Coming home after receiving a heartbreaking diagnosis from your doctor’s visit. Waking up with no voice, unable to hear. Losing a limb from a tragic accident. These are just some moments that can change a life in an instant.
Where do you go? Who do you talk to? People already have a hard time just trying to communicate with one another, let alone when something traumatic happens that changes your life forever. Some can sink deeper and deeper into isolation or depression not being able to express themselves or have an outlet to talk.
Sheri Sobrato Brisson, teaming up with writer and producer Rosemary Lokhorst and Little Chicken Game Company, are making an impact on young people’s lives. After big data research, working directly with young people and their own life experiences, they developed their multi-award winning mobile game, Shadow’s Edge. Not your typical competitive game that is usually focused on destruction or beating a stranger hundreds of miles away. But instead, learning to live with ones’ illness whether it’s temporary or long-term. Being able to accept yourself and building upon that to continue moving forward in life.
Over half of Americans can’t afford health care or get the treatments that they need adding to the stress and delaying their ability to become healthy. Mental health is pushed down on their priority list when there might be more important things to take care of, or so they think.
Shadow’s Edge is a mobile game that is available for both iPhone and Android free of charge. Players can start to work on their emotional wellness through their own writing and art, making this game therapeutic. The game starts off in a world that was once beautiful with a vibrant community until a storm came through wiping away all the colorful art that kept people together. The community began to break apart and were soon lost. The player has the power to bring the community back together and make an impact on the world around them.
As players continue through their personal healing, they will encounter the next phase of the game known as Shadowgram. This is where connections are made with other players going through similar obstacles in life, gaining the ability to post the graffiti they make in the game. Other players can react to posts with positive emojis and follows, along with words of encouragement the player can select.
Later in life, we often learn that something traumatic that happened in our childhood can create lasting, negative emotional effects. How great would it be if everyone had access and the ability to be more open and expressive to prevent the possibility of emotional struggles later in life?
Available for teens 13+ and young adults on App Store or Google Play.
Prin is a Senior Volunteer with AbleGamers. When she’s not gaming or spending time with her adorable and sweet pup Jäeger, she’s a black belt in martial arts thanks to her father, a Martial Arts Master. Watch her play games and see Jäeger on her Twitch Channel, or see photos of her sushi on her Twitter.