Simulating Change
How We Turn Complex Challenges Into Playable Stories

Some stories are told to entertain.

Ours are built to train perception, provoke reflection, and prepare for change.

At The Cookie Labs, we create digital experiences that helps teenagers navigate screen time, supports children in therapy, or challenges executives to face ethical AI dilemmas.

Learning to Let Go

How do you teach mindful digital behavior to 12 and 13 year olds?

You make it their story.

Together with educators and psychologists, we developed freii, a 21-day web and mobile journey that helps students and their parents explore their relationship with technology.

Each day introduces a mission, reflection, or playful challenge, building awareness step by step.

Originally a lightweight web app, freii is now evolving into a robust educational platform aiming to reach 500,000 students across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by 2027.

+321% awareness
of digital addiction risks

Awareness of Internet Use Disorder (INS) among students increased from 20.3% to 85.6% after participating in freii.


This 4x increase shows that freii dramatically improved understanding of digital risks, which is one of the program’s core goals.

−8.2% reduction
in risky internet use

The share of adolescents showing risky internet behavior dropped from 49.4% to 41.2% — a significant decrease.

This proves that freii doesn’t just teach awareness, it also changes behavior measurably and statistically.

+76.7% awareness
of manipulative app design

Recognition of manipulative digital design (“dark patterns”) rose from 4.4% to 81.1% after the intervention.

A twentyfold increase in awareness shows freii’s power to uncover the hidden mechanisms behind excessive screen use.

It’s not about disconnecting. It’s about reconnecting to purpose, priorities and self-control.

The Simulation of Mindset

What if you could practice leadership in a crisis… without real-world consequences?

Outedge transforms decision-making into a narrative simulation, where executives face high-stakes scenarios such as AI risk, reputation management or internal communication breakdowns.

Unlike traditional learning tools, it doesn’t measure compliance. Instead, it mirrors human behavior under pressure.

Players experience the ripple effects of their choices through unfolding dialogue, shifting team dynamics and changing headlines. The result: awareness training that feels like an episode of Black Mirror meets The Economist. It’s sharp, believable and impossible to forget.

Because the point isn’t to win. It’s to understand how you think when it matters most.

Healing Through Story

What if therapy could feel like an adventure?

In HeroComKi, a collaborative research project with LMU Klinikum München, we support children and adolescents in psychiatric care through a gamified comic diary and wearable companion.

Each patient becomes the hero of their own story, logging moods, choices, and progress that evolve within a narrative world designed to foster self-expression and emotional regulation.

Our role: building the story engine, wearable logic, and game mechanics that make the therapy journey both structured and empowering.

Here, storytelling doesn’t distract from healing — it drives it.

One Method, Many Mindsets
Interaction is not a feature, it’s a form of insight.

From classrooms to clinics to boardrooms, we use interactive storytelling to help people see themselves in the system and to practice empathy, decision-making and resilience in safe but meaningful ways.

We call it story-based simulation design.
Our clients call it effective.

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