Anxiety Relief App
Description
As part of my master’s thesis, "Balancing Fun and Function: Exploring Game Design Features for Long-Term Engagement in Anxiety-Relief Serious Games", I developed an Android app that combines game design principles with established psychological treatment methods to create a supportive and engaging experience for anxiety relief. Built with the Unity game engine in spring 2025, the app was designed to investigate how playful, interactive features can encourage long-term use while providing therapeutic benefits.
The app includes three distinct mini-games, each grounded in a different psychological practice shown to aid in anxiety reduction. To promote replayability and sustained engagement, each mini-game incorporates various game design features that challenge the user while reinforcing calming strategies. Beyond gameplay, users earn coins that can be spent in an in-app store to customise their experience to add a layer of personalisation and motivation.
Mini-Games
The Breathing Game
The first mini-game is the Breathing Game, which is based on the principles of deep breathing, also known as paced breathing exercises. These exercises typically involve controlled inhalation and exhalation cycles lasting between five and seven seconds per breath, and have been shown to support relaxation and stress reduction.
In the game, the player interacts with a balloon positioned at the bottom of the screen. By holding their finger on the balloon, the balloon begins to inflate, guiding the player to take a slow, steady breath in. Once the finger is released, the balloon floats across the screen toward a target at the centre, encouraging the player to exhale slowly while the balloon flies. The scoring system rewards the player based on how closely their inhalation matches the target duration: the closer the timing, the nearer the balloon lands to the bullseye.
To maintain motivation, players receive points even if they miss the bullseye, reinforcing progress rather than penalising mistakes. Additionally, the target duration can be adjusted to meet individual needs, allowing players to tailor the exercise for everyday stress or more intense situations.
Puzzle Cup
The second mini-game is inspired by relaxation-based exercises, which are activities designed to intentionally create a state of calm. Since relaxation can take many forms depending on the person, this mini-game focuses on a familiar and soothing activity: completing a jigsaw puzzle.
In the game, the player taps on a mug at the bottom of the screen to spawn puzzle pieces. Emerging like clouds of steam, the pieces float gently upward, creating a light and calming visual effect. Unless interacted with, these pieces gradually fade away like steam dissipating into the air. However, no pieces are permanently lost; they will reappear later to ensure that the player always has access to the complete set needed to finish the puzzle. By touching a puzzle piece, the player can catch and move the pieces across the screen to complete the puzzle.
To accommodate different preferences and levels of challenge, players can choose from four puzzle sizes, ranging from 16 to 30 pieces. There are no time limits or penalties, allowing players to progress entirely at their own pace. This design encourages a stress-free experience where the focus is on the soothing process of assembling the puzzle, reinforcing the relaxation-oriented purpose of the exercise.
Whac-A-Thought
The third and final mini-game is Whac-a-Thought, a game inspired by the classic arcade game Whac-a-Mole and grounded in attention bias modification techniques. Attention bias modification is used to train people to redirect their attention away from negative stimuli, which is particularly relevant for people with anxiety, as studies have shown they tend to focus more on negative stimuli than on neutral or positive ones. In this mini-game, words that have a negative association with anxiety, such as "stress", "flawed", and "insecurities", are used as negative stimuli, while positively associated words serve as alternatives.
​
During gameplay, two thought bubbles appear simultaneously in different locations on the screen. One bubble contains a negatively associated word, while the other features a positive or neutral one. The player must select the bubble with the positive/neutral word to progress. Successively correct choices increase the game’s speed, creating a rising challenge. Choosing a negative word results in the loss of a life, and once all lives are lost, the game ends, displaying the player’s score on a highscore board.
​
To provide flexibility, the mini-game offers four difficulty levels. Three progressively increase the challenge, while the fourth, an invincible mode, allows players to engage without the risk of losing lives. This mode creates a more calming, non-competitive option where players can repeatedly practice with trigger words in a safe, supportive environment.
Further Features
Beyond the three mini-games, the app also integrates additional features designed to encourage replayability and support anxiety relief.
One such feature is the in-game store, which allows users to spend the coins they earn in mini-games on customisation options. By personalising the app’s appearance and content, players can feel a stronger sense of ownership and motivation, while also being encouraged to return and play regularly to unlock desired items. The store offers 25 different customisation options, ranging from new app backgrounds and additional songs for the soundtrack to visual variations such as different balloon colours for the Breathing Game, alternative mugs and jigsaw puzzles for Puzzle Cup, and unique heart shapes for Whac-a-Thought. Each item is displayed with a name and price tag, and users can scroll through the catalogue to choose items that best reflect their preferences.
​
Another important feature is the inclusion of psychoeducation. Providing accessible, research-based information is a valuable way to help users better understand anxiety and potential treatment approaches. This feature not only reduces stigma and misinformation but also empowers users with knowledge they may not have otherwise encountered. Nearly every scene in the app includes an info button that links to relevant psychoeducational content. Users are first introduced to this feature during the tutorial, where they learn what type of information is available and how to access it. From the main menu, they can explore general information about anxiety and anxiety disorders. Each mini-game also includes its own info button, offering insights into the therapeutic method behind the activity before the game begins, with additional content available inside the mini-games themselves.
Together, these features strengthen the app’s dual focus: providing engaging, replayable gameplay while also supporting users in building a deeper understanding of anxiety and how to manage it.
​
More information on the app, the research behind it, and the playtest results can be found here in my master thesis.​
