Playing with Trust

The Idea

Developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Playing With Trust was created as a board game that takes public health advice seriously whilst recognising people of all ages still need to play. The game was designed to support people's health and wellbeing by encouraging safe play in public spaces whilst incorporating the advice to maintain a recommended safe physical distance of 2 metres apart from each other. The game's activities are designed to encourage its players to look at their city in a whole new way - to imagine improvements that could be made to it and its surroundings and most importantly to think about how the space might be used to support safe social interaction between the people that live and visit there.

Playing with Trust can be replicated anywhere by anyone. The game has clear instructions on how to play with lots of opportunities to provide feedback and suggestions so players are active participants in the game's development whilst having fun! Our easy to set up board game is an innovative combination of physical and digital resources. Supported by a free smartphone app - a "virtual game box" which provides rules for the range of games within Playing with Trust, we also provide DIY manuals on how to create the physical boards and bases to fit whatever size or shape space you want to play in. We've also created an augmented reality interface which amplifies the players' interaction with the game, promotes a culture of playfully occupying local spaces and encourages the all important relationship build with other players.