December 2024
Due to my previous experience with virtual reality (VR) and my interest in its uses in therapy, I wanted to make a professional exposure therapy app. After researching, I found that there is a huge gap in the market, with most apps being extremely outdated or buggy.
High costs and ridiculous claims also take away from the medium's use. This led me to make my first actual project. Much of the information provided on this page has been edited or redacted to maintain my anonymity.
Before starting anything, I wanted to understand the therapists using exposure therapy. I picked up a book called Exposure Therapy for Anxiety: Principles and Practice. After reading and taking notes, I read a lot of Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond to
give me a broader understanding. This really helped lay a solid foundation for me to build and design the game off of. I spent time researching many of the currently available products and realized they weren’t actually designed with effectiveness in mind. So, I got to work.
Although not the most intuitive, I wanted to start with the game's main menu. This allowed me to work on the project while reading the aforementioned books. First, I researched what user interfaces were already out there and created a rough idea of what I wanted on paper.
I then designed each button in Affinity Photo (similar to photoshop) and added them to my project. This process took a while, but was quite rewarding as everything was made by me.
The UI consists of a series of widget switchers that allow the different submenus to pop up. The buttons on the left-hand side are the main navigators, with the submenus of the types of therapy, multiplayer, and the settings.
The level itself was designed off the Wii Fit menu, as I enjoyed that product's serious but also gamey feel. I might end up changing it in case someone with agoraphobia uses it and is triggered by the open space. However,
designing any menu without triggering anyone's phobia might be easier said than done. I created a custom material to create a slight blue tinge while being rigid and not glossy.
Hoping to work on the project when I am out of school, but things keep getting busy!