What is Fighting The Stigma?

Fighting The Stigma is a game we as students at Abertay University in our team Proxy-Mate, conceptualised and prototyped for our DES402 modules 3rd game jam. 

The brief

This jams brief was to create a game that tackles the difficult topic of fighting the stigma around the choice to be childfree. We were given the freedom to create the game however we would like, as long as it conveyed the brief effectively.

How we came to making Fighting The Stigma

We focused heavily on research with this jam as it is a very sensitive topic and we wanted all of the game designs features to reflect the findings we had come to. 

When looking into the subject of being child free, we noticed those who were mainly stigmatised against were women. Due to the lack of female presence within the team, we decided before thinking up the game idea, that we would all take on a research topic and learn as much as we can. Thanks to the research we had done and the iteration of ideas, we were able to make Fighting The Stigma.

The gameplay

The player plays as a female character imagining themselves in their head. In their head, they are looking at a mirror and they see a monster created out of guilt and stigma because of their choice to be childfree and in their 30s. To fight back against this monstrous personification of their guilt and stigma, they must say the right things to counter the monsters remarks and avoid letting these get to them and lower their mental health.

Contact us!

Email - proxymate402@gmail.com

Instagram - @proxymategames

BlueSky - @proxy-mate.bsky.social