Hello there! This weekend I made an entry for the PlayJam 6 game jam. The theme was "Trick or Treat" and I had to engage every cell in my body not to make another Life's Too Short game...So, in the end, here's where we landed.

My partner Abbie and I went through the usual debating of ideas, exploring what trick or treating really means (Doors, rewards, scary, disguise etc etc) but as usual I got caught on an idea very early of retelling A Christmas Carol but on Halloween through visiting trick or treaters. 

Usually I like to use this platform to say something helpful/interesting/profound/insightful so we began to explore some ideas that we'd be listening to on the Stompcast with Jordan Stephens this week: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6t0M0n2Mn3BP7sNE0ET6QB

Jordan explores the idea that a lot of our childhoods are spent being told what we shouldn't be doing, being told off by teachers, told to be careful, punished for not paying attention etc (tricks) rather than being praised and encouraged to do fun and energising pursuits in our most energised years (treats). As someone who recently spent 8 months in therapy (Very recommended) this idea really spoke to me as I had spent a lot of time revisiting these moments from my past and a bunch of these in-game are influenced by my memories.

So the concept of Treated grew around this idea of a person who is holding on to their traumas from how they were treated as a kid; negatively instead of being encouraged to flourish. They're unaware that these reactions have lead them down a path of unhappiness and are unable to process what happened to them. The game's structure of going back to these past memories through the reminders of the visitors gives them an opportunity to face those situations again and reassess their reactions.

You're tasked with remembering details (Very much influenced by Lorelei and the Laser Eyes interrogation scenes) and if you remember and get a question right, you're on a path to self healing through seeing these situations in a new light and perhaps being more compassionate with yourself.

I also love writing and am fairly happy with how the words came out on this project!

I hope you enjoy the game and maybe even take something useful from it. It's hard making a game in 3 days but totally possible (Although I now need to go back to the game that's taken me over a year, Shadowgate PD).

Thanks for reading! Peace out x