Anxyclety
A game about deciding how to deal with every-day struggles under pressure from your own limitations.
CW: Contains depiction of mental illness (anxiety, depression); some coarse language.
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A game about deciding how to deal with every-day struggles under pressure from your own limitations.
CW: Contains depiction of mental illness (anxiety, depression); some coarse language.
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Really great game! It was easy for me to relate to, and I loved how speaking with Dr. Fox introduced a whole new mechanic (one that really reflect how therapy gives us tools!) I played through several week loops :) I noticed some coding bugs when you begin a couple of the days, where the line says this "Today was okay. At least things aren't getting worse," and the flag says that your if statement doesn't have a hook (if I remember correctly.) That said, it didn't seem to be a bug that made the game unplayable for me and I didn't see anything else.
Thanks for playing! And yes, from what people have told me, the bug shouldn't otherwise affect your experience much. I appreciate your feedback, and I'm glad the game reached you. :)
First the bad thing - wall of text. Most visual novels break up the text into bite size chunks and there's a reason for that, many people have a very short attentio... oh, look a puppy! What was I saying?
The crossed out options are cool, the replay is great, choices feel meaningful, writing is good, the story is... too true.
Haha I hear you on the text length. My first reaction while watching other people play it was to cringe and go "Eugh, they have to read all that?"
Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you otherwise enjoyed the game. Cheers!
I thought this was a very relatable game. One of the things I noticed near the beginning is that you had a crossed out answer, I think it be cool if you added more of those to give the player a feeling a frustration that they can't chose said answers.
Try playing the game through again making different choices. Your decisions in the present actually do restrict your options in the future. After completing the game once, you'll get to see the actual numbers driving those consequences and restrictions!
Well this took the "escape" right out of "escapism" for me. I think I did better at this game than I do in real life, lol; it's so much easier to click the right response than to do the right thing. Anyway I think this does a great job at what it sets out to do. Would be interesting to expand, maybe even get voice acting into it.
Thank you very much! Voice acting would be a fun addition, although I've never implemented anything like that before. You hit on something I couldn't really solve myself: it's almost too easy to make all the best choices and never encounter the tougher situations. I feel the "bad" ending is a bit more heartfelt, and I'm sad many people might not see it. If I could do this again, I might try to include more ambiguous choice-sets wit no clear best option. Regardless, thank you for playing!
Wow! This game is so captivating! The game has many choices that feel meaningful, and that feel they have major consequences. I also liked the idea of the book and how you addressed a friend as they. I must say that the writing in here is awesome, and it looks like a lot of content for such a short jam!
It felt like a lot of content! I went from outlines to full paragraphs in the last
dayfive hours of the jam, and cramming all that writing in at once took me back to my school procrastination days, haha. Thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed. :)I just finished playing and that was awesome. I don't know if it is because it hits too close to home, but I sure got immersed. The writing, specially describing how the character feels, was really good.
(spoilers here)
The system introduced in the replay and the context you show them are really cool. I wish you could just be improving and improving your techniques on mental health, and every time you would get new stuff.
I'll definitely play again when you upload the fixes!
Thanks so much! I'm glad you were able to connect with it. The situations and player-character emotions were all woven together from various friends' experiences. There's a piece of all of us in this game, and by empathizing with the PC, you're empathizing with real people. That's the essential value I wanted to deliver on with this project.
If you're interested in updates or seeing new projects of mine, consider following my itch page so you get notified. :)
It was interesting how you limit choices based on previous choices, still showing the option but crossed out. It's a good way to capture the feeling of having everything spiral out of control. It's a very relate-able. Especially since I love playing Super Slam Buddies on my Pretendo Swap.
I'm glad you appreciated the phony brand names, haha. Those moments of levity were crucial to balance out the emotional weight of the game.
For the record, "restricting options that you want to take but simply can't" is a mechanical metaphor I lifted from Depression Quest. That game heavily inspired Anxyclety, so if you're looking for more of the same, I recommend it. Thanks for playing!
This is great I've loved it. Although a little less cussing would be appreciated. I love the story you told in this I personally don't struggle with mental issues but I know quite a few people who do. Thank you for making this!
Thank you for playing! I think swearing has its place for authentically representing emotions, but I acknowledge that everyone draws the line differently between "effective" and "distasteful." If you were able to step into the shoes of the player character without ever having experienced their struggles, and empathize with them, then this game has done its job. I'm happy that it worked on you. :)
wow, this was really personal and hit home well. excellent writing.
Thank you!
I played trough it and it was really touching and quite relatable even though i dont suffer from mental illness. A lot of emotions and images popped up in my head while playing and i really felt like i was there at the office or at home with friends so the fact that you actually managed to make me feel all of this is amazing!
Great game, really look forward to the next one! :D
Thank you so much! Your kind feedback is appreciated. If you're interested in seeing my future projects, consider following my itch page! I look forward to jamming with you again. :)