Has anyone used IF as a tool to promote understanding & empathy around mental health issues? I’m really interested in creating multimodal stories that could be both informative and healing, primarily for those who may struggle to open up about mental health struggles directly. Any advise or examples would be more than appreciated!
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There was a game called Freedom that had this intention, but it was not well executed.
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Many thanks, Nathan!
There was a pretty well-known game called Depression Quest that you can find on Steam.
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There are many.
You might try to create a poll on IFDB for more suggestions, also for future reference for other players.
Here are some off the top of my head:
Depression:
Baggage - Details
Autism spectrum and the spoon method to cope with one’s available energy:
Budacanta - Details
Shizophrӕnia (debatable):
Slouching Towards Bedlam - Details
Alienation, inability to act:
Rameses - Details
Therapybot:
Computerfriend - Details
Depression and recovery phase:
My Pseudo-Dementia Exhibition - Details
(And other games by @Norbez )
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In terms of games specifically created for didactic purposes, as opposed to games about mental illness in general, there are definitely some of those as well, usually for specific conditions rather than mental health issues in general. Depression Quest was the really well-known one; unfortunately, I haven’t personally found many of the others that memorable. There was Escape Your Psychosis from IFComp a couple years ago, and fix it from Spring Thing.
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Some more works which look designed to convey particular life experiences (not all classifiable as mental health issues, to be sure) - this is a fairly common form of IF:
- Nose Bleed (judging by the review, haven’t played it myself) - social anxiety, imposter syndrome
- You Couldn’t Have Done That - autism
- Flash in the Pan - ADHD
- Dysfluent - stuttering
In this review, @HanonO refers to these as ‘altgames’? but my other search results don’t seem to indicate that this terminology is widely shared? (at least not where I’m looking)
It’s worth looking at IFDB tags for particular conditions like OCD, ADHD, social anxiety, imposter syndrome etc. Also this poll: PCs [player characters] with mental disabilities other than depression and anxiety.
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I’ll add Hana Feels to the list of already excellent examples since that’s clearly a didactic game focusing on mental health hotlines and the people who work in them.
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Not to lead my own parade but I wrote i won’t finish this game to showcase the mindset of a suicidal person based on my own experiences with the topic. It’s quite a rough read with no happy ending and I definitely don’t recommend engaging with it if you’re in a rough time in your life in general. Still, I’ve had many people come to me to share their own stories of this particular struggle and many told me that they feel more understood after reading it, so maybe I did something right.
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Ah I was gonna mention my poll here!
although, what is the [sic] for? I thought I spelled disabilities correctly…
ah, er, I think I got confused in my mind between my list (including autism which not everyone would call a disability) and yours, sorry. Spelling’s fine. Removed.
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Thanks for recommending my game! To answer @Ana92 's question: one of the biggest reasons I make IF is to promote understanding of those things. Along with topics like abuse, queerness, exvangelicalism, stuff like that. Ana, if you ever want to DM me, I’m happy to chat with you about the games I’ve made and my experience in this topic!
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please note that Computerfriend has a record of dubious efficacy, although it is superior to all extant AI chatbots.
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