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#186 Mental HealthInterview 2020.08.06

Your nice hosts are joined by nice guest Alanna Linayre, founder of the indie studio Team Toadhouse. Alanna (rhymes with "banana") guides the gaming world towards healthier work practices and personal habits. We asked her a lot of questions about best practices in mental health, and about Team Toadhouse's upcoming game Call Me Cera.

Also, Mark has a mission for artists, Ellen names a canary, and Stephen learns about "hustle culture."

Alanna’s guidelines on depicting mental illness in games:

• Ask yourself why you’re putting mental health issues in your game.
• Make sure to have correct definitions, and not promote stigmas.
• Try not to use triggering content for the audience you’re serving.
• Avoid harmful tropes.

Alanna (she/her) is very passionate about self care, healthy mental habits, and video games. She's a public speaker on healthy mental habits and discusses her experiences with PTSD, anxiety, and bipolar disorder in an effort to end the stigma surrounding mental illness. Alanna focuses on sustainable practices to avoid crunch and encourages a healthy attitude about mistakes being a necessary and unavoidable part of improving.