The wonderful part about playing indie games is that you can expect a unique perspective in every one of them, and there's certainly something about Robotherapy that makes it worthwhile.

Brought to you by Lucas Molina, Robotherapy is a dark comedy game about robots doing therapy. Interesting yet? It takes place in a dystopian society that killed all the humans who thought that it could make them happy. And yet they aren't - so the question goes, If killing all humans doesn't bring happiness, then what does?

The Story & The Game

Enter: Smokes, who is a self-proclaimed Robotherapist who also happens to be the best one in the world - claimed by him, of course. You play as him and talk to robot clients to deal with their depression. You meet interesting characters throughout the story who - I'd have to assume - have quite the personality chips. They are funny in their own way and the interactions with Smokes is like this conversation at a dry bar. Smokes himself is quite the character - he's a cynical, oddly narcissistic, speaks-his-thoughts-out-loud and short-fused robot.

I think Robotherapy is a dark comedy mostly because that's how the interactions are between each character - comedic, splash of dark jokes: killing animals next and all. However, despite its quirky take of meaninglessness of life without humans, it does manage to touch on mental health. It even features some strategies that is used in therapy to deal with depression and anxiety. It surprised me that some of the thought processes included in the game somehow reflected how present mental health interventions happen. That's amazing, isn't it?

The story does take an interesting turn as we go further and the focus shifts to Smokes' life, from depressed robots post-human annihilation. And this is where I pause and hope the stuff I've mentioned above are enough to give you an idea of what adventure you're going into and whether it might be true that Smokes is the best robotherapist in the world.

As for the aesthetics and the environment, it gives me the retro feels. Very simple graphic elements and not a lot of effects really to expect. It is overall pleasing and the soundtrack is pretty funky and cool - retrowave-ish? Some scenes have a good beat going but they are mostly recycle throughout different scenes.

The writing done in this game is just profound. It just emits existentialism from a comedic, inhumane, point of view. Plus - it brings therapy in a good light: showing it as a means to feel better or just move forward.

Mechanics

The game is presented as a visual novel or narrative so the only interaction is clicking - either to the next paragraph or the next scene. There are minigames here but, again, interaction is by clicking. Throughout the game you are presented with choices, you can either go the dark path of being an unempathetic therapist or one that tries to connect with the robot clients. Or you know, just to be funny. It affects the story to some extent but not completely that the end result is altered. From what I know there's only one ending.

I don't want to say any more because I tend to overemphasize and the message gets lost in all the words, so I hope the ones I've written above are enough. If you're looking for a unique, emotional, dark comedy-laced, 2D game and don't mind just clicking - put Robotherapy on your list.

It just released this August 7, 2023 and might still be on an introductory price on steam. Don't hate on me if you miss it.

Toodles.

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If you're interested in a gameplay (spoilers ahead) I have one uploaded on my personal channel, feel free to watch:

Ever played through a game by just blinking? Yes, that's right - BLINKING.

Before Your Eyes developed by Goodbye World Games and published by Skybound Games is an hour long narrative, indie game you can download on Steam. It's a first-narrative adventure where you control the story - and affect its outcomes - with your real-life blinks.

It's only an hour long - based on my experience - it could be longer for others, I can't tell for sure but let's talk about this game and see why it's worth giving a go.

How it works

The game relies on your real-life blinks in order to progress the narrative/story. Yes, a webcam is required and yes the game uses the webcam to track your blinking. We've experienced games using webcams to track movement for the game but, personally, this blinking thing is something I've never experienced before. It's pretty straightforward and you do calibrate the webcam how to best detect your blinking.

The story begins after death, and embraces the myth-centered scenario of being ferried into the afterlife. This mythical ferryman helps you to pass on, but before that you must go through and relive key memories to figure out the meaning of your life. These scenarios play out in your screen and when you blink it will fast forward to a different time - how long into the future is uncertain.

It's such an experience as it really gives you that challenge of holding on to the memories by not blinking but eventually time comes up and you have to skip the memory. It's interesting, and maybe it's also an inspiration for this game, how the metaphor "Life passes in a blink of an eye" applies to this experience. It's emotional, it's personal and it touches on matters of family, aspirations and friendships. I will be lying if I said it didn't make me think or reflect on my own life experiences; choices, memories, perspectives.

Mechanics

There's nothing to it. It's a narrative adventure and you blink through to the end of it. I do have to say, it's best to spend time calibrating blink sensitivity of your game because I honestly had a difficult time not blinking and really experience each moment of the game. I had to cheat just to find out more details about some scenarios because I really wanted to know more of the story, because god damn it I blinked twenty thousand times. See candid photo below. 

That could be one downside of the game: not being able to fully experience everything because of the blinking challenge. But I guess that's the point of the game, that we can't hold on to the past no matter how we try. In any case, there are other interactions that require the mouse, not just the eyes but for the most part blinking is required to progress the game.

Why you should try it

The past couple of weeks, I've been searching for games that would replicate the feelings I had when I completed other story-rich games in the past like Kingdom Hearts, Hellblade: Senua, Titanfall2 and the list goes on really. My goal was to find something that would "touch" my heart since some of the games I've been playing prior had been competitive, etc. and I've been going into derealization a bit.

If you're looking for something that would give you a nice little warm feeling at the end, or a change in perspective about life as it is, or even just an intimate, immersive experience to get away from busy, noisy things... Before Your Eyes can be a nice escape.

*btw it's on sale on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1082430/Before_Your_Eyes/

The Value of Video/Online Gaming

Surprisingly, online games are not the waste-of-time, eye-damaging, violence-promoting things that some people paint them out to be. In fact, there are plenty of valuable lessons and even skills that you gain from playing online games. I honestly want to dive deeper into the benefits of online gaming, not just for entertainment but for your mental health even, but that's another whole article so I'm pausing here. Let's get to it.

July 24 is International Self-care Day (yes, I am late to the party) and while there are a lot of self-care tips and checklists, routines, what is self-care, self-care importance, etc. content out there - have we really taken a moment to ourselves to look at the parts that need tending? A fair warning, this is not your laid back self-care post, this is an article about the deeper forms of self-care we need in life. Let's see how online gaming connects, here are some lessons you learn from online game that you can incorporate into your self-care.

via Gfycat

via Gfycat

Actually, asking for help is something that's normalized and is reflected well in the gaming community. Looking for a specific build? Ask for help. Wanting some tips and tricks to rank up on a specific hero? Ask for help. Need a guide to surpass an impossible level? Ask for help. The gaming community spawns countless content on gameplays, guides, tutorials, tips, suggestions and reviews for any and all gaming needs.

While they are all accessible enough, players themselves are willing to help other players because we all know what it's like to struggle through a game, we've all been there. We've all been a beginner, we've all been a noob. We all want to be able to enjoy the game in a state where we feel capable, when we get stuck, we don't necessarily ask for a cheat sheet but a small boost to keep the ball rolling because we know, we have it in our heads, "I can clear the game."

via Gfycat

I wish this kind of openness and normalization of asking for help in game is as easy and accessible in real life. It has it's own challenges, but it doesn't mean real-life help isn't available. Sometimes you just need to find the right community, person or even service provider. Being honest about the support you need or generally asking for help gives you a chance to feel a little more able. You know, that break you gotta catch, that small push, in order to find satisfaction in life again. Maybe it's not asking for help specifically that you need but simple, honest communication to either set boundaries or state what you really want or need from your job, your relationship, your family, friends or yourself.

So... there. Those are some, not all, of the lessons you learn in gaming that you can incorporate into your self-care regimen. Like I said, it's not your usual everyday self-care mini activities, gaming itself covers you on that.

Anyway, I most definitely just wanted to capture the importance of self-care while highlighting gaming as a source of such lessons. There's a whole lot more to this topic, for sure, but I hope this article helped open doors for you in terms of considering the nitty-gritty kind of self-care more and not just your usual hobbies kind of self-care.

By all means, continue the self-care activities that you do to uplift your mood and what not, just keep an open mind about deep-cleaning kind. Having laid that out on the table, tara, let's get back to the usual gaming and social media scrolling. Baboosh!