After I finished my project, it was time to write a description about it. And I realized that I subconsciously illustrated what stress feels like for me. This was unexpected and in some way blursed experience. Because I just wanted to create a weird game and ended up doing an art work that can be analyzed during a psychotherapy session. So, that was shocking.
I still need to write the description though, so here it goes. My process quite straightforward. Firstly, I created a room that reminds me of usual environment. In this case, it was a bedroom where I spent most of my pandemic time. Then, you 'Break free' out of this room, as the Queens's song says. A player have to jump through the gap to reach the wings. If they fall, it will be eternal fall down because the player can't die from that. So, that's how I feel when I'm really stressed - it's easy to fall into full anxiety attack, and I'm trying to reach some sort of safety. The wings in this sense is a thing that kind of saves the player and allows to go further.
Next we have a plane with the stressors that a player needs to destroy. There is a self-motivational song playing in a background that I like to listen when I need that boost of confidence and strength. The stressors are different, but none of them chase the player. They just stand there and attack if they see you. Or if you decide to be seen, because you can skip this plane with all the fighting and just move to the next one. But if you decide to fight, you can kill such stress-related topics as Pandemic, Money Issues, Work, Projects and Toxic People. So, in real life I usually either cognitively rethink the topics I'm stressing about, so they disappear (aka killing in this game) or I just move straight to something distracting.
Hence, last but not least - taking my mind off the stressful topics. Anything bizarre will do. That's why this plane had massive Alice in Wonderland and Shrek vibes. Giant rabbit, cat and butterfly hopefully add to the mix! The dragon is a recurring theme in my works. Probably because I consider dragon as my spirit guide in a way, so it was just appropriate to make this creature a final point in the game. That's it, thanks for reading my self-reflective monolog.
Watch me going through the game:
Play:
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