Social Phobia - A Social Anxiety Simulator

Game made for the Safe in Our World Mental Health Game Dev Champions 2024 game jam (Entry Category: Solo 18-24). 

Social Phobia is a game that (tries to) simulate the mind of someone with social anxiety (also know as social phobia) based on real life experiences. 

----------[STORY]----------

Not a lot of people are taugh the basics of socialization. You are one of them. You don't know anything about being social: you don't know how to start a conversation, you don't know how to make friends, you don't even know what is like to have a little chat with someone.  But, you really want to talk to someone

Your desire for knowing how to be a social creature led you to a very old game. The game entitled himself as "The Number 1 Social Simulator". You run the game in your computer and met an A.I. called TIMOR CHAT. He welcomed you to the Social Sim and said that he would teach you everything you need to know about socialization. However, you found the game suspicious: the game looked diferent from what you expected, the A.I. glichted out or said gibberish from time to time and the characters you met became unhuman, mean and creepy from all the sudden. Besides, Timor Chat always talked about people being dangerous, PANIC and to not increase your PANIC METER. 

Is this what socialization looked like? If Timor Chat says that this is true, then it must be true.

TIMOR CHAT will teach you:

• how to talk to people
• what you should and should not say
• how to avoid being kIll3d embarassed by your friends
• and much more...

----------[FEATURES]----------

This [SIMULATOR] features:

• A [CONVERS4TION] with a friend
• [ADV1CE]
• FR33 WILL and A LOT of SMALL choices with HUGE results
• The PANIC METER to calculate how ANXIOUS Y0U are feeling
• [L0RE] (?)
• Some Secrets - [CAN U FIND THEM?]

----------[FREE ASSETS USED]----------

• Free Music Pack by Clement Panchout
• Anime Backgrounds by Noraneko Games
• Creepy Eye by smellyknickknacks
• Blank Windows 98 Window Template by mariofan345
• Dialogic 2 by Jowan-Spooner and Emilio Coppola
• Free Audio from Pixabay:
  • By Pixabay: Scream, Beep warning, violin pizzicati, violin impulse
  • By Alex_Jauk: Static Noise
  • By UNIVERSFIELD: Error #10
  • By Music_For_Videos: Happy Birthday (3 version)

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Notes from the author:

The purpose of this game is to try recreate the feeling of social anxiety and it does NOT really teach how to talk to people and make friends. The game was based on my social anxiety and my difficulties in speaking with people and in hanging out with friends. If you think the game does a bad or a good job on representing social anxiety, tell me in the comments, it would help me and this game.