Suicide as a major subject in my games. What do you think?

william jones · 2012-12-03T18:16:32

Not preventing it, but instead having characters commit it to advance the story. I've suffered from depression all my life (I am 22), and death is always on my mind. So I think putting the subject in my games will be a good form of expression. I will be making these games out of passion and love, and I hope to hit a chord with others who feel like myself. The first game would take place on a non-human planet full of dispair, and everyone hates humanity as a whole while suffering in their own existence. The main player is an orphan (whos parents killed themselves) who comes from a poor area and is recruited to commit the genocide of an ecsaped cybernetic race on another planet, in the ultimate war machine. At the end of his mission he is killed so the army can say he stole the piece of technology to commit his racial war, but they activated the self destruct mechinism after it was "too late". The next game is split between him as a ghost in the ship and another character as they explore the manicly depressed planet. The character in the ship destroys things for fun and commits suicide to end his misery, but he ends up in another plane of existence, never finding the oblivion he seeks. The other character eventually finds the creator of the cybernetic technology who kills himself in a way to make the army think the race sent an assassin to kill him so they would use their resources to seek out the servivors using their war machines and not fight other nations on the planet. Theres another game, but it isnt as focused on suicide like the others. It is just to tie up the story of course, and has its own theme in it as well. What do you think of suicide as a major subject in a game? In my games and others as well. Should there be more games with suicides, or none at all? Is it too negative, or is it not touched upon enough?

Writing for Games Game Design

Started by Mr.Noname August 20, 2012 03:36 AM

22 comments, last by ManuelMarino 12 years ago

odin420pgp

111

October 19, 2012 02:48 PM

I'd love to help you with this. I've suffered from Bipolar my whole life and have always wanted to do something like this.
Drop me a line on here or via email dcurrie0@email.cpcc.edu

dakota.potts

455

October 25, 2012 04:54 AM

I will state that I have also lost from suicide. We were never best buddies, but he was 18 ( a senior ) when I was 14 and a freshman in high school. No note, no warning, just a Facebook status with lyrics from Sad Statues by System of A Down (You and me will all go down in history with a sad statue of liberty and a generation that didn't agree).

I believe a topic like this should be handled with *extreme* care. I am for the topic being expressed. I have always found that negative emotions have the most impact. As a musician I tend to write sad, minor key things because they have more of an impact a large portion of the time.

I think you need to focus on believable settings, individuals (having the entire race depressed would get old and desensitizing fast... imagine a planet full of the robot from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), and consequences. Perhaps you can go through your life making changes and juggling your mental health... if and when a character commits suicide, do a review of consequences, how it affects the other people, the lost opportunities, the pain, etc.

Do not glorify it.

I am going to suggest (at your discretion) reading Johnny the Homicidal Maniac... I very much liked the way suicide was handled in that. It was very dark. I thought perhaps it could send the wrong message to people. But as much as it is completely ridiculous, there were a lot of in depth moral monologues on the topic. The main character tries to commit suicide many times and inevitably fails for different reasons before accidentally being killed by his contraption after deciding he wants to live... that is not the end as there is a lot of satire as he floats between heaven and hell before neither wants him and he is kicked back to being alive. So, not an entirely good analogue ;)

proanim

455

November 04, 2012 01:23 AM

Your second game reminds me on Planescape:Torment in places, i would definetly go with the slightly modified version of the second game. If you can make your game distubing just enogh to send chills to the spine, as in psychological horror, your game might turn out amazing.

ManuelMarino

153

December 03, 2012 06:16 PM

I respect your decision to include part of your life into the game, and yes role play is made by the developer as well during programming, and in this case is life play.

But, well, in my case, I like to role play a hero, but... a suicide hero?