LINK TO MY GAME BELOW!!

https://summertaha-rgb.github.io/Your_Grief_Journey/

I created a game about grief – specifically the journey of someone managing grief and the heavy workload of a demanding degree. My main goal was to capture the way grief taints every part of your life – and how it affects your daily life. I wanted to give a broader perspective of both the good and bad – and to show that you don’t just have to go through missing your loved one; you begin to navigate a whole new life. Capturing the depth of it is hard in one game – especially when you have a deadline. So I focused it on the experience right after losing someone to show the struggles of navigating that new life . 

As someone who struggled with grief, when I initially made the game I unintentionally made it way too comforting, and just included the positive side of it. Even when I was displaying the difficulties, the outcome would be something comforting to reassure the person going through grief that they are alright. I didn’t realise this until I shared it with my professor and she told me that I missed the part where I talk about the actual negative and draining thoughts and consequences that come with dealing with grief. After reflection, I realized I probably only included the positive comments, because these were the thoughts that I would reach to comfort myself and not spiral – so naturally I felt like that is what I had to show. However, after feedback, I realized that this game is not for people navigating grief, it’s for people to get a very short glimpse of what it might be like for them, and so, I have to include all perspectives, the negative and the positive – not just the part that makes you feel good. If i had more time, i think i would have put more effort to include different stages in grief – not just the initial stage. I would also like to include different experiences from different people. Most of the scenarios were things I related to – but grief functions on so many different levels, and everyone has a different experience and they all are worth knowing. Making this game made me reflect on my own experiences and I am grateful for that. On a shallower note, I am glad that I learned the technicalities of making a game, it was really cool knowing how to do it with AI.