It went form scary to very depressing (in a good way). Great concept! not many games can make me give a speech at the end XD
Hi, thank you for playing our game! We feel humbled that you liked the concept.
Your speech was not only informative but also very interesting! We wholeheartedly agree that us humans should not always expect happiness. What we should pursue is balance - a mixed goodie bag of happiness and sorrow. Everyone goes through suffering, there is no one who can avoid it. But sometimes, we get stuck in a head space from which we are unable to get out of. All the positive things in the world seem like a lie and such a state also renders us unable to reach out to the world. That is what it feels like to be in depression.
Our aim was to show how subtle the signs of a suffering person are, coupled with the fact that Nikki had no friends or anyone else to rely on, such a state gives a HIGH chance for a person to become completely hopeless and give up on life. It's not necessary that any person like Nikki might have depression or be suicidal but it would sure signal people around to take note and be caring towards such a person.
Thank you for sharing your opinion as an evolutionary biologist, it was very insightful! ^.^
Thanks for appreciating the 'speech' XD. Good to know what the aim was. It is difficult for creators to handle this subjectmatter in a proper way. I felt that that the netflix series '13 reasons why' for example was handling it the wrong way. It came across as romanticising suicide and there was an uptick in suicides by fragile people who had watched the show.
The talk at the end was actually around 25 minutes but i had to cut a lot out and i did go into how fragile a person can be stuck in that headspace so i totally agree. I have personal experiences with depression and suicidal tendencies and that's also why i was so careful when it comes to my talk at the end. Currently i'm working as a social worker and i have studied psychology as well so i'm dealing with a lot of different cases that are unique linked to the subject matter. There are indeed people who don't display any signs of depression or being suicidal that eventually decide to give up on life duo to multiple circumstances. I agree that people should be attentive when it comes to subtle signs.
It was a pleasure to play the game. It looks fantastic and i'm impressed that this is the first game. Looking forward towards the future projects!!
Yes, the Netflix series did a bad job and got a lot of hate, very sorry to hear the number of suicides go high because of it...it's a very delicate topic which should not be touched if one has bad storytelling skills.
So sorry to hear that you have dealt with this sort of thing but due to your current study and work, we're sure that not only you but the people around you will feel better and benefit from your profession. Depression is complicated because it comes in a variety of manner due to variety of reasons and is visible in a variety of ways but we hope you will overcome those hurdles for yourself and the people who depend on you. Always remember that no one is alone, especially in this age of internet. ^.^
Once again, thank you for enjoying our game! :)