Messages

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You are right that the warnings on The Cat Lady are sadly lacking, but I wanted to make the point that content warnings in and on themselves doesn't lessen the people's experiences of media.

With news pretty much everyone are aware that reports of rape, suicide and child abuse will appear when such things happen, and in Sweden at least, they do come out with a quick warning that "the following may be disturbing to certain viewers" before going into detail or showing footage from warzones, injuries and so forth.

And I'm not asking for a super long and detailed list of anything that could possibly offend anyone, I'm specifically asking for a warning regarding the single most common cause of PTSD,
it's not an obscure phobia only affecting a handful.

And even if the scene in question didn't show anything explicit, it was still troubling because the game gave you a customizable blank slate character and strongly encouraged you to project yourself onto them, and then makes you specifically choose how your character would react to what looked like a traumatic event, and that makes it far more upsetting than merely having a character you don't play as mention sexual abuse without forcing you to give your input and role-play as them.

Once again, I'm not asking to censor anyone or preventing writers from depicting dark or adult subjects in games, but I think it's unfair that people already suffering from depression, PTSD or any other crippling mental disorder should be forced to do meticulous research before being allowed to find escapism to alleviate their conditions, and when it comes to basically anything that isn't media, the responsibility is on the creators to warn the customers about any eventual risks before using their products. All manners of equipment, chemicals and tools all comes with warnings on how to prevent injuries from using them wrong, and just because mental injuries aren't visible it doesn't mean that the pain isn't less real than cutting or burning oneself.

All I ask for is that specifically sexual abuse, graphic torture, child abuse and suicidal thoughts in characters you play as gets labeled with a quick content warning,
and I don't see why this would be an unreasonably difficult thing for content creators to do.

And while a site dedicated to listing PTSD triggers in media isn't a bad idea, the problem is that not everyone will know how to find the site, if they even know that the site exists at all, and it still places the burden on the people suffering. There is also the matter of how to moderate such a site in order to prevent trolls from willfully misrepresent content or spread false information. I'd like to have a reliable site for this purpose, but that cannot be a full substitute for also having content warnings on store pages.

There is also still the social stigma against mental illness in society, where people still claim that it isn't real or that those who have it should just "tough it out" and learn to deal with reality, and in some way the knee-jerk reaction many have against content warnings is a continuation of that stigma. I ask that you try and imagine that, whenever there was something like child abuse on screen, it would feel like a knife inside your brain. You can't ignore it and you can't choose it away, it's the sharp carving feeling of a knife in your brain and that feeling lingers a long time even after you stop watching, and you have no reliable way of telling which games, movies or other media could cause this beforehand, wouldn't you too want a reliable way of content warnings too?

Apologies if this is getting off topic but - no one is saying that *only* games should provide content warnings. Movies do have content warnings already and (in the UK at least) TV news regularly warns people in advance if the content of a report is likely to be disturbing.

I couldn't agree more and I have had a problem with books too with detailed descriptions of rape or murder, and I think that all media should have content warnings if they portray things that warrant it.

It was hard for me to pick the funniest, but Tycho Magnetic Anomaly's cracked me up.

Dave Gilbert's previous games, the Blackwell series, are very adult and very emotionally intense.  Unavowed is no different in that respect.  Not every adventure game is pretty and lightweight - most aren't.  People looking to play an adventure game should keep this in mind.

Well, you can't rely on every single player having played the previous games, and it was even stated in the production thread that Unavowed was going to be a standalone game aimed also at those previously unfamiliar with the series. I haven't played the Blackwell games, but nothing from the reviews I've read suggested that they would deal with sexual abuse, or any other form of content warnings for that matter.

And to suggest most adventure games deal with these topics, well, I've played Technobabylon, Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis, Monkey Island 1 & 2, The Longest Journey, all three Syberia games, Paradise by the same creator, Sam and Max season 1, The Book of unwritten Tales, all three Secret Files games and the spinoff, Lost Horizon and Lost Horizon 2, The Dark eye: Chains of Satinav, Memoria and The Whispered world, and none of those games featured suggestions that the player character had been sexually abused and I would not consider it a naturally expected staple of adventure games .

As for games that do have dark themes, the game The Cat Lady say's right off the bat that “Contains occasional graphic violence & gore, some strong bad language and infrequent frontal nudity.” when you enter the Steam store page, and I've yet to see a single person complain that the content warning ruined their experience of playing the game, so I don't see why Unavowed too could have just a short warning that the game features scenes of something that looks like sexual abuse.

Thanks a lot for your feedback! I feel like your sketch and comment have really helped me see the errors I didn't see before, and I hope this redraw fixed them:

You're right that I wanted to homage Lara Croft, since I liked the games and this protagonist too was supposed to wander around ruins in the jungle,
but since I didn't want my design to be too deriviative I tried making two alternate versions:

Which color works best?

Jesus Scares? 

For the sake of clarity, this scene is the scene I was referring to.

Spoiler

The player has a flashback that reveals that the demon had an affair with a man while possessing the players body. Even if there is another explanation at the end of the game, when this scene does show up, it still looks like the demon was making somebody have sex with the players body while they were possessed and couldn't tell what was going on, essentially on par with having sex with someone who's drugged and can't consent. The player even has to pick traumatized or disgusted comments around the event. Even if if there is an explanation of the events, it still looked like the player was raped when the scene appeared.

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I played as a female cop, and the person in the walkthrough played as an actress, so just out of curiosity, what gender and profession did you play as, Ali?

Still, I wish to say that while I don't have PTSD, I have struggled greatly with anxiety and depression lately, and in some of my darker moments, have even harbored thoughts of hurting myself. It's gotten a little better lately and I have it mostly under control, and I haven't hurt myself, but I'm still suffering from overwhelming feelings of helplessness and not being in control of my own life, and one of the few refuges that have helped me manage that, even if only by a little bit, have been video games that let me feel like my choices mattered and escape my feelings of hopelessness for a while, and Unavowed for all intents and purposes was presented as a mystery adventure game where off-screen murders was going to be the only dark part of the game, but then the game pulled out the rug under me and forced me to essentially roleplay as a rape victim in order to proceed. I felt like sh*t afterwards and still feel like sh*t every time I think back at it and that scene wasn't good storytelling for me, because I didn't get angry at the demon, I got angry at Dave Gilbert for adding what then looked like random sexual abuse out of nowhere in the game for shock value and without warning, audience members with mental struggles be damned.

I only have problems with depression and I've managed it for now, but imagine if someone in an even worse place than me had played the game, like a survivor of rape or a person that have a history of self-harm? Sudden and unexpected depictions of triggering topics can and will cause episodes for people with severe illnesses, and it isn't harmless, and a way to help people avoid it is to let people know which pieces of media are going to show these topics beforehand. And like Ali said, this isn't about things like swearing or alcohol or any random thing inappropriate for children, I'm specifically talking about subjects like rape, detailed suicide notes or descriptions of someone's thoughts leading up to suicide or graphic torture, which can be traumatizing even to adults and I think it's unfair to force everyone with any form of struggles to do detailed research on every single piece of media they want to consume beforehand (and even then, it's next to impossible to find reliable information just by a quick google search), or should everyone who isn't at their best place health-wise be forced to skip all movies and games that aren't rated for kids?

I also don't see how a mere warning of the fact that a story contains sexual abuse would be a massive spoiler, since I'm not asking for a detailed description of who gets abused and how or why, just knowing the fact that it does contain sexual abuse or something that looks just like sexual abuse. Let's imagine it this way: there is a chocolate bar that contains peanuts on the inside, but you can't tell because it's covered in chocolate, and for all the people trying the bar for the first time, the peanuts come as an exciting surprise. However, there are people with peanut allergy, and consuming peanuts would be harmful, or even downright lethal to them in the most severe cases, and I'm asking, would it be fair to not put a warning label on the chocolate bars, and risk the health of those who do have an allergy just for the sake of not spoiling the surprise for those who aren't? A warning label would mean that those who aren't troubled by it can still consume it as they please, but those who are troubled are given a fair chance to avoid it.

It was hard for me to write all this down and share it, but I hope you can all understand what I'm trying to say.

I've been playing the game and I loved it so far, but when it came to the Bronx and the player gets a vision that shows

Spoiler

that the player had an affair with a guy while they were possessed by a demon and couldn't control their own body, and a picture taken of them together is used for a puzzle afterwards.

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and I just felt terrible after seeing that. Am I the only one that feels that this scene was massively inappropriate for the game? I get that it's a way of showing how evil the demon is, but I can't help but feel like sexual abuse is an overused trope whenever people want to make a story dark and it feels unfair to have that sprung up on you without warning, especially since you are meant to create your own protagonist and identify with them.

And I wish to say that these sort of things can be extremely stressful to survivors with PTSD or people suffering from anxiety or depression, and I don't think this kind of subject should be included without a content warning.
For me personally, it took all the enjoyment out of the game and if I had known it was going to be a plot point I probably wouldn't have bought it.

Spoiler

If you continue to play through the game after this point then you'll find out that your character not having had control over their body during this event isn't exactly what really happened.

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Ok, I'm willing to give the game another chance if the rest of the story can explain it, but I still think it was in very poor taste to spring that on the player without warning.

I also had Vicky in the party, whom made jokes about the found photo and cheerfully said "it won't hold up in court" without giving the player any satisfying way of telling her off. It felt especially inappropriate considering she's a former cop and real-life survivors have a hard time being taken seriously by the law, and it's frustrating you couldn't say that to her in the game.

This discussion has been split off from the Unavowed game announcement thread. â€"Snarky

I've been playing the game and I loved it so far, but when it came to the Bronx and the player gets a vision that shows

Spoiler

that the player had an affair with a guy while they were possessed by a demon and couldn't control their own body, and a picture taken of them together is used for a puzzle afterwards.

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and I just felt terrible after seeing that. Am I the only one that feels that this scene was massively inappropriate for the game? I get that it's a way of showing how evil the demon is, but I can't help but feel like sexual abuse is an overused trope whenever people want to make a story dark and it feels unfair to have that sprung up on you without warning, especially since you are meant to create your own protagonist and identify with them.

And I wish to say that these sort of things can be extremely stressful to survivors with PTSD or people suffering from anxiety or depression, and I don't think this kind of subject should be included without a content warning.
For me personally, it took all the enjoyment out of the game and if I had known it was going to be a plot point I probably wouldn't have bought it.

I haven't found the time to work with the holidays and all that, but I've updated the sprite after the feedback.
I tried lightening the skin a little bit, but I don't want to stray too far from my initial concept.

[Commissar's Contrapasso]

Commissar's Contrapasso

This is the story of an arrogant Soviet commissar, whom after an accusation of cowardice personally takes the lead of a charge that goes horribly wrong and leaves him trapped behind enemy lines.
What follows is an adventure and a story about wits, courage, pride and redemption and the commissar will need your help to survive!

The game has been reviewed at Plug/Play and Tasta.

Suggestions
Best Game Created with AGS
Best Freeware Game Created with AGS
Best Puzzles
Best Writing
Best Character (The Commissar)
Best Background Art
Best Character Art
Best Animation

Database page

GameJolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/commissars-contrapasso/291181

Itch.io: https://blondbraid.itch.io/commissars-contrapasso

It's kind of hard for me to come up with good crossovers for my characters since most of the games take place in different centuries,
but I've been toying with the idea of having the viking guardsman meeting the pope...

Would be better if you shopped in eyeholes for the people in the foreground 

Like this?

Spoiler

In case anyone's wondering, both pairs of eyes are photoshopped from pictures of Jim Carrey. 

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While I agree with Kini's points, for a first time project you could certainly do a lot worse,
I could complete the game without any trouble and the graphics were really great!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Fantastic work with the latest nature backgrounds, they look truly gorgeous!

And it's impressive to see that there's so many translations, even AAA games cheap out on those more often than not.

[Sniper and spotter climbing a tower by Blondbraid]

Sorry I forgot to vote but that wouldn't have affected the outcome I think.

Here's my feedback:
Sniper and spotter climbing a tower by Blondbraid

Spoiler

I'm sorry to say that I haven't played any of your other games in this game series. Luckily the story was self contained. I really enjoyed the animations and humor. It was clear what your goals were right from the start. You did leave debug mode on and it wasn't clear to me how to save the game.

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Thank you, I'm glad that you liked my game and I hope you'd want to try the other games if you like this one. I didn't notice the debug mode was on, as for the saving, the game saves automatically, I suppose I could have made it clearer. Anyway, thank you so much for your feedback!

1

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You need to open the bottom cabinet door that's stuck.

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2

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Something to make the hinges move again.

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3

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The yellow liquid is 'oily'

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Great, but now I'm stuck again.

Spoiler

What do I do once I've propped up the bucket?

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Edit: Just figured it out by

Spoiler

covering the windows with a blanket.

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I'm stuck.

Spoiler

I've broken out Dhoroty and fed the lion as well as made the pliers functional again, but now I can't find any bucket to store the water in.

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Spoiler

You need to use the spy glass (right click) on top of the house

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I did just that, and the protagonist read up a safe code, but I can't proceed or leave the farm.