Unwording
Video Game
Indie
- Change
- Consequences
- Difficult emotions
- Feeling alone
- Finding Oneself/Identity Development
- Making new friends
- Mental Health
- Problem Solving
- Taking responsibility for one’s actions
Relatable Experience:*
- Acceptance
- Clarity/Understanding
- Depression
- Fear/Anxiety
Hi I’m Kayla Lukehurst, I’m an integrative Geek therapist registered with the BACP ( British Association of Counselling Professionals).
I have a passion for video gaming, especially independent games and how they can speak to us on an emotional level. I feel working together sharing common interests can strengthen the therapeutic bond.
So I’m here to discuss the Indie game Unwording a short game that walks us through themes of depression, cognitive dissonance and loneliness. Cognitive Dissonance is where our thinking patterns aren’t always reliable or accurate, it can be biased and illogical that can lead to negative self-talk, emotions and behaviors
I found Unwording a powerful and heartwarming game, exploring coping with negative self-talk.
The game contains word puzzles for you to piece together to understand what the unnamed male character is going through.
I will be as spoiler free as possible so should you choose to embark on this short journey yourself; you can fully immerse yourself and enjoy.
Unwording begins in a 2D perspective giving the impression that life is flat and lacking. Feeling the pull on the control as the player, where you must pull the character from the bed shows the difficulties that those with depression face on a daily basis.
I found it interesting that your character doesn’t have a name, showing a lack of identity, however others have referred to him as Tom. There’s a strong sense of lacking in personality, just going through the motions. When Tom interacts with things in his home, phrases appear and you rearrange the wording to match how Tom is feeling. As an example, glancing at his phone he reads there are no messages, but to his current wellbeing it’s translated as no one cares. The puzzles that ensues I found frustratingly fiddly and so I wondered was it purposefully created to be difficult to represent how we get stuck in unhelpful thought processes.
The objects in his everyday morph into his complex negative feelings, reminders of what is missing from his life.
There are some puzzles that even when solved can spell out irrational and defeatist, negative words.
This follows him along his journey to work, he will walk past a café with a sale on, a meal for two which gives him a visual reminder that he feels alone. An expensive car he can never afford.
At work he wishes to interact with his workmates, he values people and connections but fears rejection and so avoids it. He yearns for connection but cannot reach for it. Its cognitive dissonance he is psychologically reacting in a way that causes him stress which results in cognitive inconsistency.
As Tom arrives home, he realizes that he had forgotten to close his window and a mother bird has laid her nest in his flat. The Bird starts to cause chaos in his home and Tom begins to see things from different perspectives and begins to change his mindset.
Slowly, approaching each day, day by day, Tom using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques he unwords his negative self-talk transforming them into positive and self-affirming sentences.
Tom wishes to make changes to his current lifestyles and starts to let go of his expectations that no one cares and challenges his reality. He starts to talk to people at work and in his neighborhood. You can choose what you interact with in the game, but I would strongly recommend trying everything out. Go and pet that dog, go make faces at the local baby, check out the shops you’ve been living next door to and have never been inside.
This changes Tom’s psychological consistency by lessening the mental stress he was experiencing by taking new actions that reduce how big the dissonance was feeling. He changes his behavior by engaging with work mates and even inviting them out to dinner. He can even help and assist certain members of his neighborhood as he feels interacting with them is justified through lending them a helping hand. His word transforms into color and 3D!!
He also can acknowledge those anxieties are still there but accept they are not reality and lives a more fulfilling life.
I would recommend this short indie, if you are a gamer and experiencing similar feelings. However it isn’t an instant cure, if you like Tom are suffering it may be helpful to talk to a qualified therapist