Project: Peace of Fear 

(Undergraduate Thesis)

The Problem 

Young adults are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, yet many find standard therapeutic exercises tedious or intimidating. How might we design a digital intervention that users actually want to engage with?

The Concept: Exposure Therapy meets Gamification 

The solution is counterintuitive but psychologically grounded: Liminal Horror. By exposing players to fear-inducing stimuli within a safe, controlled digital environment, they can practice active relaxation techniques during in-game challenges. The goal? Building emotional resilience that translates to real-life stressors.

Design & Prototyping Process 

To effectively communicate this vision, I bypassed standard game engines to focus on the perfect atmospheric target, developing a high-fidelity conceptual demo:

• 3D Environments: Modeled and lit entirely in Blender to create an uncanny, unsettling, yet strangely peaceful atmosphere.
• Game UI & Motion Graphics: Composited the user interface, HUD, and gameplay animations using Adobe After Effects.
• Interaction Strategy: Seamlessly wove therapeutic elements (like reward loops) into the horror aesthetic, ensuring the gamification enhanced the therapy.

The Deliverable 

The final output is a comprehensive "Vision Demo"—a compelling video prototype that fully illustrates the game's mechanics, atmosphere, and therapeutic loop. It stands as a powerful proof-of-concept for the intersection of serious applied games and mental health.