So now, fix it
Positives: The game’s use of Twine’s shaking text really illustrates the feeling of overwhelming anxiety well and the aggressive desperation to feel better by continually trying to “fix” that feeling. The multiple “fix it” links displayed were interesting and the deprecative thoughts coming in even made a big feeling of anxiety grow in me (especially since we’re surrounded by the pure black background and the glaring red “fix it” links throughout this) The sudden appearance of the blue links relaxed the player by telling us to breathe which was a very nice touch. It provided relief from the anxiety and deprecative thoughts that pressing the red links would lead the player to. Pressing the blue links shows the player some good techniques to reorient themselves in the world. The ending was especially great saying that the player didn’t exactly “fix” the problem by pressing the blue links, but learned to exist with the feeling of anxiety and let it slowly ebb away with relaxation instead of aggressively trying to fix it.
Criticism: There is one bug that happens when you try to breathe twice, but that’s forgivable. I feel like a little more could have been done with the game to make it more impactful, but it’s simple, short and gets the job done (very effectively I might add) so it’s fine.
Overall Impression: It was simple and had a great message behind it. It led me in its emotions and succeeded in keeping me interested. Great game!