App development and AI · Wellbeing and casual games · 2026
GameHarbor: building a wellbeing arcade with an AI companion, as our own product
Our own wellbeing app: a harbour-themed arcade of 62 short games in five categories, with Ollie, an AI octopus companion who chats by text or voice and guides breathing.
The brief
Most games are designed to keep people playing for as long as possible. We wanted the opposite: a free place to spend a few calm minutes and leave feeling better, with an AI companion that listens well without pretending to be a therapist. And because we advise clients on apps and AI, we wanted to carry the full risk of building and launching one ourselves.
The process at a glance
- Set the rules firstFree to use, honest that it is not a therapy service, supportive without encouraging dependency, and able to work offline.
- Design the arcade62 short games were organised into five categories, Relax, Focus, Think, Play and Connect, inside a calm, harbour-themed 3D world.
- Build Ollie in layersAn on-device conversation engine handles chat, with optional replies from the open Google Gemma model grounded in 120 reference notes.
- Ship one codebase everywhereA single JavaScript codebase runs as a progressive web app and is packaged with Capacitor for Android 7.0+ and iOS 15+.
- Evaluate and publishLive AI replies and scripted safety tests were checked against fixed rules, and the work was published as a preprint on Zenodo.
The starting point
GameHarbor began as a question: can a games-first app support everyday mental wellbeing safely, on open AI models and with very low running costs? It is Old Port's own product, developed by Athul Iyju Jacob and published by Old Port Solutions LLC, and it is built for players worldwide rather than one market.
The constraints were clear from the start. The app had to be free. It had to be honest that it is a wellbeing tool, not a medical or therapy service. Its AI companion had to be supportive without encouraging dependency, and it had to keep working when the network or a cloud model did not. Under the tagline Play. Relax. Recharge., those rules shaped every later decision.
The approach
GameHarbor is a calm, harbour-themed 3D arcade of 62 short games arranged in five categories: Relax, Focus, Think, Play and Connect. Alongside the games sits Ollie, an animated octopus companion that players can chat with by text or hands-free voice, and can rename.
Ollie guides breathing and calming exercises, including an optional microphone breath check, and helps with mood check-ins. The app also includes mood and journal tools, and the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 questionnaires are built into the conversation rather than presented as forms.
Technically, GameHarbor is one JavaScript codebase. It runs on the web as a progressive web app at gameharbor.oldport.ae and is packaged for Android 7.0 and later and iOS 15 and later with Capacitor. The games use HTML5 Canvas and the Web Audio API; accounts and data use Firebase Authentication and Firestore; Cloudflare Workers AI and GitHub Actions complete the toolchain. This is the same cross-platform thinking we bring to client app development.
Key design decisions
A layered, mostly on-device AI
Ollie runs on an on-device conversation engine, with optional replies from Google Gemma, an open large language model, grounded in 120 reference notes. After the first visit, the games, the exercises and an on-device version of Ollie all work offline. If a cloud model is unavailable, the companion does not disappear.
Safety before engagement
Crisis language is detected on the device. When it appears, Ollie asks directly and kindly about suicidal thoughts, shows country-specific helplines and stops suggesting games. Ollie is presented clearly as an AI companion and never as a therapist. These are the principles we apply to the AI assistants we build in our AI solutions work: grounded behaviour, clear boundaries and a human route out.
Test it, and say what is not known
The work is written up as a design and development preprint rather than an outcome claim. In its automated evaluation, 21 of 22 live AI replies met every rule; the one failure was fixed and passed on retest, and all scripted safety, check-in and turn-taking tests passed after fixes. There has been no user study yet. As the paper says, whether it improves wellbeing is not yet known, and a pilot study is proposed.
What was delivered
- 62 short wellbeing games in five categories: Relax, Focus, Think, Play and Connect.
- Ollie, the AI companion, with text and hands-free voice chat, breathing exercises, mood check-ins and on-device crisis detection.
- Mood and journal tools, with PHQ-9 and GAD-7 built into the conversation.
- A progressive web app plus Android and iOS builds from one codebase, with offline play after the first visit.
- A research preprint, published on Zenodo on 16 October 2026 under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
Where it is used now
GameHarbor is live and free to play on the web at gameharbor.oldport.ae. Android and iOS versions are listed as coming soon. The app is presented on oldport.ae alongside MindHarbor, and the preprint, "GAMEHARBOR: Design and Development of a Casual Game Platform with an AI Wellbeing Companion for Everyday Mental Health", is available on Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23414048) with a summary on athuliyjujacob.com.
What we delivered
- 62 short wellbeing games in five categories
- Ollie, the AI companion (text and hands-free voice)
- Mood, journal and breathing tools
- Progressive web app plus Android and iOS builds
- Research preprint on Zenodo
GameHarbor is live and free on the web at gameharbor.oldport.ae, with Android and iOS versions listed as coming soon, and is published by Old Port Solutions LLC.
Questions about this project
Is GameHarbor a therapy app?
No. GameHarbor is a wellbeing app, not a medical or therapy service. Ollie is presented clearly as an AI companion and never as a therapist. The research preprint states that effectiveness has not been tested and that whether the app improves wellbeing is not yet known, with a pilot study proposed.
How does Ollie respond when someone is in crisis?
GameHarbor detects crisis language on the device. When it appears, Ollie asks directly and kindly about suicidal thoughts, shows country-specific helplines and stops suggesting games. In the preprint's automated evaluation, all scripted safety tests passed after fixes, and 21 of 22 live AI replies met every rule before the one failure was fixed.
What platforms is GameHarbor available on?
GameHarbor is free to play on the web at gameharbor.oldport.ae as a progressive web app. It is built from one JavaScript codebase, packaged with Capacitor for Android 7.0 and later and iOS 15 and later; the Android and iOS versions are listed as coming soon. After the first visit, the games and an on-device Ollie work offline.
Related reading
From the Logbook.
Gamification for Mental Wellbeing: Lessons From Building GameHarbor
Points and streaks are easy to add and easy to get wrong. Here is what the research says about games and wellbeing, and the design rules we follow in GameHarbor, our calm arcade with an AI companion.
Designing Calm: What Games for Slowing Down Get Right
Cozy, open-world games for slowing down rely on a few deliberate design choices. We look at the principles, what the research does and does not show, and how we apply them in MindHarbor and ZEVORA.