Champions of the Shengha

Champions of the Shenga is a video-game that empowers young people to improve their mental health, training them to stay calm under pressure. Powered by our proprietary biofeedback technology, which intelligently analyses biosensor-data to provide real-time feedback on emotional state. Scaleable through embedding tech in next generation of mHealth interventions.

Our solution:  Champions of the Shengha, is a fun and competitive mobile game where players train themselves to unleash their magical power, channelled via their ‘magic transmitter’, a wearable sensor that measures their emotional state through their heart rate variability. The game uses biofeedback to improve mental resilience using mindfulness techniques, particularly deep regulated breathing. For our target audience Champions of the Shengha is a game, not a health intervention, which means it can deliver long term engagement and adherence where traditional therapies, and wellbeing mHealth products, fail.

Addressing the challenge: Behind our first product is the proprietary biofeedback technology we’ve developed, which intelligently analyses biosensor data to provide real-time feedback to a user on their cognitive and emotional state. We can improve every person's mental resilience by using this technology platform to design more effective, audience optimised, interventions that can prompt and reward people to augment their behaviour and improve their ability to self-regulate their emotions. 

Impact at scale: This technology can sit at the heart of the next generation of mHealth interventions, that genuinely empower people to be able to maintain and improve their mental health before conditions become chronic and where health services are unable to meet the demand for services. 

1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime, with an annual global cost of $2.5 trillion. Half of mental illnesses begin before the age of fifteen, and 1 in 10 young people now have a diagnosed disorder. Overstretched and under-resourced health services are unable to cope with the demand for treatment, with traditional interventions expensive to scale, patchy in their availability, and often not well suited for a youth audience. 

To date we’ve run five evaluation trials, including an RCT, which have demonstrated that the game could effectively train emotional regulation skills, and which users quickly started to apply in their everyday lives. Beyond these static trials, our biofeedback platform enables the ongoing, and real-time, evaluation of impact as players use our products. You can read more about our research here on our website

Young people will benefit from playing Champions of the Shengha in two ways:

1. They will learn how to explicitly regulate their emotions, thereby improving their self efficacy, which evidence shows improves their wellbeing and therefore their mental health
2. They will, through regular biofeedback practise, increase their level of emotional control as measured by their Heart Rate Variance - a psychophysiological marker of stress and anxiety

The game will be deployed to young people through the App stores for them to download directly, as well as through schools as part of the tournament product we're developing.

Track total game-play time by person via in-game analytics - 25,000 9-14 year olds play game for more than 4 hours

Measured using a validated survey such as Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale - Sample of 2000 9-14 year olds show improved emotional regulation

Track changes in HRV over time through heart rate data received from game-play - Players who satisfy outcome 1 show statistically significant increase in heart rate variability (HRV)

Our solution is innovative because it integrates biofeedback, with the assessment of stress through heart rate variability, embedding them in a real-time user experience that is optimised for a youth audience.

Heart rate variability is traditionally measured over 24hrs to ascertain someones levels of stress and anxiety - we have built algorithms that can take this measurement down to a matter of seconds and still be accurate. 

Critically, for our target audience Champions of the Shengha is a game, not a health intervention, which means it can deliver long term engagement and adherence where traditional therapies, and wellbeing mHealth products, fail.

Design: We ran an agile design process, which meant from the beginning we were talking to potential users understanding their needs and pains. Concept development included co-design and decisions for prototyping were only taken following extensive user feedback.

User testing: For our Beta testing we recruited 200 from our target audience through partnerships with 5 schools where we spent time in lessons introducing the game, and collecting detailed feedback.

Further trials: We are now planning a larger scale impact trial with a population of children at high risk of behavioural and emotional problems - those that have been excluded from school.

As well as being made available to purchase direct, the game will be mainly deployed through education channels, purchased by schools as a package for whole classes, or deployed on a one-to-one basis where the greatest benefits can be found. We are also actively seeking funding from charitable trusts and foundations to deploy the game in environments where it will generate the greatest impact. This means that for most users the game will be free at the point of use, paid for by government and philanthropic trusts who are convinced by its ability to deliver the improvements in mental health.

We have to date taken equity investment from 4 angel investors, and are in discussions for a further round of equity funding with a target close of September 2017. Over the next year we will start to sell Champions of Shengha, as well as securing funding to run further impact trials for the product. The equity investment will sustain the business until revenues from our product are sufficient for the business to be cash breakeven. Depending on the investment required to grow and scale the product at that point, we will potentially seek further equity investment in a Series A round in mid 2019

1. Ability to secure funding for trials we have planned in specialist education settings
2. Ability to find partners to access, and roll product out, to the audiences most in need
3. Continued ability to raise the capital required to scale the product in the market

https://www.championsoftheshengha.com/

We're excited about the potential of our product, Champions of the Shengha, and the innovative technology that sits behind it. However we're a small startup with a limited network that needs support to scale quickly and get our game it into the hands of as many of the most in need as possible. We want to take advantage of Solve by meeting industry experts who can advise us on, and provide the network to, deliver on our ambitions globally.

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