Augmented Social Play is a new kind of experience for young people, supporting their social wellbeing and sense of belonging. Our smartphone-facilitated, face-to-face collaborative experiences combine immersive storytelling, contemporary technology and evidence-based psychology. We are developing this pioneering new format for use in schools and other settings to boost young people’s mental health by fostering a greater sense of belonging and connectedness.

We established the feasibility of Augmented Social Play through our award-winning prototype LINA (2022). Now, in a Horizon Europe-funded work programme (2023-2027) we are developing unalone (working title), our first full Augmented Social Play experience for early adolescents, for widescale adoption in schools around the world. The work involves 11 partner organisations across 6 countries ranging from universities to tech to arts organisations. Meanwhile we are exploring further uses of Augmented Social Play, and advocating for the importance of social wellbeing and sense of belonging in schools.

Interested in our work? We’d love to hear from you.

Our proof-of-concept for Augmented Social Play, LINA, is an augmented reality smartphone experience played by an entire class (aged 10-13) with their teacher. It was developed as part of D.O.T., a four-year international, interdisciplinary project that investigated how arts-informed digital interventions might strengthen adolescents’ social connections.

In LINA, players are members of a fictional class, from which Lina has suddenly and mysteriously vanished. Gameplay involves solving the mystery of where Lina has gone, and why. Players use augmented reality to explore their classroom, discovering clues to the mystery in the form of artefacts left behind by Lina. Players are steered together by the game for in-person collaboration, information exchange and puzzle-solving, as they unlock the story of a classmate, affected by mental ill-health, that no-one truly saw.

LINA was developed through interdisciplinary collaboration involving a playwright, software developers, psychologists and artists, via consultation with both adolescent and adult experts. Proof-of-concept testing with 10-13 year olds demonstrated high acceptability and feasibility, and positive effect on class climate.

LINA will form the starting point for unalone (working title), our first Augmented Social Play experience. Evolution of psychotherapeutic components, flawless technical flow and a significantly longer and more thorough experience will elevate this work from a single-session prototype to a fully developed, multi-session intervention that engages classes in sustained, compelling activities that increase belonging and boost mental health – all without external facilitation.

Our four-year, Horizon Europe-funded project (2023-2027) will develop unalone (working title), the first full-scale Augmented Social Play intervention, to the point of readiness for widescale deployment in schools globally. It will be implemented on the basis of a six-nation policy review and stakeholder consultation, and rigorously evaluated across the 2025-2026 school year in Czechia, Portugal and the UK to provide the evidence policy makers and practitioners need for wide-scale adoption.

Meanwhile, we will further evolve the technology through extended collaboration with  adolescents facing diverse challenges to ensure Augmented Social Play can meet the widest spectrum of needs and threats to mental health and sense of belonging. Our long-term goal is the wide-scale adoption of ASP, making multiple smartphone-delivered group interventions accessible in a diverse range of populations and setting.

Our project spans multiple academic disciplines and both technology and creative industries, with an emphatically stakeholder-collaborative approach.