The Verse

The Verse builds games, experiences and rituals that uplift humanity.

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We build mechanics around mindfulness, meditation-based techniques (breath work, calm focus, equanimity, compassion), pro-sociality, empathy, and perspective taking. We believe that games and rituals have great potential to make us healthier, happier, and more hopeful.

It all started with PLAY and GAMES.

Play is universal. We learn best, teach best, and grow the best when we are playing (ask any parent or coach).
Got GAMES? In the last 5 years, we have seen a growth in gamification of wellbeing (Calm/Headspace), a growth in games for health and wellbeing (EndeavorRX, Sea Horse Quest, Deep Well, Real Lives Matter), and emergent science that shows that games can improve health/wellbeing and make us more prosocial (Journey/Children Of Sky, Animal Crossing, StarDew Valley).

Early Verse…

In 2019, game designers/developers, artists, researchers/scientists, visionaries, game players, health care practitioners, innovators in the digital therapeutics came together with this idea:
- What if games could make you feel happier, healthier & more hopeful?
With that, The Verse was formed: “A Digital Well-being Ecosystem — Aligning Passion, Purpose, and Impact.”
- Highly educated and intelligent people that are not looking for a “job”. They are looking to develop, express and grow.
- They are the “dissatisfied and disillusioned” - those who have worked on Wall Street, in big tech and big media.
- Grad students (MAs and PhDs) wanting to do more with their training and aspirations.
- Gen Z’s/Undergraduates looking for purpose and meaning,
- Academics and Clinicians, looking for real-world applications for their work.

The Evolving Verse

Values
- Co-creation (agency)
- Community (support/perspective)
- Collaboration (partnerships/resources)
- Participation/Engagement (interactive)
- Story Telling/Listening (_____)
- Inquiry/Research (______)
- A learning system (people, process, and product)

The Verse is a PEOPLE ENGINE: aligning Passion & Purpose with Impact work.

Invite/Attract - through Wellfound, LinkedIn, word of mouth.
Vet - ~400 people apply to The Verse & only top 5% are invited.
Onboard - using prosocial practices, upskilling/reskilling and game jams.
Dynamic Matching - we align passion/purpose with impact work.
Roles In The Verse
- Interns
- Fellows - Xiao, Will, Fhata,
- Clinicians - Vaishali, French Person?
- Artist in Residence/Story Teller in Residence - Sage, Kira, Ashley
- Advisers/Partners

“Every Person Has A Gift To Give". The Verse makes it easier for each person to find and use their passion/purpose/gift in a meaningful way.
- We attract/recruit people who want to change the world by making an impact on our individual and collective health, happiness and hope.
- We are an organization that requires highly creative and intelligent people who are looking for more than a “job”. They are looking to develop, express and grow.
- We need people who wake up every morning excited about what they do and love having a way to express their passion and unique gift.
- The Verse’s #1 KPI.. “how happy you are in the role of what are doing and what is the impact that you are having! “
- This is the culture of the Verse.

The Verse is a WORLDBUILDING ENGINE:

Building In The Open” -Micro Sprints --> Micro Builds --> Macro Experiences

Ideation - what are the games/experiences/rituals that uplift humanity.
Research - review the science/data to create impactful, interactive, participatory, engaging, and measurable change.
Prototype - build/co-create MVPs, Proof of Concepts, workshops, expertise and experience.
Evaluation - product market fit/market validation (moves from The Verse (Non-Profit) to Verse Ventures (B Corp))
Rinse & Repeat…

In 36 months, The Verse has…

Great People
- 250+ contributors/interns/fellows
- Over 47,000 hours on Verse projects!
- People In The Verse (VERSERS)
Great Process
- Ideation → Research →Prototype → Evaluation →Rinse & Repeat.
- The Verse is an engine for prototyping/validating/testing
Great Solutions: Built breath games & prosocial games
- WalkXR: 50 workshops, 4 Demos, Tested w/ 250+ people
- Adventures in Breath: Over 50 game boards, 6 Breath Mechanics, Tested with 75+ people
- Karma The Six Realm Game: 6 Games, 4 Prosocial game mechanics, Tested with 125+ people
Domain Expertise and Experience
- Ritualization Framework for data capture and engagement
- Best Practices Ritual White Paper
- Best Practices Theory of Change White Paper
- Playification & Gamification Testing
Developed partnerships with:
- Academics/clinicians
- Distribution partners (Catalyst 2030, Inner Development Goals, Compassion 2)
- Thought partners in gaming, digital therapeutics (DTx), and web3

The Evolution Of The Verse

The Verse - Non-Profit fluid/dynamic/affirming

The Verse is a non-profit that develops/validates games/experiences
Evaluation Text

The Ladder between The Verse & Verse Ventures

Ideas vetted
People vetted
Partners vetted
Advisers vetted
GTM vetted

Verse Ventures - B Corp stable/focused/resourced

Build products in Verse Ventures
License technology
Create Partnerships for co-development
Offer as Creative Commons
10-20% of future revenue is donated back to The Verse Non-Profit

🪙 Invest

Support The Verse:

Your contributions go directly towards a team of 50 people who donate ~20hrs per week to build games and experiences that impact health and consciousness.

Help Us Help

🔘

👷 Contribute

Join The Verse:

Got passion? Got purpose? Got ideas? Want to build something in The Verse? Let’s take on some projects and make an impact together.

🔘 Let’s Solve Problems

🎮 Participate

Enjoy The Verse:

Join Betas, share feedback, and experience the joys and well-being benefits of shifting into positive states of consciousness in fun and engaging ways with VIP access.

🔘 Have Some Fun

END END END

The Verse is a PRODUCT ENGINE

WalkXR: A Transformative Compassion & Learning Platform - Launching Fall 2024.
- WalkXR is a multimedia digital therapeutic experience designed to promote mental and physical wellbeing. It provides a platform for community members to "walk" through the experiences of others, fostering learning and growth through interactive design and participation. The project includes the creation of three specific walks addressing current poly crises in the United States. These walks engage visitors with pressing issues, promoting awareness and empathy.
Walk XR Climate Change
- Workshop version of WalkXR @ ___________
  
  WalkXR: Social Therapeutic/Empathy & Compassion Experience/
  
  The Verse builds game social therapeutics promote learning and behavior change through the sharing of experiences, perspective taking, and prosocial mechanics.
  
  WalkXR: A multi media social therapeutic that provides our community with the ability to "walk" in social themes/constructs through the experiences of others. WalkXR provides digital experiences that promote empathy, perspective taking, and socialization.
  - What if your company/school/org could customize training or wellbeing programs... that leverage the science of prosociality... and help you become more...
    - ...Empathetic.
    - ...Prosocial.
    - ...Better on perspective taking
  - By “walking” thru other people's experiences.
    - Would you see yourself in others?
    - Would you see your suffering in others?
    - Would others see themselves in you? Their suffering in your suffering?
  - What If…
    - 100 people - 1000 people - 1M people... shared their experience about mourning/grief.
    - What would that tell us about our humanity? Would it make us… more empathetic, prosocial, and better at perspective taking?
Adventures In Breath (AiB): Games That Make You Breath(Perform?) Better - Launching Winter 2024.
- AiB: Worlds – Where breath and sound shape your journey! Immerse yourself in Worlds, a unique game experience that uses the power of your breath and humming as gameplay mechanics. Navigate through mesmerizing landscapes, overcome challenging obstacles, and unlock new levels by mastering the art of mindful breathing and resonant tones. . Discover a world where your breath and voice become the keys to exploration and transformation.
- Check out AiB’s breath game concepts.
  
  Adventures In Breath (AiB) - Gamify breath therapeutics
  
  An ****ecosystem of games that gamify and playify therapeutic breath practices to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve health outcomes. Each breath mechanic ties to a scientifically validated breath therapeutic, and is expressed within the game through interactivity mechanics/responsive design.
  
  Game play begins in the Adventures in Breath: Worlds, a simple micro games that teaches players breath practices/tools that will be used in all AiB games.
Karma The Six Realm Games (K6RG): Gamify Prosocial Learning & Play - Launching Spring 2025.
- Karma The Six Realm Game addresses the negative impacts of social isolation, depression, and anxiety by promoting prosocial behavior. K6RG combines mindfulness and "tend and befriend" game mechanics in a unique and immersive narrative. Players progress through various realms by solving challenges that encourage prosocial behaviors. The game gamifies and playifies prosocial and mindfulness practices, making it both educational and entertaining.
- Check out The Verse’s Community Development Initiative “Skinning The Six Realms”.
  - Marvel Super Heroes 6 Realms
  - Start Wars 6 Realms
  - American Politics 2024 - coming soon!
Karma The Six Realm Game: Friend, Enemy & Stranger In The Animal Real

2 - Karma The Six Realm Game. Gamifing prosociality.

The 6 realms can be understood as forms of existence, or states of mind, into which beings are born according to their karma. The realms can be viewed as situations in life or even personality types.

Game play begins in the “Karma ladder”, where a simple micro game calculates your prosciality score. This score determines which of the 6 realms a player is born into. In each realm, a player explores agency/choice using prosocial game mechanics.

The Verse is a PEOPLE ENGINE

Invite/Attract - through Wellfound, LinkedIn, word of mouth.
- The Verse attracts and connects makers/builders, artists, visionaries… people who want to change the world by making an impact on our individual and collective health, happiness and hope.
Vet - ~400 people apply to The Verse & only top 5% are invited.
Onboard - using prosocial practices, upskilling/reskilling and game jams.
Dynamic Matching - we align passion/purpose with impact work in The Verse.
The Verse is you and me…

The Verse is a WORLDBUILDING ENGINE

Ideation - what are the games/experiences/rituals that uplift humanity
Research - review the science/data to create impactful, engaging, and measurable change
Prototype - build/co-create, MVPs, Proof of Concepts - everything we build a vertical slice
Evaluation - product market fit/market validation (moves from The Verse (Non-Profit) to Verse Ventures (B Corp))
Rinse & Repeat…
- Engine

Got Rituals!

We measure wellbeing (physiologically/psychologically) through pre and post measurement and through in-game measurement (tonal/computer vision/digital phenotyping/NLP).

We needed a way to measure the impact of The Verse’s applications and did not want to use surveys, or ask players to take their vitals. We tried this!
- How could we collect this data “diegetically (within game)”.
Rituals! We married the need to measure wellbeing and our belief that rituals are vital structures for the processing of wellbeing into the “Ritualization of Pre & Post”.
Our research spans neuroscience, psychology, religious and contemplative traditions, as well as cultural anthropology.

Home

Catalyst 2030 – Collaborating to Achieve the SDGs

The Verse Partners/Collaborators

Got Passion, Purpose? Let’s make in impact.

Donate to The Verse @ _________.
Invest in Verse Ventures. Learn more at **info@versebuilding.com.**
Join The Verse. Check us out on Wellfound @

The Verse Careers

Want to build something in The Verse? Got ideas? Let’s collaborate. Email The Verse @ info@versebuilding.com

Verse Build in the Open (VBitO) Submission Form!

Founding Team

Ben Simon-Thomas - Co-Founder - The Verse | LinkedIn

Anshul Pendse - Co-Founder - The Verse | LinkedIn

Advisers To The Verse

www.linkedin.com

Versers In The Verse

Follow Us @

The Verse Is An Engine For The Development Of Digital Experiences That Shift Health & Wellbeing.

TheVerse is on Facebook Gaming

The Verse | LinkedIn

Monetizing our process and insights
- Interactive workshops. Ask us about a WalkXR workshop demo.
- Consulting on gamification/ritualiztion.
- ________.
White Papers on Ritual: The How/Why of Ritual
White Paper on Best Practices For Behavioral Change

Power of Collaboration

Does prosocial collaboration allow us/The Verse/humanity to unshackle the potential needed to build better “impact”?!
Do prosocial people do better in building innovation?
Does collaborating make people better?

This is our working thesis!

NP powered by the p and p of our volunteers,interns, fellows, residencecy, interns

All the play quotes to TV