Yesterday on World Mental Health Day, Ninja Theory, the developers behind games such as Heavenly Sword, DmC: Devil May Cry, and the critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, announced Senua’s Scholarship via Twitter. In Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, the player character, Senua, suffers from severe psychotic mental illness. Thus, this is where the idea for the scholarship’s name is derived. The scholarship, funded completely by the studio and made with help from Cambridge Recovery College East, will allow select students to work with the Head to Toe charity to become mental health tutors and help those affected by mental health challenges.
According to Ninja Theory, Cambridge Recovery College East was one of the “key collaborators” on the game. The school focuses on educating and helping those afflicted by mental illness. Thus, this made them the perfect partner for the studio to team up with when creating this scholarship.
To go alongside the announcement of Senua’s Scholarship, Ninja Theory made the behind the scenes “making of” video of “Senua’s Psychosis” available online to the public. This video, previously only available to watch in the game itself, details the challenges of having severe psychotic mental illness be the main focus of the game. This design choice was “fraught with danger” according to the developers, due to the taboo nature of mental illness even in this day and age. To combat this, the video explains how Ninja Theory worked with neuroscientists and those who have lived through these types of experiences including hearing voices, delusions, and hallucinations to create an accurate representation of dealing with severe psychosis.
You can check out the full “Senua’s Psychosis” video here: