Ritual

Are you really the monster you see in the mirror?

In Ritual, play as an ancient eldritch being who is plagued by obsessive thoughts about its own morality. With 13 unique endings, there are a number of ways to explore how intrusive thoughts can affect an individual's existence every single day. 

Will you break free of the vicious cycle? Or fall into the same patterns of reassurance and ritual?

[this game was created as a final project for a class!!]

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I created this game with the intent of informing people about how living with OCD and intrusive thoughts can affect a person’s everyday life. It’s very common to see OCD misrepresented and watered down into the “keeping things tidy” disorder. I’ve observed people calling themselves “so OCD” for liking their desks to be well organized, or saying they “gave into the intrusive thoughts” and dyed their hair a fun color. Platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram have contributed to this oversimplification of terms used to describe disorders that can be debilitating for individuals who struggle with them.

This game focuses primarily on harm OCD and moral OCD, which revolve around intrusive thoughts that an individual is a “bad person” or the fear that they have hurt somebody unintentionally, or that they are hiding their true monstrous self from people who care about them.

I drew direct quotes from my own spiraling journal entries for this game to hopefully capture what it feels like to be stuck in a cycle of obsession and rumination. Through this game, I hope to inform audiences about what these experiences actually feel like, and to give other people who have similar experiences a chance to feel seen in a world that so often lessens their struggle into buzzwords.