Neue Wege der Prävention und Hilfe bei Gewalt in Paarbeziehungen im ländlichen Raum

Serious Game on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Part of the project AusWege was dedicated to developing serious games on the topic of intimate partner violence (IPV). Serious games are (video) games that not (only) entertain but also primarily serve an instrumental purpose. This may be to communicate certain learning content or to provide a training simulation, but also to play games that address social issues and encourage people to rethink.

Games in AusWege should not replace other forms of communication such as lectures, workshops and print media, but rather complement them. They enable players to experiment with decision-making in a safe environment, which promotes self-reflection and personal insights. Serious games are interactive and can be integrated into workshops, but they can also be made digitally accessible at any time to further disseminate ideas or raise awareness.

Based on an analysis of various systemic interrelations, several game prototypes were designed, digitally implemented and evaluated in iterative steps. Balancing the requirements of the complex topic of IPV with those of game design was essential. The final game concept "Umfeld" (German for social environment) centres on acquaintances, family members, colleagues and friends of a couple affected by IPV in a rural area of Germany. By integrating an interactive narrative with a special game mechanic for decision-making under uncertainty, it aims to encourage possible measures to help and at the same time show how difficult it is to break social taboos.

The final game pilot won the prestigious "Games for Change Award" in the category "Best in Impact", honoured by a jury of experts at the international G4C Festival 2025.

Publications and Workshop Presentations

Presentations of evaluations and interim results:

Bitter, J.L., Koßmann, R. D., Lurz, M., Müller, L., Spierling, U. (2025). Adding Chance to a Serious Game’s Mechanics to Encourage Action in Uncertain Situations. In: Schönbohm, A., et al. Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2024. LNCS vol. 15348, pp. 123-132. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-78269-5_12
Spierling, U., Zimmer, M., Müller, L., Bitter, J.L., Koßmann, R. D. (2024). Empathizing with failure: A prosocial serious game to experience the conditions for preventing intimate partner violence. In: Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good (GoodIT '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 266–274. https://doi.org/10.1145/3677525.3678670
Müller, L., Spierling, U., Bitter, J. L., Schwarz, S. (2023). Challenges in designing a game for the prevention of intimate partner violence. In: Proc. 17th European Conference on Games Based Learning, Enschede, NL, Academic Conferences and Publishing International, pp. 852-855. https://doi.org/10.34190/ecgbl.17.1.1838
Game Concept Video "Umfeld", Pecha Kucha presentation at ECGBL 2023. [Link to YouTube (6:52m)]
Müller, L., Spierling, U., Merkle, A., Dackweiler, R. (2022). Systems Mapping to Support Interdisciplinary Understanding in Serious Game Design. In: Proceedings of 2022 European Conference on Games Based Learning, Lisbon, PT, Academic Conferences and Publishing International, pp. 403-411. https://doi.org/10.34190/ecgbl.16.1.772