Mental health problems prevent millions of people from achieving their potential in life and cost the UK economy over £118 billion each year. While 1 in 4 people in England will experience a mental health problem every year, only 1 in 8 get any kind of treatment. We need innovative approaches to mental health support, to reach those people who do not receive treatment, breaking down the stigma, cost, and time (e.g. NHS waitlists) barriers that prevent people from overcoming mental illness. Sketchbook Games previously released the multi-award-winning Lost Words: Beyond the Page. Our new project, Soul Garden, is an innovative combination of video-game and mental health app, featuring an engaging narrative, puzzle-gameplay integrated with eye-catching high-fidelity visuals and evidence-based therapeutic techniques. It also uses AI to ensure a personalised and evolving experience that adapts to individual player needs. Soul Garden offers a highly-engaging, low-stigma, and accessible option for personalised mental health support. Soul Garden, will be supported by research evidence and clinical trials through collaborating with mental health professionals, researchers, and organisations including Dr Caitlin Hitchcock at the University of Melbourne and the University of Kent to help develop and prove the therapeutic efficacy of our solution. Our main aim is to enhance the mental wellbeing of our players. By leveraging the popularity of gaming, we aim to reach a broad audience of young people, including those who may not typically seek traditional forms of mental health assistance. Through engaging gameplay and carefully designed mindfulness exercises, we aim to reduce player's stress and improve their overall mental health. The incorporation of evidence-based mindfulness techniques aims to equip players with increased resilience and effective coping mechanisms to not only benefit individual players but contribute to a more mentally resilient society.

Mind UK has stated that 1 in 6 people report experiencing common mental health problems, like anxiety and depression in any given week in England. Sketchbook Games' mission is to make a positive difference through play. Our new project, Soul Garden is an immersive narrative experience meets digital wellness platform for PC. It is designed to utilise the high levels of engagement games elicit in order to help more people maintain beneficial habits for their mental wellbeing, such as mindfulness exercises and meditations. Players will come for the immersive story and mesmerising environments but return for the wonder of the guided visualisations, calm of the relaxing breathing exercises and interesting interactions with characters they care about. Soul Garden aims to make looking after your mental health a more appealing, exciting and enjoyable activity. We are working with a number of partners to ensure the game fulfils this goal. We will release new meditations and narrative content over time, as well as a mobile version so players can access the content more easily. We believe the narrative game element will help encourage people who wouldn't otherwise try meditation and mindfulness, and the gamified mental health exercises will keep people returning.