I believe that language of games, game rules and mechanics have the same power to convey emotions as strongly as any other language. Experimenting with the concept of player's agency can lead to interesting results. Ludum Dare 50 theme "Delay The Inevitable" provoke me to ask myself a question - can I present the feeling of hopelessness, and sacrificing yourself in a pure mechanical manner?

For that game, I took rather intimate and private topic of toxic love. I was trying to capture the feeling of repetitive and hopeless mission of saving a loved one, when she doesn't want to save herself. The feeling of trying so hard that you start to lose connection with yourself and ultimately start to sink together with your loved one.

The game started in a pure mechanical form, more like a thought experiment, a design challenge. But after some time, I felt that to truly connect with the fleeting glimpse I had in my memory, I needed to add at least basic audiovisuals to all of this, which gave the project an additional disturbing layer. Somehow in that moment, this small thought experiment became a healing tool for dealing with difficult emotions from the past. I'm grateful that games are really able to provoke that.