Frame of Mind

Rubika Montréal Game Jam 2024

Frame of Mind was born during the RubiJam of Montréal 2024, a scientific game jam where each team had to create a game based on the work of a specialist. In our case, we collaborated with a doctoral student in psychology who was studying how certain mental disorders alter the perception of the world. This shaped our entire approach to gameplay and atmosphere.

The goal was not to depict precise diagnoses, but rather to translate sensations such as disorientation, loss of bearings, anxiety or social oppression, while avoiding the clichés often associated with mental illness in video games. We wanted to offer a more empathetic, research-grounded experience centred on interiority and perception.

With my team, we chose a simple top-down gameplay: a character moves through a small maze made up of three rooms, each illustrating a different aspect of the inner experience of a person in psychological distress.

The first room represents the loss of perception of the outside world. The floor seems to disappear and the character moves in slow motion, as though afraid of falling into the void, even though the path is still there.

The second room illustrates the loss of control and the feeling of being overwhelmed. As soon as you enter, the room catches fire and the flames chase the player to the exit.

The third room evokes the oppression of other people's gaze. Mechanical eyes track the player across the walls, the sides close in, and a monster appears to heighten the sense of urgency and suffocation.

The player must pass through these three spaces to reach the final room: the character's bedroom, their safe place, which marks the end of the game.

The Windows build is available on our itch.io page.

We were six on this project. It was my very first year in Tech Art, and I had barely touched Unity before this jam. I learned a great deal, both about the engine and about team collaboration and using GitHub to work together simultaneously.

On my end, I mainly focused on programming and Unity integration. I programmed the base character controller (the character and their animations were added by another team member) as well as the gameplay system for the first room.