PLEASE NOTE: THIS GAME IS DESIGNED TO BE PLAYED IN FULLSCREEN. CLICK THE BUTTON IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER TO TOGGLE FULLSCREEN MODE.

WARNING: THIS GAME AIMS TO AT TIMES CREATE A PURPOSEFULLY UPSETTING ENVIRONMENT FOR THE PLAYER, AND CONTAINS CONTENT SUCH AS MENTION OF SELF-HARM, SUICIDAL, AND SELF-DEPRECATING THOUGHTS. VIEWER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED. PLEASE STAY SAFE. IF THE PLAYER WISHES TO AVOID SUCH CONTENT, THEY CAN DO SO BY SIMPLY AVOIDING MOVING TOWARDS ANY OF THE RED COLORED OBJECTS IN THE GAME,  AND SKIPPING THROUGH THE ONE NON-OPTIONAL DIALOGUE TOWARDS THE END OF THE RED SECTION. 

THE GAME DOES HAVE A HAPPY ENDING once the player has made it back to a white-colored area after the red section. This ending section is completely cozy, life-affirming, and safe to navigate for anyone.

DESCRIPTION: discomfort zone is a 2D pixel-art narrative game about depression, anxiety disorder, despair, and recovery. The game takes a realistic, un-filtered, and at times uncomfortably personal look at depression and anxiety disorder through the eyes of someone dealing with these conditions, promoting understanding and sharing the experience with a wider audience. The game deals with many themes related to depression and anxiety: worry, loneliness, and self-deprecating thoughts, but also hope and finding the strength, when all seems lost, to keep going. Made in a heavily-hacked version of the Bitsy engine, the game uses a simple art style, limited color palette, and basic controls to ensure accessibility. 

CREDITS:

Made in Bitsy: https://ledoux.itch.io/bitsy

Utilizes some Bitsy hacks by Sean LeBlanc (https://github.com/seleb)

The game's design, additional code & hacks, writing, & art are all by me.

MUSIC:  

"Ever Mindful", "Reawakening", "Super Friendly"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

SOUND EFFECTS:

"Shepard Tone", "Dramatic Sting"
Alexander (www.orangefreesounds.com)
Slight modifications were made to the originals.
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 & CC BY-NC 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(189 total ratings)
Authoralex tomkow
Made withbitsy, Audacity, Aseprite
TagsAltgame, artgame, Bitsy, Coming Of Age, Dark, maze, Minimalist, Narrative, Pixel Art, Singleplayer
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard
AccessibilityColor-blind friendly, High-contrast

Development log

Comments

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Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 115 · Next page · Last page

speechless. 10/10 game. good job :)

laggy

20/20

hated and loved this


this game isnt scary but its honestly the scariest game ive ever played


i know that prolly made no sense

(+2)

thank you.

(1 edit) (+2)

this game is like an anxiety attack but let me explain its like a simulation a first all the dialogue is your stomach hurts your heart is pounding your head is about to explode and this is exactly how an anxiety or panic attack feels you feel trapped and in pain and everything feels like your fault and you need that little voice to tell you no your ok it will get better. it perfectly shows feeling so low and then getting up wiping away your tears and dusting yourself off. when I have a panic or anxiety attack and feel this way I can so relate to all of the dialouge in the red area and then I can relate to getting out and wiping my eyes drinking lots of water and getting back up

(+4)

No. Fuck you. I am stronger than this. 

10/10

(+4)

that's a wonderful game.

(+1)

Wonderful.

(+1)

شكرا على اللعبة الجميلة

فعلا لعبة تحفة انصح بيها اي شخص

بس الاهم كملها ما بتاخد كثير بس لا تخرج في منتصفها بتضيع كثير

(+1)

love this

(+2)

Juegazo

(+2)

this game is really good wow

(+2)

thank you a lot for this game.

(+1)

I enjoyed this, well done!

(+1)

thank you for this. it really helped me and it helped me let out the tears i was holding <3

(+3)

Thank you very much for this beautiful experience. I wasn´t prepared for such gameplay. It´s very simple to play, but a very intense topic. 

(+4)

This game said exactly what I wanted to hear

(+3)

Fantastic use of simple visuals and music to craft a specific atmosphere.  Well-crafted dialogue and a very satisfying conclusion.  One of the better indie games on depression out there.

(+2)

this game gave me goosebumps all throughout... the choice of music, visuals, and dialogue enveloped me in all sorts of emotions through each moment. and the wholehearted message at the end made me smile; its a message that i needed now. thank you :)

(+1)

This game is such an emotional rollercoaster, and I love it. Every turn the game took, it took me right with it. The way the mood was conveyed sucked me right in. The ending sequence with the shift to more uplifting messages actually almost made me cry. Well done!

(+1)

This is very well made, I enjoyed it

(+1)

i love you for making this game

goodness i feel bad for him.

(1 edit) (+1)

thank you for this

this game made me cry so hard

(+1)

This game made me sob because I couldn't think of anything to put for a nice thought.

(+3)

This game is anxiety inducing at first but then fixes everything with three of your own favourite things, truly amazing and a great use of the bitsy engine

(3 edits) (+4)

the message of this is beautiful, also why is this fun to speedrun

will occasionally update with my time (36.08 sec)

i love this, this is a beautiful game. it's not even a game, just a heartfelt message.

(+2)

i ugly sobbed at the end of this. ive been hearing those negative thoughts word-for-word lately and it almost convinced me that i was the only one. thanks for reminding me im not alone.

(+2)

Amazing game

(+2)

:((( thankyou so much

(+2)

i almost teared up at the end. thank you for this game 

(+4)

This game made me cry, you are an awesome person for making this, thank you this really helped me because i am going through depression rn and this game gave me a little more hope that i need to keep going

(1 edit) (+3)

I made an account just to tell you that I can not say how much this game made me smile in the end. You are truly someone out there to make people happy and I admire you so much for it. Really, thank you. 

(+5)

thanks dude, truly

(+4)

thank you :( really

(+4)

I needed to remember what I already knew. Thank you.

(+3)

:)

Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 115 · Next page · Last page