Can discomfort be blissful? This volume presents an in-depth reflection of the selected artworks for the Art Exhibition of the 13th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling – ICIDS 2020 – organized at Bournemouth University – UK, during the most memorable year of the XXI century (so far). The title of the book is the homonym of the curatorial theme of the exhibition Texts of Discomfort. In these pages, interactive storytellers explain their work and the ways discomfort – and bliss – is rooted in their art.

For this first issue of the Games for Change Asia-Pacific journal, the editorial board has identified a collection of ten thought-provoking papers that showcase a diverse range of game types,subject areas and frameworks. Some report on custom-designed games (or plans for them) and the theoretical, clinical or personal approaches that have informed their development. Others describe how existing commercial games are being used in ways that positively impact people’s mental or physical health. One describes the therapeutic use of the game creation process itself. A number focus on mental health and wellbeing, others on education and clinical practice. All, however, are valuable and revealing, and enrich our understanding of the ways in which games can make a contribution to our lives.

ToDIGRA is a quarterly, international, open access, refereed, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to research on and practice in all aspects of games. ToDiGRA captures the wide variety of research within the game studies community combining, for example, humane science with sociology, technology with design, and empirics with theory.

This Special Issue of ToDiGRA comprises works that were presented at the workshop “Teaching Games: Pedagogical Approaches”, which took place at DiGRA 2019 in Tokyo. The papers presented were elaborated into articles for this issue.