Exploring User Experience and Changes in Depression and Anxiety Symptoms with the Mobile Game App ‘Everyone’s Harmony’

This study investigates the user experience and feasibility of the music therapy-based multi-modal mobile game app, Everyone's Harmony. The app consists of two main components: the Listening Therapy section, which serves as the starting page, and the Playing Therapy section, featuring a melody-based structured rhythm game with an improvisation mode. In Listening Therapy, users can select animal characters that produce unique sounds and act as interactive controls. In Playing Therapy, a squid character takes on a therapist-like role, offering encouragement and guidance throughout the gameplay. The app's reward system enables participants to earn "Courage Points" for improvisational performance, which can be used to unlock characters, and "Hearts" through Listening Therapy, necessary for accessing the rhythm game. This pilot, single-group exploratory study assessed the feasibility and initial indications of a multi-modal music-based mobile intervention for depression and anxiety. Participants who completed eight 30-minute sessions over eight weeks showed exploratory changes in mean self-reported depression-anxiety scores, measured using the Korean Depression-Anxiety Scale. Since no control condition was included, these findings should be viewed as preliminary and are intended to guide the design of future controlled trials.