Leveling Up Love: Positive Psychology in an Interactive Game for Married Couples
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Abstract
Romantic relationships, particularly long-term partnerships such as marriage, play a critical role in individual well-being, contributing to greater life satisfaction, improved health, and reduced mortality. Yet despite these benefits, relationship instability and declining satisfaction remain persistent challenges, especially in the early years of marriage or cohabitation. This paper proposes an interactive, narrative-based digital game designed to foster relational resilience and flourishing among early-stage, monogamous heterosexual couples, called The Fading Glow. Grounded in positive psychology, relationship and gaming science, the game integrates empirically supported interventions, including strength-based storytelling, emotional co-regulation, optimistic explanatory style, and capitalization on positive events, into a collaborative gameplay experience. The game culminates in a co-created animated narrative, offering couples a reflective artifact of shared choices and growth. This paper outlines the theoretical rationale, target population, core mechanics, and evaluation strategy of the intervention, positioning the game as a playful, research-informed tool to support relationship quality and emotional connection in a critical developmental phase of romantic life.