http://philome.la/roadkillturtle9/zombie-apocalypse-ocd
For this game, I was inspired by the anal retentive character played by Jesse Eisenberg in "Zombieland" to explore what it would be like for someone with OCD to survive a zombie apocalypse. This game medium gave a lot of opportunities to explore how factors like choice and scenario can communicate the experience of OCD. For example, at one point in the game the player is confronted with a choice- leap over a large puddle, or pace around it nervously. While it appears that there is a choice, either option still brings the player to the same outcome- pacing nervously. Since one of my best friend deals with OCD, I have an understanding that one of the most frustrating things about having OCD is how little of a choice he has when it comes to making certain decisions. Compulsive hand washing, for example, doesn't sound that bad to some people. However, it can become incredibly and surprisingly disruptive in one's life when menial activities like that begin to dominate one's activities.
One of the reasons I chose OCD is because the problems the disorder causes in those that have it are often minimized or ridiculed. Most of the time, people do this unintentionally with no desire to offend whenever they compare their preference for cleanliness or organization to OCD. Sometimes this happens with seemingly harmless yet obtuse statements like "oh yeah I'm really organized, I guess that's just my OCD lol" that reflect the idea that OCD simply means being really organized and clean. Since this isn't the case, and is really insulting to those like my friend who deal with the disorder, I tried to make a game where one has to deal with the disruptions and obstacles associated with OCD.
I also found that placing a character with OCD in a post-apocalyptic zombie infested world presented great opportunities to show how disruptive OCD can be. At one point in the game, the character obsessively checks how much ammo they are carrying with them. The first time this happens, it seems that their compulsion to check their ammunition is beneficial, as this obsession seems to be what is keeping the character alive, like Jesse Eisenberg's anxiety riddled character in Zombieland. Later on though, the character's paranoia that firing less than three shots at a zombie and therefore having an amount of ammunition that is not divisible by three ends up becoming their undoing. I thought it would be interesting to explore both the good and the bad that can come with OCD, and I think that by having the whole scenario take place in a post-apocalyptic world I can somewhat illustrate life with the disorder.
For this game, I was inspired by the anal retentive character played by Jesse Eisenberg in "Zombieland" to explore what it would be like for someone with OCD to survive a zombie apocalypse. This game medium gave a lot of opportunities to explore how factors like choice and scenario can communicate the experience of OCD. For example, at one point in the game the player is confronted with a choice- leap over a large puddle, or pace around it nervously. While it appears that there is a choice, either option still brings the player to the same outcome- pacing nervously. Since one of my best friend deals with OCD, I have an understanding that one of the most frustrating things about having OCD is how little of a choice he has when it comes to making certain decisions. Compulsive hand washing, for example, doesn't sound that bad to some people. However, it can become incredibly and surprisingly disruptive in one's life when menial activities like that begin to dominate one's activities.
One of the reasons I chose OCD is because the problems the disorder causes in those that have it are often minimized or ridiculed. Most of the time, people do this unintentionally with no desire to offend whenever they compare their preference for cleanliness or organization to OCD. Sometimes this happens with seemingly harmless yet obtuse statements like "oh yeah I'm really organized, I guess that's just my OCD lol" that reflect the idea that OCD simply means being really organized and clean. Since this isn't the case, and is really insulting to those like my friend who deal with the disorder, I tried to make a game where one has to deal with the disruptions and obstacles associated with OCD.
I also found that placing a character with OCD in a post-apocalyptic zombie infested world presented great opportunities to show how disruptive OCD can be. At one point in the game, the character obsessively checks how much ammo they are carrying with them. The first time this happens, it seems that their compulsion to check their ammunition is beneficial, as this obsession seems to be what is keeping the character alive, like Jesse Eisenberg's anxiety riddled character in Zombieland. Later on though, the character's paranoia that firing less than three shots at a zombie and therefore having an amount of ammunition that is not divisible by three ends up becoming their undoing. I thought it would be interesting to explore both the good and the bad that can come with OCD, and I think that by having the whole scenario take place in a post-apocalyptic world I can somewhat illustrate life with the disorder.
No comments:
Post a Comment