Shift
An adventure game to practice facing in-game stressors head on and empower young people to "shift" their mindsets
In SHIFT, players can freely learn about resources, color, and life in 'The Cover' world. Here you can find people to help you, and help others. However to progress players must shift to 'The Below' a dark monochromatic world that can be dark, lonely and scary. Alone, players can sneak around, collect valuable resources and choose to face their personalized demon or live to fight another day!
As a Game Designer in partnership with Aardman Studios, I was responsible for setting the design direction for a number of core gameplay mechanics in a prototype game to build emotional resilience through gameplay. This prototype aimed to test how mechanics that encourage the recognition and demonstration of social support could foster resilience among players. Specifically, the objectives were twofold: to create a game environment where players could practice receiving, providing, and perceiving social support in stressful situations, and to encourage a growth mindset through interactive challenges.
A prototype made in collaboration with
