Step In to My Brain

I was really inspired by the depression game for this assignment. I really enjoy the ability to immerse someone into a world, which is why I love video games in the first place. I was really interested in the way the depression game helped the player to understand what it is like to have a mental illness. I wanted to make a game that did something similar. I think mental illness is something people have a really hard time understanding. Eventually I decided to make a game about social anxiety. This is something I struggle with a lot, so I thought I would be able to design the game in a much more productive way.

At first, I thought this one would be too similar to the depression game so I decided to isolate my game to being at a party. This would help me to design the game in a more relatable way. Everyone has been around a “weird” kid at the party, and I wanted to make a game that helps other people understand why that person won’t talk to them or seems unfriendly. The game puts the player into the shoes of someone with anxiety to help them get that these people need some kind of validation. They need to know they are loved and wanted. My game’s aesthetic is just black and white, with a simple sans serif font. It shows the bland feeling one gets at social events. The game also gets progressively more pessimistic as it progresses. I also purposely made only two options on every section. With anxiety, it feels like options are very limited, and that's what I want the player to feel.

According to the social anxiety institute, social anxiety has a lot to do with a fear of being judgment. Social anxiety makes a person believe other people don’t really want to be around them. They have an irrational fear that people are always judging they way they do just about everything to the point they don’t want to be anywhere near other people. According to the Social Anxiety Association people have the perception that people are withdrawn or unfriendly. This perception becomes even less helpful because then the person with social anxiety assumes other people don’t want to be around them. This person’s self esteem is even further impacted.

An article in Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes written by Mark R. Leary describes a test that is used to show the level of social anxiety one has. I used this test to show when some of the most intense moments of social anxiety come. This includes ability to interact with others, go to social events, and the amount of time wants to stay, or feels welcome at said events.

http://philome.la/TheVanM/sociophobia