Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ASP-belong (Augmented Social Play (ASP): smartphone-enabled group psychotherapeutic interventions that boost adolescent mental health by supporting real-world connection and sense of belonging)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-09-01 do 2025-02-28
In our fast-changing society, mental health problems and social isolation are on the rise among young people, a trend that has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this growing concern, we have developed Augmented Social Play (ASP). ASPs are immersive group experiences for young people that strengthen their sense of belonging and so boost mental health. The experiences are led by a smartphone or tablet and combine the engaging potential of augmented reality with immersive storytelling and real-world group interactions—such as face-to-face gameplay or collaborative group work. In developing these programmes, we draw on evidence-based psychotherapeutic methods to heighten their capacity to strengthen belonging and support mental health.
Collaborating across academia, industry, education, health and the arts, and working with young people, we are developing Lina as the first ASP, a full-scale, six-session programme. We will in the first step implement this intervention in schools in Portugal, Czechia, and the UK, using strategies informed by an analysis of national policies and guidelines that may impact the integration of Lina in schools, and evaluate its efficacy, cost-effectiveness and implementation in order to provide an evidence base to stakeholders including policy-makers, practitioners and media, and stimulate wide uptake.
We will refine our ASPs/Lina according to the needs of vulnerable adolescents to ensure we meet the widest spectrum of needs; by prototyping additional ASP aimed at different populations and challenges to mental health; and by creating comprehensive ethical guidelines. We pay close attention to the ethical dimension of ASP development and are elaborating ethical guidelines both for ASP developers and for future creators of serious games.
Our long-term goal is wide-scale adoption of ASP, making multiple digitally-delivered group mental health programmes freely accessible to diverse populations and settings.
Collaborating across academia, industry, education, health and the arts, and working with young people, we are developing Lina as the first ASP, a full-scale, six-session programme. We will in the first step implement this intervention in schools in Portugal, Czechia, and the UK, using strategies informed by an analysis of national policies and guidelines that may impact the integration of Lina in schools, and evaluate its efficacy, cost-effectiveness and implementation in order to provide an evidence base to stakeholders including policy-makers, practitioners and media, and stimulate wide uptake.
We will refine our ASPs/Lina according to the needs of vulnerable adolescents to ensure we meet the widest spectrum of needs; by prototyping additional ASP aimed at different populations and challenges to mental health; and by creating comprehensive ethical guidelines. We pay close attention to the ethical dimension of ASP development and are elaborating ethical guidelines both for ASP developers and for future creators of serious games.
Our long-term goal is wide-scale adoption of ASP, making multiple digitally-delivered group mental health programmes freely accessible to diverse populations and settings.
In the first reporting period, the main focus of the consortium was the development of Lina—the first ASP centred on the mysterious disappearance of a school girl. Designed for classroom use with students aged 11–14 and their teacher, the experience blends cooperative gaming with immersive theatre. The story follows Lina, a fictional classmate who has suddenly vanished. To uncover what happened to her—and why—players must work together to solve puzzles, follow clues, and piece together the narrative.
Each player participates using a smartphone or tablet. Through augmented reality, Lina’s belongings appear superimposed in the physical classroom space, drawing the students into a story that unfolds in real-time. A cinematic soundtrack, drama style narration, and opportunities for spontaneous role-play transform the ordinary classroom into a compelling immersive environment. Structured into six sessions, four of them digitally-supported, that fit within standard lesson times, Lina is accessible, deeply engaging, and educational.
By the end of the reporting period, the game had reached Alpha stage. The coming months will see its finalisation and preparation for a robust clinical trial.
Development was driven by co-creation with young people to ensure the story, design, and gameplay reflect their interests and perspectives. The Unicorn Theatre London led this process, establishing a co-development group of 12–13-year-olds, who met over twenty Saturdays and one three-day intensive workshop to help build the world of Lina. These sessions encouraged the participants to develop as thinkers, designers, and storytellers, exploring and shaping the experience.
To reflect the cultural diversity of the participating countries, three international youth exchanges were organised in 2024. These brought together 28 young people aged 12–14 from Czechia, Portugal, and the UK who met first in London (UK), then Brno (CZ), and finally in Torres Vedras (PT). Each of these workshop series focused on the design challenges relevant to the phase of the project in which it took place–from general game-related experiences to playtesting the first versions of Lina.
In parallel to developing Lina, we have worked with experts in 5 EU countries to review and understand policy that is relevant to Lina being taken up by secondary schools. We have used this understanding to plan how we will implement Lina in our scientific evaluation and how we will support its future ongoing implementation.
Also in parallel to the work around Lina, we have been working to establish development avenues for further ASP, which will specifically address particularly vulnerable young people. We have engaged with cross-sector experts across Europe, and with vulnerable young people themselves, to develop our understanding of vulnerability and its impact on belonging and mental health. This work lays the ground for our close collaboration with specific group(s) of vulnerable young people and associated stakeholders in further ASP development. Simultaneously, work on interface and interaction design, as well as on digital tools aiming to strengthen the social dynamic in classrooms, has been carried out to further enrich upcoming ASPs.
Each player participates using a smartphone or tablet. Through augmented reality, Lina’s belongings appear superimposed in the physical classroom space, drawing the students into a story that unfolds in real-time. A cinematic soundtrack, drama style narration, and opportunities for spontaneous role-play transform the ordinary classroom into a compelling immersive environment. Structured into six sessions, four of them digitally-supported, that fit within standard lesson times, Lina is accessible, deeply engaging, and educational.
By the end of the reporting period, the game had reached Alpha stage. The coming months will see its finalisation and preparation for a robust clinical trial.
Development was driven by co-creation with young people to ensure the story, design, and gameplay reflect their interests and perspectives. The Unicorn Theatre London led this process, establishing a co-development group of 12–13-year-olds, who met over twenty Saturdays and one three-day intensive workshop to help build the world of Lina. These sessions encouraged the participants to develop as thinkers, designers, and storytellers, exploring and shaping the experience.
To reflect the cultural diversity of the participating countries, three international youth exchanges were organised in 2024. These brought together 28 young people aged 12–14 from Czechia, Portugal, and the UK who met first in London (UK), then Brno (CZ), and finally in Torres Vedras (PT). Each of these workshop series focused on the design challenges relevant to the phase of the project in which it took place–from general game-related experiences to playtesting the first versions of Lina.
In parallel to developing Lina, we have worked with experts in 5 EU countries to review and understand policy that is relevant to Lina being taken up by secondary schools. We have used this understanding to plan how we will implement Lina in our scientific evaluation and how we will support its future ongoing implementation.
Also in parallel to the work around Lina, we have been working to establish development avenues for further ASP, which will specifically address particularly vulnerable young people. We have engaged with cross-sector experts across Europe, and with vulnerable young people themselves, to develop our understanding of vulnerability and its impact on belonging and mental health. This work lays the ground for our close collaboration with specific group(s) of vulnerable young people and associated stakeholders in further ASP development. Simultaneously, work on interface and interaction design, as well as on digital tools aiming to strengthen the social dynamic in classrooms, has been carried out to further enrich upcoming ASPs.
The project’s key objective of delivering Lina consists of two concurrent results: The novel format of psychological education and intervention we call ASP (Augmented Social Play), based on the AR technology, and the design and implementation of a 6-week-long program scenario built upon the story of Lina. It is essential that Lina (both the scenario and the code) will be available under an open-source licence after its empirical validation through the clinical trial in three language versions: English, Czech, and Portuguese. Thus, we ensure the availability of the result to all schools in the relevant countries. Further ASPs may present an opportunity for a commercial use as additional capacity, funding, and IPR support will be needed for their development toward the Beta phase. The further ASP’s pose a chance to cover more specific target groups, various environments outside school and thus broadening the impact of the project beyond its course.