Stress regulation through relaxation techniques have been long practiced through various kinds of breathing exercises. It is often observed that sedentary jobs with high cognitive load are not just stressful but also leave individuals with very little time to practice relaxation. For busy individuals even short sessions of conscious deep breathing have been found to be very effective in releasing stress. Breathing exercise-based games often enable individuals to engage in short fun sessions of relaxation. These games if mobile based, can be accessed anywhere and at any time. In this paper we present the conceptualization and design of the game 'Calm: Blow away your Stress'. The game enables players to relax through deep-breathing controlled gameplay. The game is designed with a unique biofeedback mechanism using inbuilt mobile sensor which enables players to effectively execute the deep breathing exercise.

Laughter has been known to have therapeutic benefits ranging from reducing stress and inflammation in the short term to lowering cholesterol and blood pressure in the longer term. Studies have also shown that even faked laughter could provide some of these benefits. In this paper, we present the design and validation of a game, "Laugh Out Loud", in which laughter acts as the controller of the game mechanics. The goal of the game is to bloom a wilted flower by laughing. The primary components of this system are a laughter detector and a game interface. The laughter detector is a machine learning algorithm that analyses signals recorded by the microphone in real time and measures the intensity and duration of laughter. The game interface displays a wilted flower that starts blooming step by step as the player laughs, with a fully bloomed flower at the final level. Each level has an increasing level of difficulty, which means that the player has to laugh louder and longer for crossing the higher levels. The game interface is implemented as an Android app, with the intention of making the well-being intervention available anytime, anywhere. To validate the game, we conducted a study in which 48 participants were asked to play the game, one at a time, while seated alone in a closed room. 76.6 % participants reported that they experienced reduced stress after playing the game. We present findings of this study and observations that could lead to some design improvements. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Ubiquitous and mobile computing systems and tools.

Stress is a significant driver of one's wellbeing and an imbalance in daily stress can lead to severe mental health issues. Hence, timely management of stress is not only desirable but extremely crucial. In the realm of stress management, non-pharmacological methods are widely used. These methods generally consist of psychotherapy, behavior therapy and alternative therapies, to name a few of the major types of stress management interventions. Alternate therapies like yoga, meditation, art therapy etc. have shown to be effective and engaging in recent research. Playing games has also shown immense mental health benefits by effects such as dopamine release during game play, thus decreasing stress levels. In this paper, we look at the psychological stress relief technique of art therapy and the stress relief mechanisms and interactions in certain games. Taking inputs from the two, we discuss the conceptualization, design and initial findings of a stress relief game, Color Me.

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