Sneak Peek + Short Stories + Music

After years of struggling with anxiety disorder – and slowly healing – I think I'm finally in a good space to make this next game.  I'm excited/nervous!  It's a "conversation-based fighting game" between a human and their anxiety.

You play as the anxiety.

(can't see GIF? try this link!)

I'm also excited coz this'll be my first interactive story since We Become What We Behold (1½ years ago) or Coming Out Simulator (4½ years ago?!)

This is a game for folks, for friends, with anxiety disorder.  What distinguishes anxiety from regular fear is that with anxiety, you fear fear itself.  The hope is that by making a humourous game about anxiety, one learns to fear fear less – and break that Vicious Cycle From Hell.

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Also, since this is my first interactive story in over a year, I wanted to deliberately practice my rusty storywriting skills – with a focus on distinctive characters & dialogue.  So a couple weeks ago, I wrote one prompt-inspired short story a day!

Most of them sucked.  But here's a couple worth sharing:

🐍 Lizard Person (3 min read)

🐺 Lone Wolf (7 min read)

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And speaking of practicing skills, this month I also started learning a skill that's been alien to me all my life: music.

Music needs a totally different approach to art than what I've done all my life.  I usually try to "represent" things in my art.  Drawing: does this look like a face with that emotion?  Code: does this physics engine feel realistic enough?  Story: do these characters act like real people?

But music doesn't "represent" anything.  It just... is.  How do?

Anyway, this month I finally got over my psychological barrier + took my first step, thanks to: 1) an amazing INTERACTIVE explainer by Ableton, and 2) this fantastic HTML5 chiptune music maker.

🎵 Here's my first, rough-around-the-edges song!  Honest specific feedback appreciated: what specifically do you like, not like, and suggestions for future music?

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Anyway, thanks for reading this mega-post!  I've grown a lot skills-wise in 2019 so far – statistics, science, story, music – and again, it's thanks to you that I can afford to take time to learn.  Looking forward to applying what I've learnt in future projects!

tl;dr:

1) new game's about anxiety
2) been practicing storywriting
3) started learning music composition

<3,
~ Nicky Case

P.S: I'll be at GDC next month!  Any of you there?