SBIR-STTR Award

IN-Comics begins with a research and development effort by Total Immersion Software, Inc. to create an innovative web-based personal computer platform for soldier self-expression as a new tool for therapeutic storytelling. The resulting technology that will emerge blends the principles of art therapy with innovative online graphic novel and sequential 2D and 3D art authoring tools and online delivery systems to create a new form of self-expression, social media and community support. This effort creates a unified strategy from high concept to deployment, merging art therapy theories and research with practical experience of veteran therapeutic practitioners, and folds that insight into an authoring and delivery platform created by expert graphic tool designers and engineers who have successfully fielded innovations in military server delivery infrastructure. Guiding this vision is the inspiration of storytelling mass-media experts and graphic novel professionals and veteran software and program managers, with the resulting system and its content ultimately coupled with expert-verified metrics in the back end and with ongoing usability and effectiveness reviews. IN-Comics are designed to create a new form of digital expression for therapy, education, training and instruction in both government and civilian sectors of our society.

Keywords:
Graphic Novel, Sequential Art, Web Therapy Storytelling, Traumatic Life Experiences, Memories and Emotions, Combat Experiences, PTSD, psychological and mental health

IN-Comics is created by veteran software makers at Intific, Inc. as an innovative online graphic novel and sequential art authoring technology for therapeutic storytelling. The complete system offers a new integrated approach to art therapy using unique 3D digital storytelling tools to make Creators out of all service personnel, enabling visual products that run the gamut from traditional graphic novels to a moving, stylized storytelling approach that also resembles a video game or a film design, all using the same tools. IN-Comics merges art therapy, storytelling, and game-based entertainment while providing therapeutic techniques through a context-sensitive Art Therapy System to help make veterans comfortable dealing with charged subject matter, and also offering context-sensitive online links to resources, videos, and websites while simultaneously developing beneficial creative skills with a dynamic Novelist Help System.

Keywords:
Graphic Novels, Art Therapy, Post-Traumatic Stress, Ptsd, Psychological Health, Self Help, Veterans, Game-Based Therapy