A Generative AI Driven Interactive Narrative Serious Fame for Stress Relief and Its Randomized Controlled Pilot Study
For individuals with moderate to high stress, this work provides initial evidence that integrating generative AI into serious games can be effective for stress relief.
The study developed 'Reverie', a Gen-AI driven serious game for stress relief, and found in a 14-day pilot with 20 students that it significantly reduced stress levels (p=.016) and improved cognitive emotion regulation.
Background: Stress has become a widespread phenomenon, and serious games are increasingly recognized as engaging tools for stress relief. However, despite the rapid advancement of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI), its integration into stress-relief serious games remains insufficiently explored. Objective: This study aimed to address this gap by developing "Reverie", an Gen-AI driven serious game powered by the Unity engine and ChatGPT, and to preliminarily evaluate its effectiveness in stress reduction, user experience, and cognitive emotion regulation. Methods: A 14-day pilot study was conducted with 20 students experiencing moderate to high levels of stress. Participants used "Reverie" as a stress-relief intervention. Stress levels, user experience, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies were assessed to examine the game's feasibility and preliminary efficacy. Results: The results showed that "Reverie" significantly reduced participants' stress levels over the intervention period (p=.016*), indicating a cumulative positive effect. In addition, the game demonstrated excellent user experience and was associated with improvements in cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Conclusions: This study proposes a Gen-AI driven design framework for serious games for stress relief. Besides, this pilot study provides initial support for the feasibility and promise of combining LLM-driven gameplay in a personalized digital intervention context.