1

Game Diary
Depression Quest Commented [NG1]: •An overview containing basic
game information including its content, mechanics,
Zoe Quinn • Patrick Lindsey • Isaac Schankler & description.
• Platform: PC
• When you played it: June, 6th, 2024
• • A location for the game: It can be found on their independent website
(http://www.depressionquest.com/dqfinal.html). It can also be found on Itch.io and
Steam.
• It is an interactive text-based game, about the player character going through
depression. The player plays through events in the life of the character and could
choose how the events play out by choosing what the character does or says in that
event. By completing the events, the story continues to the next event.
• A unique mechanic I found interesting was that through out the game, there was a
constant reminder, telling you how your character is feeling, if they are going to therapy
to fight their depression, or if they’re currently taking any medication for depression. It’s
like a progress list without the bars. Something to track your progress in a unique way.
• Judging by the fact that this is a multiple choice, interactive game, there will be multiple
dynamic endings to this game and like most interactive games, like Roadwarden or Life
is strange, there will most likely be a “Good” or “Bad” ending.
o Depression Quest is a very well written interactive game, it may be because I’m a
highly influential person, but I honestly began relating to the player character of the
game. There were many times while playing that I questioned myself if I genuinely
had depression or if I was just projecting, if my brain was making me think I had
those symptoms.
o I liked how the game makes you think about the choices you make. Whatever choice
you make, heavily impacts the character while playing. I was given the chance to
start medication for the character’s depression while going to therapy. I declined the
option, believing it would be better to just go to therapy normally, rather than taking
medication to supplement or augment the therapy.
o Having options revoked from you based on how your character is feeling was a great
addition to the game. It put weight on the choices you make to progress the story. A
choice you could have made could have been an option if the player character was
less depressed, or even most of your options could be taken away, only leaving you
with one.
o The character is relatable to a certain degree. It has a way of invading your mind and
making you feel for the player character. I had been trying to keep their life balanced.
o It is a game that makes you think. It poses interesting questions that everyone has
asked themselves or has been asked at least once in their lives. The events and
situations you find the character in are very deep and has significant impact on a
regular person’s life.
• No similar games come to mind when I think about depression quest.
• I want to make an interactive game that only saves the game closes, any choices you
make in the game, you must live with. It wouldn’t be a deadly game where the player
character could die at any time, but a interactive simulation game where the choices the
player makes have a heavy impact on the story.
2
Game Diary
Corrypt
Michael Brough
• Platform: PC & IOS
• When you played it: June, 6th, 2024
• • A location for the game: It can be found on their blog on Blogspot,
(https://mightyvision.blogspot.com/2012/12/corrypt.html), which leads to two websites for
downloading on PC and IOS, individually.
• Corrypt is a puzzle game with simple movement mechanics. The player must solve
puzzles by moving blocks around in a certain way, to collect mushrooms for the npcs
and beat the game.
• A unique but challenging mechanic I found was how the player moves blocks by
standing near the blocks and pulling them in the opposite direction of facing the block by
moving in said opposite direction.
• Possible game dynamics I can think of for Corrypt are different routes a player can take
in a different order(Deus Ex: Mankind Divided), solving puzzles in a different way to
other players(Megaman) and could even get a different ending;
o Corrypt has an interesting puzzle mechanic. The player grabs onto blocks by walking
close to one of it’s sides and pulling it in the opposite direction by walking away from
it,
o The puzzles in Corrypt are complex yet simple. One I had a hard time trying to solve,
which had three blocks protecting a mushroom that I wanted to collect.
o The art style had a unique aesthetic to it, it reminded me of those old type of games
that made the player question if the person who made it was sane, like Psychonauts.
o The backspace feature was interesting, it was like I was rewinding time to fix a
mistake I made while solving the puzzles.
o The theme was a little creepy, it made me feel uneasy at times while playing, like I
was waiting for a jumpscare that never came.
• How the game played, it reminded me of “Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion”. How the
PC has to go on fetch quests to find items and npcs, and solve puzzles for those items
or npcs.
• A Game Design Idea I’ve thought about making a way for the PC to fix their mistakes in
a game by reversing their mistake to a certain point in the game, but the npcs also
experience the redo but don’t know how or where it came from.
3
Game Diary
Sky: Children of Light
That Game Company
• Platform: PC, Mobile, and Console
• When you played it: June, 6th, 2024
• • A location for the game: It can be found on their independent website,
(https://www.thatskygame.com), which leads to multiple ways to download and play the
game.
• Sky: Children of Light is a MMORPG where the player explores multiple lands and
worlds by flying and collecting little balls of light and learning about the past of the lands
they visit. They continue exploring until they reach the end of the story, where they have
to survive a typhoon of darkness or die and restart all over again, like a rouge-like.
• A unique mechanic I found came from their communication system. The game has a
very strict communication system where players can only talk to each other with sounds,
sitting at communication areas, or leveling up their friendship between other players and
unlocking the feature to talk to each other.
• A game dynamic that impacts the game is the amount of time a player had spent playing
the game. If a player plays the game long enough they can last long enough in the end
to beat the game, (Binding of Isaac, Prey).
o The communication system is interesting. At the beginning of the game, you have no
choice but to spam your noise button to call for help from a nearby player. However,
once you’ve made a few friends in the game, communication doesn’t become a
hassle. By making the communication system work in such a way, it promotes
friendship and cooperation between players.
o The Subjective Aesthetics of the game are beautiful. They really captivate the player
with the ocean of clouds that the player flies through to get from one land to another.
o The story of the guardians and the kingdoms and even the npcs were awe inspiring.
Being able to convey a story so wonderfully without words or language is one of the
better parts of the game’s dynamics.
o The customization options and the system to unlock them intrigued me. Leveling up,
completing challenges and side quests, or completing events, all are pretty common
amongst other games, however, the main way to collect cosmetic items, was to level
up your friendship with npcs’s ghosts and getting them that way.
o Again, with the cosmetic items, the variety of cosmetic items is impressive. The
player can change their movement style, their “voice”, their sitting style, and their
clothes and accessories. They also have a variety of emotes for players to express
themselves.
• Sky children reminds me a lot about another game called, Journey, which can’t be
helped since it was made by the same developers. Another game being Abzu. These are
all exploration, adventure games with similar mechanics when it comes to movement.
The only difference between them is in Sky, you fly in the sky. In Journey, you skate
across the desert. In Abzu, you swim through the ocean. All have different themes but
the same objective aesthetic.
• A Game Design Idea I’ve thought about is making an MMORPG where the players can
choose a race to play as, but they can only communicate to the same race, unless their
character can learn the common language.
4
Game Diary