Interactive Empathy

Interactive Empathy contains two experimental interactive games made during a one-week game workshop in Zagreb, Croatia, as part of the project “Interactive Empathy - Citizenship & Storytelling in Video Games”. It also includes a documentary video about the workshop and a booklet about the project. The workshop participants were artists rather than game-development professionals, and used Gamechuck’s Interactive Comics Editor to create their projects. Both games were exhibited at the Institut français de Zagreb in November 2020, and are available in English, French and German.

Empathy Path

Empathy Path is a horror game presented as an interactive comic, with themes of morality and philosophical quotations. It draws on Heidi Maibom’s distinction between affective empathy, such as crying when you see someone else cry, and cognitive empathy, which involves reflecting on another person’s perspective.

You enter a slaughterhouse with five characters: a trapped girl, a suicidal clown, a pig, a butcher and an artificial intelligence. To free the girl, you must empathize with each character, since every one of them plays a part in her liberation. Taking their perspectives turns each character from an object into a subject. These changes of perspective, called “empathy paths”, lead you back to your starting position, while the experience continues within you.

There Is No Cure (And That's Okay)

There Is No Cure (And That's Okay) is a first-person experience based on the stories of people living with mild and severe mental illnesses. It explores their circumstances and how their perception of the world can change while they carry out ordinary activities.

As you explore and interact with the world, glitches create discrepancies in your perception of reality. Interactions with objects and people can motivate or discourage you, depending on the situation. The game aims to encourage awareness that mental illness should not be taboo and that people deserve understanding and a chance. It also addresses how these situations can be managed to maintain quality of life when individuals and those around them invest substantial effort and willingness.