Social anxiety disorder is characterized by sentiments of fear and anxiety in social interactions. This study’s aim was to design and evaluate a serious game to raise awareness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) skills associated with social anxiety disorder. The target group was university students, as 10–25% within this group have impaired functioning due to social anxiety. This study was based on three different iterations (study 1, study 2, and study 3), all included within a formative evaluation framework. In total, this study involved 71 university students, all within the 18–31 age range. The game was designed in Unity with the implementation of different CBT skills within different scenarios. The scenarios were designed based on psychophysiological pilot testing in study 1, and external psychiatrist and psychologist expertise. The evaluation in study 2 and 3 was based on self-reports (questionnaires and interviews), and a recall knowledge check. The findings revealed that the designed serious game was successful in terms of focused attention, perceived usability, aesthetic appeal, being worthwhile, and narrative understanding. However, the designed elements could be improved by allowing more in-game personalization with the inclusion of the users’ own life experiences.

社交焦虑症的特征是社交互动中的恐惧和焦虑情绪。这项研究的目的是设计和评估一个严肃的游戏，以提高人们对与社交焦虑症相关的认知行为疗法（CBT）技能的认识。目标人群是大学生，因为该群体中有10％至25％的人由于社交焦虑而功能受损。这项研究基于三个不同的迭代（研究1，研究2和研究3），所有这些都包含在形成性评估框架中。这项研究总共涉及71名大学生，年龄在18-31岁之间。该游戏是在Unity中设计的，在不同情况下实现了不同的CBT技能。这些方案是根据研究1中的心理生理试点测试以及外部精神病医生和心理学家的专业知识设计的。研究2和3中的评估基于自我报告（问卷调查和访谈）以及召回知识检查。研究结果表明，设计的严肃游戏在集中注意力，感知的可用性，美学吸引力，价值和叙事理解方面都取得了成功。但是，可以通过允许更多的游戏内个性化（包括用户自己的生活经历）来改进设计元素。