This thesis project explores the capacity of digital critical games when it comes to conveying socially relevant messages and making the player reflect on the real life outside of the game, with a specific interest in self-reflection. Starting with critical analyses of the vast field of existing online socially critical games, this research exploration continues with an empirical evaluation of selected few samples of such games by recruiting people to playtest them, followed by interviews. Identifying design qualities and openings based on the findings, a prototype is then implemented and iterated based on playtesting with more participants, again followed by interviews. The sought out novel aspects of online critical games, that are explored via the prototype, are: 1. Making the critical game experience personal by incorporating real life information from the player’s own life. Seeking in this way to ensure the flow outside of the magic circle and into the real life, this also aimed at supporting a stronger impact of the message conveyed by communicating it on the player’s “own ground”, i.e. in the terms of their own real life and personal feelings.2. Allowing a space for the player to express disagreeing with the message coming from the game and giving them the possibility to enrich it collectively by sharing through the game what their own view on the matter is. This was an attempt for exploration in the direction of supporting a two-way dialogue between the game designer and the player in the sense of giving the player a voice and a stronger agency both in the game and in the message conveyed.So these two: 1. self reflection via making it personal and 2. self expression via allowing space for a two-way dialogue, were the two main topics incorporated in the artifact that came out of this research. Consequently the contribution of this thesis are the reflections from trying to incorporate such critical game’s qualities and the analyses of it, along with all the other factors that came out from the earlier investigation and evaluation of similar games concerning what exactly makes people reflect on real life and think outside of the magic circle while playing a critical game.

1 ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to describe, analyze and explain major influences on the development of dystopian literature of the 21st century written in English. Those influences are described and illustrated on selected literary works, specifically on Oryx and Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood, Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins, Matched (2010) by Ally Condie, and The Bone Season (2013) by Samantha Shannon. The theoretical part aims to explain the term dystopia, to define dystopia as a genre, and to describe its history. This part also deals with the influences on the development of dystopia, focused especially on the 20th century, and with the summaries of the books selected for the use in the practical part. The practical part focuses on the major influences on the development of dystopian literature of the 21st century written in English. Those are influences relating to methods of social control, scientific and technological advancements, and from various apocalyptic ideas and visions, such as wars and diseases. The practical part includes descriptions of the influences, their explanations, and subdivisions, following by illustrations of those influences on the selected literary works. KEY WORDS Dystopia, dystopian novel, the 21st century, major...