We are a collective of researchers, designers, and technologists developing Plot Twisters, a digital game world to empower people to reflect on their self-narratives and advocate for their needs. Complete with journaling minigames, communication tools, and identity-building resources, Plot Twisters will be a dedicated online space for people to practice healthy self-awareness habits and manage their values, individually or with other players.
Over the last two years, we have been creating case studies and prototype projects about self-reflection, personal narrative building, and the critical thinking and expression of emotions and needs. Our research database of 520+ artifacts, which we endearingly call our Think Tank, serves as an annotated bibliography of the following topics:
We're also developing methods for role model discovery, iterating on conflict resolution toolkits, and mentoring each other as we explore our strengths and values, in career and life. If you are interested seeing our prototypes, please contact us for a 1:1 walkthrough.
Conceived in late 2018 and officially taking form as a collective in January 2020, Plot Twisters has grown into a close-knit online community. Today, our team is spread over three continents and six timezones. Read more about our team here.
See our public research database!
The EMPOWER Lab at Georgia State University develops clinical interventions for interpersonal and racial trauma. The EMPOWER Lab supports our team to operationalize trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) and racial socialization in our tools. We support the EMPOWER Lab by developing the website and illustrations for their online psychoeducation experience for young people healing from racial trauma.
Visit The EMPOWER Lab
The Honest Majority is a civic nonprofit dedicated to preventing disinformation through initiatives that promote critical thought and mutual understanding about the world around us. We are partnering with them to host and launch The Honest Storytelling Challenge, a month-long writing contest for reflecting on and writing about honesty. Takeaways about how people conceive of honesty in their life in our increasingly connected and narrative-filled world will inform how we design our self-reflection exercises.
Visit The Honest Majority
Let's Talk LD gathers and trains educators dedicated to neurodiversity. Young neurodiverse students often lack access to resources for personal and professional development. We seek advice from their leadership as we build our personal storytelling tools. Our goal is to build with the needs of students with learning, social communication, and attentional differences in mind.
Visit Let's Talk LD
The Media Enterprise Design Lab (MEDLab) at the University of Colorado Boulder researches how media-driven organizations govern themselves. In partnership with King's College London, the MEDLab formed a cohort of technologists, researchers, and community organizers in 2021 to "excavate" methods for governing online communities. As an online organization, we collaborated with others in the cohort to formalize our community model and prototype our Storytelling Cards.
Visit MEDLab: Excavations
Orthogonal Research and Education Laboratory (OREL) is an open-access academic institution conducting research, education, professional development, and mentorship at the intersection of cognitive science, developmental psychology, and artificial intelligence. Plot Twisters collaborates with members of OREL to hone the scientific applications of our emotional literacy work through publications, conference presentations, and joint research initiatives.
Visit OREL
The Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford is dedicated to researching and understanding life online and its social, political, and economic impacts. Each year they host Connected Life, an interdisciplinary conference exploring digital futures. Plot Twisters was selected to prepare and exhibit artifacts from our game design for their 2022 event, including our map of Twisterland and our Storytelling Cards.
Visit Oxford Internet Institute: Connected Life
