How to Relax

So it's been a while since my last update so I'll try and summerise what I've been up to.

As much as I loved my idea for Plants in Space (I never did figure out a title...) after speaking with Jim & Josh I somehow felt that although it would've been relaxing to play, it wouldn't have been explicit enough to classify it as a tool for specifically reducing stress & anxiety.

So back to the drawing board, kinda.

Jim thought it would be beneficial to look at the therapies out there so I could back up my game with real life SCIENCE! A lot of it was a bit bloody wordy and by the time I knew it I was face down in psycho-dynamic psychology and wanting to cry. So I scaled it back and started looking at actions that people around me did to relax them, the weirder the better. The list is below.

Reading
Doodling
Colouring in
Painting my nails (this is mine!)
Cleaning
Fiddling with sand
Watching cat videos on YouTube
Petting kitty or doggy
Helping other people
Gardening
Walking
Chewing gum
Drawing repeat patterns
Bathing
Swearing
Doing handstands
Fishing
Writing it out
Walking barefoot
Tearing paper
Collecting things
Lying down
Learning
Blogging
Popping bubble wrap
Sitting in silence
Massaging your ears (what?!)

Before making the list I'd also looked at brain training, I've always found this a bit dull and more like education (no gamer wants to play educational games...sorry but we like guns and shooting and things) so I was always less inclined to play them. The idea behind this list was to take real life things that people think are relaxing and somehow relate this to brain training tasks that I could develop. Not sure how most of these would work but food for thought.

On a side note I love that someone said 'swearing', can I make a game where people just shout obscene four letter words at an iPad and submit it? I wish...

So now it's back to idea creation. My first initial thought was making a game that could only be played lying down but I have absolutely zero idea how I could do this and if it would even work...

The next idea came from Josh who last year showed me a game called Sailor's Dream which focuses on narrative rather than gameplay as such. The player is rewarded with more tidbits of the story and could be a tool for stress reduction simply thorough user engagement.

I really like the idea of creating something that rewards narrative as it gives me a chance to finally stretch my storytelling muscles which have remained redundant for a while. We'll see...