Obliti - Empathy game regarding depression

• Main Author: Stevens, Mitchell
• Other Authors: Dean O'Donnell, Advisor
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital WPI 2018
• Subjects: empathy; game design; depression
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-theses/353; https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1352&context=etd-theses

Obliti is a game meant to promote empathy for people with depression, and applies a personal story to the experience. Empathy is the experience of understanding another person€™s condition from their perspective. You place yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling. 17 The story follows the character through corrupted dream states, stuck in an infinite loop; reliving the tarnished dreams. This paper will discuss the story of Obliti, its history and the way the design helped the story come to the forefront of the experience. Using lighting, first person character and art assets, Obliti puts the player into the shoes of the main character. The paper also includes a post mortem in order to discuss the challenges of working with paid art assets, making a game about your past and the overall outcome of the project. In order to test the effectiveness of Obliti, 20 subjects were asked to fill out a series of questions regarding mood and depression. The results of the study showed a change in mood from pretest and posttest, pointing toward empathy being transferred to the player. Part of the study asked players if they understood depression, in which there was a 10% change from €œNo,€� to €œI don€™t know,€� suggesting some internal thoughts were changed on the topic.