On the recommendation of a friend, I played Missed Messages this break, (among other games, but they are not relevant). This is actually a very short game, one play through will take about ten to fifteen minutes depending on reading speed/ how much the player messes with the game. (If you really want to get through it though, you could probably do it in five minutes). There are only four achievements in the game and in order to get all four would only take about thirty to forty minutes. What is interesting in this game is that in this short amount of time, Missed Messages is able to get across its point as well as give you a good sense of the character you are playing as. Before I get into looking a little into the game itself and how it does this, I would like to note that I think its a good game to look at for this class, not only due to some of the relevant topics it brings up, but also it is not too far off from a game that would be easily doable for the project.

Missed Messages touches on themes of suicide and depression. The game begins with the player character in her dorm room attempting to do homework, but is unable to focus. This is a relatable moment for many college-aged students. The game play does this by not only having the main character mention how she cannot focus, but also by given the player choices in what to do every few moments to show the character’s lack of focus. In order to get more into the character, the player can also bring up Spotify (okay, if it was given it name it would probably be named something like Spotsify, to avoid copyright, but that is irrelephant) and select different songs, which will actually change the background music of the game. This gives the play an idea of what the character would listen to, as well as gives the player some agency. For example, I found the original song annoying so I chose, the more soothing one. The player will begin to messages from a mysterious “Goth GF” which they are able to either accept or decline and respond to. Eventually, if the player messages Goth GF enough, they will be able to go and meet her. At this point the player is able to talk to their roommate for a bit. If it is the first play through, the player has no choice but to either go meet Goth GF or go back to work after this interaction, where the roommate, May, seems very distant and says her good byes to the player before going back into her room. When the player leaves May behind, they will spend the rest of the night with Goth GF and then come back to find out they missed messages from May and note on the door to call the police. From this, the player learns that May killed herself that night and the game ends. On future play throughs the player is able to instead spend the night with May where she will open up about her feelings of loneliness and depression.

The game essentially has two endings, one where May dies and one where May lives. In the ending where May dies the player sees the guilt the main character feels and sees the impact suicide has on those who live on after without that person. In the ending where May lives, the player is able to learn about May’s feelings and how they affect her life. As well as see the struggle May goes through to deal with them on her own. I believe the point of this game is bring awareness to mental illness and how much it can impact our lives if not treated properly.

For those interested, the Steam Link:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/812810/missed_messages/

(TW: self harm, depression, suicide)