Sanctuary;
Your story isn’t over yet.
Sanctuary; is a point-and-click browser game created to be a safe place for those who are undergoing some kind of mental health crisis. It is full of distractions, coping mechanisms, and more specifically designed for helping someone through a crisis.
The game is divided into different rooms, each with their own theme for coping.
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The Study
The reading and writing corner
The study is a digital journal and collection of stories. You can write whatever you want and submit it and it will be saved to your computer’s browser cache. Your submitted entries are private but they can be uploaded and become public to any other players. There’s also a quick and simple writing prompt game, if you want an easy distraction.
The Lounge
The game room
The lounge is the room for all kinds of games that can be used as distractions during a crisis. I curated a list of daily games which can be accessed with the click of a button. These games have a new puzzle every day, meaning someone can return to these games and know there is always something new to help distract them.
The Workshop
Do it yourself
The workshop comes from multiple lists I found about different ways to cope with certain situations or emotions, and out of a need to compile all the different methods someone could hypothetically use. These lists of alternatives were organized and filtered.
Initially, I had some tools laid out on the workbench, but then I removed them when I remembered that anyone who is in a fragile mental state should not be exposed to weapons, just to be safe.
The Garden of Hope
The place of healing
The Garden of Hope’s sole purpose is to deliver positive affirmations to the player. Oftentimes, when I’m at my lowest, all I want is to hear someone tell me things will be okay. That is why the Garden of Hope is here, to do that for you by randomly picking from a list of sentences I wrote.
The Bedroom
The safe space
A bedroom should always be somewhere you feel safe. That is why the emphasis of the Master Bedroom is safety. It is where you go if you are panicking or need to ground yourself, since there are multiple grounding techniques to help you stabilize yourself. A safety plan, designed by me, can be printed out through your browser so you can fill it out and keep.
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Darling
Your guide
I wanted there to be some kind of mascot character that acted as a guide for the player throughout their experience. Since many people who are struggling feel as if they are alone, the presence of a guide would be able to help them feel less lonely.
These were the drafts for the mascot that would soon be called Darling. I wanted Darling to be cute and cuddly, making him feel approachable so someone can open up.
He was going to have a stitched look to him, to enforce the teddy aspect. I was then given the insight of giving him some kind of scar, to give him a history that a player could relate to.
I chose blue for him so that he would stand out against the backgrounds which were a majority purple. Also the softness of that blue makes him look cuter and thus more comforting.
Download a detailed design report for the entire project.