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Litesprite shows Gratitude to GamesBeat at DICE

Picture of Socks the Fox

"I wrote about the company years ago and caught up with [Litesprite founder Swatee] Surve at the recent DICE Summit event in Las Vegas," wrote Dean Takahashi, the lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat.

Surve was there to lead a roundtable session, "What Can Leaders Do to Foster a Culture to Support Employee Mental Health and Resilience," which was sponsored by Hiro Capital.

Takahashi published the interview this morning on GamesBeat. (It's a 12-minute read.)

As Surve shared during the interview, we’ve made quite a bit of progress since his last story on us. Read below for some highlights.

Product

In December 2020, we launched the commercial version of Sinasprite on iOS and Android, and in January of this year, we re-launched Sinasprite’s “Gratitude” mini-game, adding it to the commercial version. “Gratitude” adds another journaling technique, this time with a multimedia experience, to address depression and anxiety. Players can play on their own, or they have the option of a multiplayer experience. Finally, they complete puzzles through regular play.

A multitude of studies found a correlation between gratitude practice and improvements in mental health, including one that saw a 35% decrease in depressive symptoms with this kind of technique. (Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening, 42, 874-884.) You can read the full analysis by Courtney E. Ackerman, MA, at PositivePsychology.com.

Our 6-week (42-day) play retention rates are 2-10X higher than the industry’s 30-day standards. Part of our mission is to de-stigmatize mental health issues and remove barriers to help. This is why we offer a forever-free version of our game.

Recent app store reviews

I will never stop using this app…it has saved my life numerous times. It reminds me that I have worth, and I can pull myself from the depths…it’s like taking my daily medications…Using this app alongside professional help reinforces what [I’m] learning.

Whoever made this app: IM [sic] PROUD OF U!!!! [sic] I’ve literally never even left a review for an app before so that should tell you how much I love this app. Anxiety is a biiiiig [sic] struggle for me and journaling on my own seems overwhelming. This app gives you stations, which makes it easy to organize your thoughts and slowly work through working out stress and anxiety. It’s like just one small step at a time, bite-sized and easy to think through, and then move onto the next step. The music is so cute and calming. Also having the animated fox, Socks, walk you through each station is like having a little comforting pet by your side while you do it. I love love love it! It says more stations coming soon and I’m so excited.

Traction

Since 2019, two more strategic investors, NexCube and AARP Innovation Labs, joined our existing strategic investors Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Tabula Rasa, and Jumpstart Foundry.

At the onset of the pandemic, we saw inbound demand from employers and achieved MRR within months of launching sales activities with this channel. We became an approved vendor with large, national benefits consultants like Mercer and Aon, and channel partners like Shortlister and BenefitsPitch.

Local agencies, like the City of New York, selected Sinasprite, our all-ages mental health video game, in their COVID-19 digital mental health resource guide. Sinasprite is now NYC’s #1 choice for depression support.

We have proven appeal among underserved populations. As the winner of Coordinated Behavioral Care’s (CBC’s) “iChoose” event, we served the Bronx community by working with two of NYC’s largest behavioral health providers, The Jewish Board, and Samaritan Daytop Village. Underserved patient communities in the Bronx chose our solution as the intervention tool of choice because we improve outcomes, access, and engagement for community members who have complex behavioral health and medical needs.

Company

Three industry veterans have joined the leadership team:

Looking ahead

If readers want to get involved, here’s what we recommended Takahashi share: 

  • Support our HHS (and other) efforts to address youth mental health
  • Partner with us to expand the gaming industry’s understanding of the intersection of health and play
  • Spread the word: Encourage colleagues, friends, and family to download our Sinasprite mental health app for iOS or Android to manage their anxiety, depression, PTSD, or substance abuse for free