## 4 Results and Discussion  
In order to present the findings of our analysis of the selected articles, we present what we learned from them with respect to our research questions for this study as follows:  
1. Can serious games be effective as therapies for affective disorders in autistic and neurotypical individuals? There were 30 different outcome measures utilized in different combinations in the studies and eight of them showed no significant impact of serious game interventions in seven studies [45; 57; 58; 62; 63; 64; 67]; however, apart from 1, 7 of these outcome measures and 22 of the other outcome measures in the rest of 30 studies showed a positive impact of the serious games intervention as a therapy or mediator of other therapies for different affective disorders for both ASD and neurotypical populations. Therefore, the studies support the application of serious games for affective disorders in autistic and neurotypical individuals. Even though several of the studies did not have the appropriate sample sizes for their results to be statistically significant, for instance, 9 out of 37 studies had sample sizes less than 20, still more than 75% of the studies we reviewed had an appropriate sample size and hence this further solidifies the applicability of serious games for affective disorders in autistic and neurotypical individuals. 2. For which affective disorders among autistic or neurotypical individuals have serious games been effectively applied? Table 3 shows the details of the participants in the studies reviewed. In general, there were five different affective disorders found in the populations of the studies, which were depression, anxiety, phobias, bipolar disorder and their comorbidities, along with emotional dysregulation of anger and aggression. Together with Tables 3 and 4, it can be seen that there were successful applications of serious games for all of these affective disorders in at least one of the studies reviewed. Depression was shown to have the highest comorbidity, appearing with other affective disorders in five studies [38; 39; 50; 51; 52], followed by anxiety appearing in four studies [39; 51; 52; 66]. 3. What are the design characteristics of the games that are effective for different affective disorders? The charts in Figures 3-5 present the characteristics of the games that were used effectively for depression (and its comorbidities), anxiety (and its comorbidities), phobias (and its comorbidities), bipolar disorder (and its comorbidities) and emotional dysregulation of anger and aggression in the selected studies. Figure 3 shows the distribution of games in terms of the different game dimensionalities observed (2D, 3D or 3D (VR)), Figure 4 shows the distribution of games in terms of the different player perspectives in the game that were observed (first person, third person, immersive or isometric) and finally Figure 5 shows the distribution of games in terms of the different game genres observed (adventure, driving, puzzle, shooter, etc.) From Figure 3, it is apparent that 3D games were more frequently utilized for intervention for depression patients, which was 3D (VR) and 3D for anxiety, predominantly 3D (VR) for phobias, 3D (VR) and 3D for bipolar disorder and 2D for emotional dysregulation of anger and aggression in the selected studies. Figure 4 clearly shows that first-person and immersive games were more frequently utilized for intervention for depression patients, which was immersive and third-person for anxiety, again predominantly immersive for phobias, isometric for bipolar disorder as well as for emotional dysregulation of anger and aggression in the selected studies. As isometric games can have 2D, 3D, or even a hybrid of these two dimensionalities, and hence are very versatile in terms of implementation [102], it is understandable that such games were chosen for interventions of two different affective disorders.