Hellblade Dev Announces New Project To Help Fight Mental Illness

Ninja Theory’s 2017 game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a harrowing tale that focuses on mental health struggles and overcoming them. The UK studio has now announced its next project–and it continues down that path but in a new and innovative way.

The Insight Project, as it’s called, is a new initiative that Ninja Theory is undertaking with neuroscientist Paul Fletcher, who worked with the game developer on Hellblade. As part of the project, Ninja Theory and Fletcher are designing new therapy methods to help people with mental health struggles by using body sensors and more.

“If you can see what’s happening inside your mind, then you can remove yourself from the symptoms and view it in a new light,” Ninja Theory’s Tameem Antoniades told CNET.

It’s very early days for The Insight Project, but Antoniades explained that his long-term goal is to create a polished, high-end game that can appeal to the mainstream and help people better understand the realities of how mental health affects people. According to the announcement, the company expects it to take shape over the course of several years. The game experiences aim to help people recognize, respond to, and control their anxiety and fear. The company also says it will be subjecting itself to “rigorous scientific principles” of ethics and data-keeping to keep the experiment valid.

Go to CNET to get the full story on The Insight Project and more.

Ninja Theory’s next game is Bleeding Edge, which is a multiplayer combat game. It is believed to be the final game developed by Ninja Theory before Microsoft acquired the company.