Boy creates video game to help people with depression

Luke lost his dad by suicide when he was 2 years old. After the dad’s death, Luke’s mom, Paula Toledo, was worried that Luke would experience secondary loss as she cared for his 2-week-old brother, and so she became interested in play therapy, which offers children tools and language to work with anxiety.

This helped Luke, later on, to develop his innovation. He created a video game to help educate and demystify mental illness. In this game, a character named Bob lives in a world of grey boxes. Bob must navigate them by jumping to coloured boxes while learning about mental health. He also built a playground at the end of the game to remind players that it’s vital to get outside to take care of your physical and mental health.

“I wanted to figure out a way to promote the idea that mental health is a real thing, not something that’s invisible, like a lot of people thought,” Luke says “It gives them a bit of information, but not information that makes them sad or anything. They’re not ways to get better, they’re facts about depression.”

To develop his solution, Luke got help from YouTube videos and Roblox forums.

“We were truly touched when we learned about Luke’s game, and we’re very proud of the work he’s doing to help his peers through our platform. It’s critical to provide a safe space for kids and teens to play.”, says Laura Higgins, Roblox’s head of digital civility.

Luke started building the game in November 2018 and has had it beta-tested by his little brother.

He now wants to contact mental-health specialists to build a new game, which not only informs but also suggests tools to cope with anxiety and depression.

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2LoNQ3V