When we can improve the conditions for psychological safety in our games, it leads to better and more enjoyable experiences for players and healthier communities overall. This article covers some specific design techniques that can help, and builds off of the foundations covered in Psychological Safety for Players.
Psychological safety is a sense of security that encourages players to fully engage with a game and its community.
Designing to enhance psychological safety
Psychological safety is a complex outcome driven by many factors, including an individual’s own circumstance and personality. Still, many aspects of the play environment that we control or influence as designers can have a positive impact on a player’s comfort and security.
Consider the following design techniques that can enhance psychological safety in your games:
1. Soften the impact of failures
Challenge and experimentation are often an important part of video games. However, the social aspect of online multiplayer games can make players feel vulnerable to observed failures.
Designs should:
- Obfuscate failures — Design game elements that minimize the public visibility of individual failures (e.g., team-based metrics, shared responsibility).
- Reframe — Present setbacks as challenges or opportunities, not failures or missteps. Celebrate experimentation and learning. Ensure this aligns with the game’s tone to avoid insincerity.
- Consider asymmetry — Introduce roles with varying levels of information asymmetry. This can prevent players from making snap judgments based on incomplete knowledge and encourage collaboration, which can help players feel generally more comfortable.
2. Facilitate respectful interactions
Feeling secure that you won’t face ridicule or hostility, and knowing your contributions will be valued, can help instill a robust sense of psychological safety.
Designs should:
- Encourage reciprocation — Make it easy and fun to respond positively to other players’ actions. This creates a sense of connection and encourages participation and acknowledgment, which helps players feel valued.
- Scaffold respectful interactions — By facilitating interactions via in-game mechanics, you can lean toward the more playful and limit risk for antagonism or frustration to come through.
- Prompt positivity — Studies show that negativity spreads more easily than positive feedback. This underscores the importance of intentionally designing features that promote prosocial interactions and mitigate the harmful effects of negativity.
Learn how communication design can empower seamless interaction, reduce friction, and cultivate greater harmony.
3. Prioritize representation and inclusion
When players see themselves represented in a game world, they feel a stronger sense of belonging and are more comfortable expressing themselves. Additionally, exposure to diversity fosters inclusivity and openness when interacting with players from different backgrounds.
Designs should:
- Foster inclusive norms — Offer diverse, customizable character options, letting players feel represented. Ensure that your character casts are diverse and thoughtfully presented.
- Empower underrepresented groups — Go out of your way to support these groups with equitable policies and opportunities so players know they’re valued. Ensure equitable treatment is at the heart of your policies and procedures.
- Be careful with humor — Be careful not to assume that jokes among friends or colleagues will translate to jokes among strangers. Ask yourself, if this joke were made between strangers, could it be seen as punching down or otherwise harmful?
DEI is a powerful tool for creating more engaging games, building stronger communities, and fostering a more vibrant gaming landscape.
4. Establish and uphold your values
Our values define who we are and what we will fight to protect. They guide our actions, creating a community where players feel respected, understood, and safe.
Designs should:
- Combat harassment head-on — Design for robust tools that empower players to block, mute, and report abusive behavior. Endeavor to make your game actively hostile to hate and harassment.
- Foster predictability and trust — Establish transparent rules and moderation practices. Players thrive in environments where they understand the values we uphold, and that those standards will be consistently enforced.
- Elevate community champions — Intentionally promote and give platforms to players who embody inclusivity and respect. Do not let problematic players, regardless of their skill or showmanship, overshadow the positive examples in your community.
Values are the heart of game design. They influence how players experience your game and the kind of community it fosters.
5. Nurture player success at every stage
Players who feel capable and supported are far more likely to embrace the risks inherent in learning and enjoying a game. By creating pathways to success for players of all skill levels, we build a more inclusive and psychologically safe environment.
Designs should:
- Consider scaffolding the learning curve — If appropriate, provide difficulty settings, adaptive challenges, and tutorials that not only guide players toward mastery but also encourage growth.
- Facilitate player-driven support — Design systems that encourage mentorship, knowledge-sharing, and guild / group formation, giving players agency in finding their community as well as the game modes best suited for them.
- Provide safe spaces to practice — Dedicated practice modes or low-pressure environments allow skill development without the fear of public failure.
- Celebrate diverse achievements — Expand how we highlight player success. Consider rotating achievement categories, “teamwork” awards, and showcases that recognize effort and progress alongside traditional win / loss metrics.
6. Help players be good to each other
Mocking those who struggle or differ from the norm is a common but harmful instinct. It’s our brain’s misguided attempt to feel secure and establish belonging.
Designs should:
- Offer team-based challenges — Incorporate cooperative challenges that require players to work together to succeed and that focus on the collective output, rather than highlighting mismatched contributions.
- Facilitate peer support — Design mechanisms for players to offer support and encouragement to one another.
- Include mentorship programs — Introduce mentorship systems where experienced players can guide and support newer players.
- Encourage compassion — Design prompts and interactions that encourage players to empathize with others’ perspectives and experiences.
7. Don’t push players in low trust situations
Players are more likely to exhibit negative behavior in high-stakes scenarios with strangers, especially when those scenarios feel forced. This erodes trust and psychological safety within the community.
Designs should:
- Identify high-risk areas — Analyze your game design for situations where players must heavily rely on strangers (e.g., matchmaking where one player’s poor performance jeopardizes the entire team).
- Offer safeguards and control — Provide options within these high-risk situations to protect players. This could include opt-in voice chat, non-verbal communication systems (like pings), or ways to “rate” teammates to better facilitate positive connections for future matches.
- Respect player comfort — Empower players to choose their level of engagement with others. Avoid forced interactions, and provide ample tools for those who prefer to focus on individual performance or limit their interactions.
Designing with four key elements of trust can lay a foundation for community health and digital thriving.
8. Guide players toward community norms
A lack of clarity in established games can alienate newcomers and create a hostile environment. By proactively managing expectations, we foster player confidence and a sense of belonging.
Designs should:
- Surface community knowledge — Integrate established strategies and etiquette through in-game tutorials, loading screen tips, or curated community resources.
- Facilitate player communication — Design systems for easy in-game communication around goals and expectations (clan systems, objective reminders, quick-select messages, pings).
- Promote positive norms from within — Use loading screens, NPC dialogue, or environmental cues to subtly model desirable behaviors and team-focused strategies.
A look at some concrete design practices for supporting collaboration among players using pings.
9. Design for comfort: Embrace a cozy aesthetic
Cozy games offer a unique sense of psychological safety through their focus on relaxation, nurturing, and gentle exploration. By embracing these elements, we create inherently welcoming experiences.
Designs should:
- Embrace low-stakes gameplay — Focus on relaxing tasks like gardening, collecting, and exploration over high-pressure combat or competition.
- Nurture and care — Design mechanics around building, tending to a space, or forming relationships with NPCs who exhibit kindness and support.
- Prioritize comforting aesthetics — Utilize soft color palettes, soothing music, and charming visuals to create a tranquil, inviting atmosphere. Consider techniques from biophilic or salutogenic design.
- Minimize disruptive elements — Avoid mechanics that encourage griefing or competition, ensuring players feel secure in their interactions.
See Dan Cook’s summary of the 2018 Project Horsehoe think tank on Cozy Games.
Additional considerations for developers and community managers
- Individual experiences matter — Enforce guidelines with sensitivity, recognizing that what seems like playful banter to some may cause genuine harm to others.
- Protect the vulnerable — Be especially vigilant in protecting marginalized players, who may be more hesitant to express discomfort.
- Empathy is key — Foster a culture where players are encouraged to speak up if they feel uncomfortable, and where those concerns are taken seriously.
- Proactive education — Encourage open communication about boundaries within the community, emphasizing respect and inclusivity.
- Trust and safety — Above all else, players need to feel safe. Ensure that you have a robust trust and safety strategy.
When creating shared spaces, we have a duty of care to prioritize the safety and well-being of players.
Now what?
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