Submissions by austinobrien tagged depression

Note: This game deals with heavy themes of suicide and depression.

Sometimes, the shortest breaks from our own mind can feel the longest. In Fall, you take on the role of a depressed office worker, and after extenuating circumstances, you've decided that this will be your final day. Brought to the rooftop, you are left standing on the edge, contemplating the fall beneath you. But when you step out and plummet, rather than disappearing past the ashen fog forever, you reappear at the top of the world and merely drop down again - this time landing squarely on a platform that wasn't there before. A broken, dilapidated bridge leads off into the distance, and you follow it to explore a dream-like reality. Jumping from building to building and using your new found ability, you solve puzzle after puzzle, climbing higher into the clouds above. Finally, the clouds break as you ascend the final staircase, and you stride onto a building; the very building you began from. With your otherworldly entrance crumbling behind you, you're stranded at the beginning again – alone and cold on a rooftop with a horrible decision. The door leading downstairs is wide open, but the ledge is still there, as open and inviting as it was before. But this time - if you so choose - your fall will end.

Game Features:

  • Basic platforming mechanics with added complexity of teleportation from falling
  • Simplistic puzzles involving pushing and pulling blocks; with deathly traps
  • Short gameplay length – this isn't intended to be a long, or a mechanically intensive game

Unique Selling Points:

  • Engage with the thought process of suicide in a new, unique, and less direct manner
  • Strong reinforcement of narrative themes through gameplay mechanics
  • Sympathise and rationalise with the struggle of attempting to escape harmful lines of reasoning

Image Source: Austin O'Brien