Codename: Project Labyrinth
As part of our mission to bring more serious games into the world, we have started work on a project to tackle the tricky task of reducing feelings of social isolation whilst we are all legally obliged to socially isolate.
The result, currently working under the codename Project Labyrinth (until we can come up with a better one), is based on the principle that feelings of isolation (i.e. loneliness) are based on perceptions of connectedness rather than actual contact. So by encouraging people to see the social connections around them we can help people feel less lonely without having to alter their current level of contact with others.
This has several advantages:
It makes best use of what is already around the person, rather than adding more resources
It can work both for people with high and low levels of actual social contact
It introduces new ways of seeing things, which can be transferred into other areas of life
Early research has identified several criteria for the final game:
It needs to work in a person’s local area, so needs to be adaptable to different environments
In needs to have a low barrier to entry, including low-tech and relatively simple to play
It needs to have some replay value
It needs to be fun
February 2021
The basic concept has been completed and the design is focused around a deck of cards. We’ve taken some of our inspiration from Jesse Schell’s Deck of Lenses, a tool for examining games in different lights to find potential for improvement.
It’s been a fine balance between making something usable in lots of real world settings and making something that is also a game. A game traditionally has a defined space to play in, or a ‘magic circle’ to use some ludic jargon (think board games or card games like Uno, where play is confined to game pieces), however we wanted this one to be playable in your local neighbourhood, which means the magic circle has to follow you around, so to speak. This type of game is known as a pervasive game as it plays out in the real world.
An early prototype of a small deck plus ‘treasure map’
Doing this lo-tech meant we couldn’t use fancy things such as augmented reality game elements (such as in Pokémon Go), which meant the early designs were skewing more towards being a ‘tool’ instead of an actual game. Making something that helped you look at things differently was easy, but making it fun was harder.
We got around this by introducing some challenge into the way the cards can be used, fulfilling (one of the many) definitions of games as ‘a problem to solve’. The deck now includes a map so you can hunt for ‘treasure’, and each card gives you a choice of directions to move in, allowing players to navigate closer to the treasure point.
A full prototype should be ready in March for a proper round of playtesting.
April 2021
We’ve been hard at work iterating the design and adding a few new features. There are now three different game modes, including badge and points mechanics, and the design of the map cards has been updated to make it easier to match up onto weirdly-shaped streets. You know who you are, you atypical branchers. So we are happy to report that you can now play just as well in London’s Seven Dials as you can in the grid kingdom of Milton Keynes.
And we’ve got a proper name! Thanks to a vote from our lovely followers, the game has graduated away from project status and is now called Mindful Steps.
This has all meant that hard copies of the game are now in production, ready for beta testing in the coming months,
You can stay updated with the latest developments in Project Labyrinth by signing up here.