How making a game about depression helped me with mine

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was making a game as part of my Masters by Practice. Making a game isn’t new to me. In fact, I have been making them for the past 8 years.

But making a game all on my own… And making a game that I want to make… That was new.

Making a game all on my own

I am a programmer by trade, and I learned about design and production in my Masters program. But I never made art at a professional capacity before.

We can work with other people, but I opted not to. Not because I thought I could do everything myself. But because I didn’t want to let anyone down.

I know that doesn’t sound like someone with 8 years of experience should say.

It’s not that I’m not confident of my skills. It’s more like I’m not confident about my resolve. I know that I needed to make a game and I know that I needed to finish it before the deadline. But I also spend a lot of days not capable of getting out of bed.

People who don’t understand me and what goes on in my head, will think that I’m lazy. Okay, maybe I am. But it’s more complicated than that.

I talked more about this in another previous post.

Making a game that I want to make

I wanted to make a game about something that I care about. I wanted to make a game that revealed a part of me that I had always been too afraid to show.