Cognitive Siege: A CBT-Inspired Tower Defence Game

Cognitive Siege is a small browser-based psychology tower defence game about matching the right technique to the right thought pattern.

Each round gives you a scenario. You choose from CBT- and ACT-inspired techniques such as Evidence Check, Defusion, Behavioural Activation, and Grounding, then place your supports on the board to stop the thought pattern reaching the core.

It is not therapy. It is not a diagnostic tool. It is a slightly odd psychology game with enemies that say unhelpful things in speech bubbles, because apparently even intrusive thoughts now want dialogue.

The Daisy Chain Arcade

Cognitive Siege

A scenario-led tower defence game about matching the right technique to the right thought pattern. Choose badly and the thought does not merely survive. It gets ideas above its station.

Bandwidth 20

Clarity 120

Round 0 / 8

Score 0

Best 0

Pause Reset

Tip: click the board first for shortcuts. 1–4 selects techniques, P pauses, Esc cancels placement.

Scenario

Round not started

Start the game to receive the first situation. Read the pattern, decide what fits, and build accordingly.

Hint: the best-fit technique damages the thought pattern. Poor-fit techniques can strengthen it.

Start game

Field notes

Choose technique

Read the scenario first. Pick the technique that best fits the pattern. Wrong tools can strengthen the thought instead.

E Evidence Check For dramatic predictions, mind-reading, and other unsupported courtroom speeches. 45 D Defusion For sticky thoughts that keep looping or pretending to be facts. 55 B Behavioural Activation For avoidance, withdrawal, shutdown, and the sofa gaining political power. 65 G Grounding For panic, flooding, threat alarms, and bodies doing amateur theatre. 50

Instructions

Cognitive Siege uses tower defence mechanics to turn a simple psychological idea into a playable decision: different thought patterns call for different responses.

A catastrophic prediction is not the same as a rumination loop. Avoidance is not the same as panic. The game is built around that distinction. You are not just placing towers because one colour beats another colour. You are reading the scenario, spotting the pattern, and choosing the technique that fits best.

It is still a game, so it simplifies things. Real thoughts are messier, more personal, and generally less polite about staying on a neat little path. But as a psychology-themed exercise, it gives students and curious players a more active way to think about cognitive distortions, intrusive thoughts, avoidance, rumination, and emotional regulation.

How to play

Read the scenario before each round. The scenario tells you what kind of thought pattern you are dealing with.

Choose a technique from the right-hand panel:

Evidence Check is useful when a thought is making dramatic predictions or treating guesses as facts.

Defusion is useful when a thought is sticky, repetitive, or demanding attention without being especially useful.

Behavioural Activation is useful when avoidance, withdrawal, or shutdown is feeding the problem.

Grounding is useful when panic, threat arousal, or bodily alarm signals are taking over.

Place towers beside the path. When the round starts, thoughts move along the route towards the core. A good technique match weakens the thought pattern. A poor match can accidentally strengthen it, which is irritating but educational.

Towers remain on the board between rounds. You can click a tower between rounds to sell it, but you only get half the Clarity back. Such is the brutal economics of coping infrastructure.

Game terms

Bandwidth is your remaining mental capacity. If too many thoughts reach the core, Bandwidth falls.

Clarity is your build currency. You earn it by stopping thoughts and clearing rounds.

Round shows your progress through the scenarios.

Score rewards good matches, stopped thoughts, and surviving with Bandwidth intact.

disclaimer

Cognitive Siege is an educational psychology game, not therapy or mental health advice. The techniques are simplified for gameplay and should not be treated as treatment, diagnosis, or a substitute for professional support.

Additional Info

Cognitive Siege is a free CBT-inspired psychology game designed for students, psychology societies, and curious players who want a more interactive way to think about cognitive distortions and coping strategies. The game includes scenarios involving catastrophising, rumination, avoidance, withdrawal, panic-style threat responses, intrusive thoughts, and emotional overload. Rather than presenting psychology as a worksheet with better lighting, it uses a simple tower defence format to make players choose which technique fits each situation.