Manuscript drafts (multiple co-authors), 2500 word reflective report on seven game project contributions, and how they intersected with positive psychology.
Rationale: Sydney is a skilled writer who understands how entertainment media and positive psychology can intersect. Her experimental training also helped her quickly become proficient in usability testing. She thus emerged as a valuable collaborator on many game projects that have been shown at festivals (e.g., Healing Spaces, Cute Animals and Tough Questions) as well as co-authored published papers and reports. Whether she led a concept design or contributed in other ways, it was important to capture how her training influenced her impact.
Fabian Bock | Spring 2020
Summary: Formative research (literature review, theoretical framework, interviews with stakeholders, system and game prototyping, IRB study protocol) of Ranger Loo! -- An Electrode-controlled, Portable Digital Therapeutic Device and Experience for Children with Pelvic Floor Dyssynergia.
Deliverables: 4300-word reflective and technical report, IRB study protocol, pitch deck.
Rationale: Fabian is very skilled with science synthesis and rapid prototyping and likes to work independently to solve problems as a leader or consultant. He participated in a hackathon sponsored by Children's Hospital Los Angeles and was part of a chosen team. He further developed a project and received approval for pilot funds for a study to be conducted right as the pandemic struck. Over time, left as the only remaining person on the original dev team, he delivered a project ready to be tested in healthcare, which is as far as that project could go.
Alyssa Matlosz | Spring 2020
Summary: Systematic Literature Review "The Effects of Commercial and Serious Video Games on Prosocial Behavior: A Systematic Review of Experimental, Cross-Sectional, and Longitudinal Studies" using PRISMA.
Deliverables: 5000-word manuscript draft with tables.
Rationale: Alyssa studied occupational science and media arts & practice and was en route to an OTD degree at USC upon receipt of the MA. She was skilled already in basic in literature reviews and holds a unique perspective on entertainment media as a concept developer. Her research interest was in an area that is not as well documented and thus a rigorous systematic review was a suitable project for her future career in occupational therapy using games.
Brains@Play Futures Initiative
Brains@Play Futures Initiative seeks to ensure the responsible design and development of brain-responsive multiplayer experiences through the production of public design workshops, educational resources, and open-source software tools.
TEAM: Garrett Flynn, Marientina Gotsis, Dong Song, Dimitris Grammenos
The Brain Architecture Game
The Brain Architecture Game is a tabletop game experience that builds understanding of the powerful role of experiences on early brain development – what promotes it, what derails it, with what consequences for society.
Commercially released in 2016, the game is available for purchase and played by thousands around the world.
Brain Hero
Brain Hero is 3-minute video that adapts the visual sensibility of interactive game models to a video format. Based loosely on such games as “Guitar Hero,” “SimCity,” and “The Game of Life,” the video portrays how actions taken by parents, teachers, policymakers, and others can affect life outcomes for both the child and the surrounding community.
Available for US, UK, Canadian English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Rise & Shine
Rise & Shine was a 2015 Body Computing Hackathon pitch -- a Google Cardboard application for measuring orthostatic intolerance.
TEAM: Marientina Gotsis, Maryalice Jordan-Marsh, Fotos Frangoudes, Atley Loughridge, Vangelis Lympouridis, Jin Zhang
Virtual Sprouts
Virtual Sprouts is an interactive mobile gardening and cooking game designed to positively affect dietary changes and prevent obesity in minority youth.
TEAM: Donna Spruijt-Metz, H. Chad Lane, Gisele Ragusa, Marientina Gotsis, Jamie Davis, Yasaman Hashemian, Luz Castillo, Adrienne Padilla, Gillian O'Reilly, Javier Diaz, Diane Tucker, David Turpin, Nicholas Farmer, Jean Canellas, Ciki Wang, Caroline Win, Daniel Auerbach, Jie Ric Zhang, Yoojin Seol, Camille Kanengiser and many more!
Skyfarer
Skyfarer is a mixed reality shoulder exercise game for individuals aging with spinal cord injury.
TEAM: Marientina Gotsis, Vangelis Lympouridis, Phil Requejo, Lisa Haubert, Sara Mulroy, Fotos Frangoudes, David Turpin, Diane Tucker, Amanda Tasse, Alasdair Thin, Evan Stern, Tristan Dyer, Irina C. Poulos, Max Swider, Noom Somboon, Mark Vrahas, Howard Mao, Griffin Shue, Christine Lelon, Yasaman Hashemian
Wellness Partners
Wellness Partners is an intergenerational socially networked physical activity diary prototype with game elements sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneer Portfolio. This was the first project funded under the USC Games for Health Initiative (est. 2007) led by Profs. Gotsis, Valente, Jordan-Marsh and Spruijt-Metz.
TEAM: Diana Hughes, Jamie Antonisse, William Graner, Helen Hua Wang, Heather Desurvire, Peter Preuss, Will Carter, Matteo Marjoram, Mindy Goto, Hyunjung Rhee, Sean Manning, Yang Liu, Dhaval Shah, Dheeraj Kota, Hari Kumar Rongali, Ala’ Diab, Liset Dondiego, Christine Lee, Natasha Williams, Stephanie Miller, Eric Hernandez, Mona Desai, Juan Camilo Gonzalez, Ritu Kavishwar, Bryan Jaycox, Wakefield Li, Teddy Diefenbach, Justin Lewis, Greg Lieberman, Jeremy Bernstein, Marrall Bagerdjian, Jeremy Gibson
Enchanted Garden
Enchanted Garden is an anaglyph stereoscopic game for Microsoft Surface and a a 2-minute stereoscopic video about the importance of vision. developed for the USC MEPEDS study (PI: Varma).
TEAM: Marientina Gotsis, Perry Hoberman, Mark Bolas, Andrew Sacher, David Turpin, Hyunjung Rhee, Melissa Bouwman, Ray Zone, Dhaval Shah, Nitin John, Yasaman Hashemian, Damon Stea, Devon Johnson, Keren Albala, Zachary Radke, Manjeet Chawla
A Whole New World of Space
Stereoscopic educational animations created for the NIH-funded Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study (MEPEDS).
Watergait
Watergait is an experimental meditation in the form of a sonified experience of walking with shoe sensors that translate shifting foot pressure into sound within an aural environment.
TEAM: Esthir Lemi, Marientina Gotsis, Vangelis Lympouridis
Butterfly Lovers
Butterfly Lovers is a two-player role playing game where one player plays in the Virtual Reality (VR) environment and another player is equipped with a tablet that employs the Augmented Reality (AR) technology.