Christos Reid makes games about friendship, humanity and depression, guided by his own life experiences. At the GameCity festival on Wednesday he chaired a talk with Depression Quest developer Zoe Quinn about the healing power of games, and the ways in which game systems can be used to explore the mechanics of mental and emotional states.

After his talk, we spoke to Reid about his games Hug Marine and Lunar Boy and the experiences that led to their development. “I wanted to do something happy, something that would make me feel good,” he explains about Hug Marine, in which players take on the role of a space marine who seeks to hug aliens rather than blast them into space.

“Game development is therautic,” he says. “If you suffer from specific anxieties, it’s nice to develop a game – it’s a mathematical thing. You can put shapes together and everything works. You can construct a world you feel safe in.”

• GameCity festival interviews – Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris
• GameCity festival interviews: Alistair Aitcheson – video