Between Pleasure and Harm: Transcreating a Serious Game on Older Adult

Abstract

This paper examines how play can support, rather than undermine, engagement with the serious topic of older adult mistreatment through the Indigenous adaptations of La valise de Lise. Originally designed as a slow, collaborative escape- room style game, La valise de Lise asks players to piece together the story of an older woman experiencing mistreatment within her family. When adapting the game for Cree and Inuit communities, it became clear that standard translation practices could not account for culturally specific understandings of kinship, harm, and care. The project therefore relied on collaborative transcreation, reworking story arcs, objects, puzzles, and tone while maintaining the game's core interpretive structure. These adaptations, Jane's Journey and Mary's Message, show how play can create enough emotional distance to approach difficult material, provided it is carefully calibrated. Transcreation emerges as an ethical method that supports culturally grounded conversations about mistreatment.