Indie Depression Quest

[DANGERMAN]

I was checking out Greenlight, which I haven't done in a while, thanks to Floyd's thread, and one of the more recent games is a game called Depression Quest, which is also free to play at www.depressionquest.com

It's an awful name so I wasn't sure what to expect from it, but it's a text adventure type thing set very much in the real world. You have depression, a girlfriend you rarely see, you have a job you hate. you get a chunk of text telling you about the days events and then you get to make a decision, depending on how depressed you are some of the options will be unavailable, the music will change, they'll be more static on the page.

It's really well done, it's not overly dramatic, which I think makes it more effective. It's uncomfortable though, there were a few gut punches in there, a few things that were very close to home. It's hard to say whether anyone who's suffered from depression should play it or not, it's probably a good way of seeing that you aren't alone, but it's sniper accurate

[wholehole]

This was excellent DM. Thank you.

I know what you mean about the gut-punches in there, reading through some of the paragraphs gave me knots. Aside from the girlfriend stuff, alot of the path through was very close to home; The job, the constant questions from friends and family, the social anxiety. All very poignant.

I love that the things everyone tells you to do to "cheer up" are scored out in red, as if you know what you should be doing but something is preventing you from actually doing it.

This was all a few years ago now though and after a brief spate of medication and my boss at work resigning (which was one of the main factors for me), along with some more responsibility at work because of the resignation, everything is going okay for the most part.

There's still the bouts of insomnia and resulting difficulty getting out of bed to deal with but I can look back and reflect on that period now. The game is right though: It never leaves you and can be so so easy to slip back into a funk without realising.

[Sambob]

Will it just be easier for the people that this game doesnt speak to to put their hands up?

[wholehole]

Maybe. Probably.

Or we could actually have a little discussion about it... sounds like the full stop has already been typed on this though.

[Sambob]

Maybe not in the PC bucket thread, illdog doesnt like it when you go off topic, depression sufferer hating bastard that he is.

If anybody did want to talk about it, and if anybody does think they suffer from depression then they certainly should feel free to, then this would be the place alright.

[DANGERMAN]

I voted for it on Steam Greenlight, I didn't donate to them so it seemed like the least I could do. If people do like it then you should do the same so they stand a chance of making some money on Steam

As for the game, the social anxiety really struck home, I used to avoid going in to the busy canteen, still do avoid large groups quite often. I've had bouts of insomnia all my life, a lot of that is just one of those things, some of it is down to stress and depression. The one that really struck me, with me having been unemployed for a while, whenever anyone asked me about it (unless they were going through it themselves) I'd have to fight my temper or just be unable to answer, so the parents stuff rang pretty true

[Sambob]

I started a thread so we can talk about stuff in there.

[radiofloyd]

Yeah I can't relate to all of it but the parts I can are very realistic.