Award-winning game ready to help Scotland prepare for Ask & Act

At the heart of that work is Pathways Paradox, a homelessness prevention game developed with Social Bite. It has now been played by almost 2,500 people across 34 events, and is already in use across Scotland, including in homelessness prevention pilots with NL Reach, with housing associations, local authorities, health and social care partnerships and third sector organisations.

The serious game puts players inside the systems that decide who gets housed and who falls through the gaps. Working through real-life scenarios, teams from different services have to share information, make decisions under pressure and spot the moments where someone could have been helped sooner.

That is exactly what the new Ask and Act duties under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 will require of public bodies from next year.

Socialudo now offers Pathways Paradox as dedicated Ask & Act training, delivered in-house for single organisations or across local partnerships, and can tailor scenarios to reflect local services and priorities.

Professor Vikki McCall, co-founder and creative director of Socialudo and professor of Social Policy at the University of Stirling, said: “We are delighted, and honestly a bit blown away, that Socialudo won this award. But for us, it’s always been about supporting wider social change: helping people get to grips with the really complex systems we have out there, and finding ways to reduce the barriers and tackle housing inequalities.

“It’s been great working with NL REACH in particular, where the Socialudo homelessness model has been celebrated as an integral part of their Ask and Act pilot.”

Co-founder and managing director of Socialudo, Professor Alasdair Rutherford, added: “It’s amazing to see serious games celebrated as a mechanism for change. We design and deliver serious games because they are such a powerful tool for systems thinking, bringing the consequences of our decisions to life. We’re so grateful to everybody for their support, and we hope to keep getting out there and playing games with people!”

Free session: Thursday 10 December

Organisations wanting to experience the serious game before Ask & Act comes into force can join a free session as part of the Scotland Human Rights Festival.

Inside the System: Playing Our Way to Housing as a Human Right runs from 10:00am to 12:30pm on Thursday 10 December at the Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue, 16 St Mary’s Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SU. It is delivered in partnership with the University of Stirling’s ISPA project and Social Bite.

Book a free place for 10th December here.

Find out about Ask and Act training.