BA4: Game Design Document #06

Project Update…yaaaay, more writing, where’s the art?! :/

Yesterday I met with my group and we had a group discussion with tutors Kim and Matt. We told them our “new” ideas (based upon the feedback we got from the lecture about ideas and project guidance regarding how much we have to ‘borrow’ from Fatal Frame II) and they seemed fairly positive, although we all realised the idea needs a lot of work still.

All I am going to say for now is that our game features heavily on the slightly taboo and un-used theme of mental health within video games (please forgive me if I use the politically incorrect names). Sure, there are video games which reflect the idea of going insane, losing ones mental stability or something similar such as Silent Hill and Amnesia but generally the use of mental health as a core driver for gameplay, environment and mechanics is rare. 

There are more articles (a LOT more articles) on how video games CAUSE mental illness than there are ones which talk about the issue being tackled within the game itself. 

To tackle mental health as a genre and implement it into our game we need to have a better understanding of it. We have a few symptoms and rough ideas of what we want the illness to be focused around, they are as follows:

•  Schizophrenia
•  Psychotic episodes
•  Delusions
•  Hallucinations
•  Paranoia
•  Anxiety
•  Confusion
•  Fears
•  Flashbacks
•  Hyperactivity 
•  Identity confusion
•  Memory Loss
•  Oddness
•  Obsessions
•  Panic
•  Psychosis

With these I can start to piece together some sort of illness which our character suffers from. Just to clarify, I will be writing up our new idea soon but under the fear that it might change dramatically again, I do not want to post the entire concept just yet. From this, Stacey and Olive can start to really take inspirations on how to design their characters, monsters and environments. We want them to be physical manifestations, metaphors if you rather, of the girls illness and mind. They obviously can’t do this without the initial research. 

I am writing this blog post live as I research and I don’t want it to be too much like heavy reading so I will post up research and answers as I go in a bullet point fashion and then from that ill pick parts to delve into further for the good of the game. Firstly I am looking into different types of mental illness’s caused and associated with the list I wrote above. I will also be looking at common triggers and symptoms so that we know how to appropriately and truthfully incorporate them into our game.

 

Symptoms of Mental Illness

•  Feeling down or sad.
•  confused thinking and reduced ability to concentrate.
•  excessive fears of worries.
•  Extreme mood changes of highs and lows.
•  Withdrawal from family and friends.
•  Significant tiredness, lack of energy and motivation.
•  Sleeping issues.
•  Detachment from reality, delusional behaviour, paranoia & hallucinations.
•  Stress.
•  Inability to cope with daily issues.
•  Alcohol & drug abuse.
•  Major changes in eating habits.
•  Sex drive changes.
•  Anger management problems, hostility and violence.
•  Suicidal thoughts. 

Causes of Mental Illness

•  Brain chemistry, biochemical changes in the brain are thought to affect mental health. It is thought that inherited traits, life experiences and biological factors can all affect brain chemistry associated with mental health. 
• Genetics (heredity) many people will suffer a mental illness because someone in their family has too.
• Sometimes infections can trigger a mental illness. There have been cases of brain damage caused by an infection.
•  Prenatal damage. Some evidence suggests that a disruption of early foetal brain development or trauma that occurs at the time of birth -- for example, loss of oxygen to the brain -- may be a factor in the development of certain conditions, such as autism.
• There are psychological triggers to mental health too such as severe trauma suffered as a child such as emotional, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, loss of family members, and lack of ability to relate to others. 
• Death and Divorce. 
• Dysfunctional family life. 
• Feelings of inadequacy, low self esteem, anxiety, anger and lonliness. 
• Substance abuse either by those close to the person or by the person themselves. 

Learning About Different Disorders

• TBI (Traumatic brain injury) is caused by injuring your brain in ways such as car crashes, falls, assaults/blows, explosive blasts etc. It is NOT curable. Patients who do not recover can experience different symptoms of mental illness’s. Symptoms include (ranging from minor TBI to serious TBI): dizziness, fatigue, headaches, visual disturbances, sleeping issues, sensitivity to light & sound, poor judgment of balance, poor concentration, slowed performance, difficulty putting thoughts into words, depression, anger, outbursts, irritability, personality changes, anxiety).
 

• Delusional Disorder is characterised by the persistent presence of recurring delusions. They are irrational beliefs in which the person believes fully. There are different levels and varying forms of delusional disorders which include behaviour such as: paranoid/persecutory delusions forcing the person to believes others are striving to harm them.

Erotomanic forms of delusions is the belief that some important person is in love with the sufferer, it is more common in women than men and can prompt actions such as stalking, obsessive impulses and even violent acts against those seen as a potential romantic rival.

Somatic subtype of delusions see the person experience excessive concern and irrational fears and ideas over their bodily functioning which can force them to worry about infestation with parasites or insects, imagined physical deformity or a conviction that one is emitting a foul stench when they actually aren’t.

Delusional behaviours are often symptoms to other psychiatric disorders such as: Schizophrenia & schizoaffective disorders. Delusions can also be a response to physical or medical conditions such as brain injuries/traumas.

• Schizotypal Disorder is commonly based on a family inheritance. It comes under the schizophrenic spectrum (along with schizoid personality disorder). They all follow the same principles where the person avoids social involvements, social relations and flat emotions. This disorder is more socially effected than paranoia and delusional based. Symptoms include inappropriate displays of affection, odd beliefs, ideas and fantasies, social discomfort, unusual speech patterns, belief in special powers such as telepathy, perceptual alterations such as bodily illusions including phantom pains and distortion of the senses, suspicious and paranoid ideas.

I must admit it is really interesting learning about these disorders and how they are triggered. It’s almost unbelievable that they are real in a strange way. I still plan on doing more research into more mental health disorders, illness’s and symptoms. Then, when I am happy with the amount of backup work I have done, I can work with my group to pull out certain parts and apply them to our character for our game. I am going to have to call it a night now though as I have been starring at my pc screen all night and my eyes feel drier than the sahara dessert! 

TO BE CONTINUED...


Helpfull websites that I used:

http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/tbi.pdf

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mental-illness/DS01104/DSECTION=causes

http://www.minddisorders.com/Br-Del/Delusional-disorder.html

www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/mental-health-causes-mental-illness