PsychHound

I'm Luka Brave, an award-nominated analog game designer, writer, graphics and layout artist, accessibility consultant, disability advocate, and an overall big fan of living dinosaurs and most terrestrial fishes. 

Following years of disability advocacy and social work, in 2025 I received a master's degree in Writing Studies and Educational Psychology. My research focused around applied analog games: using tabletop roleplaying games and card games for therapeutic growth and education. 

Published in Summer 2025, my master's thesis examines the current state of the therapeutically applied TTRPG field: exploring the psychology of tabletop roleplaying, analyzing published games, presenting an original study on tabletop roleplay and emotional growth, and finally culminating in the groundwork of a new game. This new game, called Spiritkeep, was designed from the ground up to be therapeutic, and help players grow and heal from complex trauma over long-term play. Spiritkeep draft 0.2 is currently receiving feedback. 

Yall can read more about Spirtkeep, as well as various TTRPG accessibility projects, on the psychhound website, if it strikes your fancy :) You can also find me and my publications on Google Scholar (which is still wild). 

Inquires, or offers of collaboration, publication, or sponsorship, can be directed to luka(at)psychhound(dot)com. If you only get keysmashes back, the email was intercepted by the world's oldest pitbull, or her protege, a teenage orange boycat.