Free game about schizophrenia
Split Mind is a first-person story game about dealing with schizophrenia. You role-play as a person with a psychiatric disorder who is going through a psychotic break. The episode runs for 4 days, meaning you’re going to have to accomplish a variety of daily tasks such as waking up, washing your hands, and working on projects. Over the course of the game, these tasks will become more impossible to achieve as psychosis progresses.
How do you play Split Mind?
The key mechanic of the game is to control your fear by breathing. Apart from that, you’re wandering around and communicating with items in the world to complete various activities. You’ll also get a phone call a day from your mom, whom you need to speak to try to help her realize what you’re going through. The game deals with the feelings, signs, and stigma associated with schizophrenia.
During the game, you start getting hallucinations, see figures and hear noises that you don’t even know whether they are genuine or not, while at the same time being able to cope with depressed and hopeless feelings. In addition, you’re trying to control yourself in, for example, phone calls, where you’re trying to get her to ask for assistance, but you end up refusing in fear of being misunderstood.
The day ends with you falling down a flight of stairs, a metaphor for going further into the delusion of your suicidal emotions and thoughts. It conveys these to you in a tactile manner, that they experience them on their own, to increase your knowledge and perception and ideally to alleviate the stigma of the disease.
Well-thought-out and empathetic play
Split Mind is a brave effort, culminating in a well-made game. Though it’s fascinating, it can also be frightening to get into the realm of schizophrenia. Anyone without schizophrenia will also understand the feelings and thoughts that are described in the game, particularly the conversation with the mother. It captures the classic criticism of the belief of the illusion that you know what’s going on.
