This New Singaporean Game Tackles Mental Health With Slacker Comedy Vibes
Change out of the Gloom.
There's a new Singaporean game called Gloom and Doom
It tells the story of a ghost, or more specifically a wraith, who kills demons in the hopes of becoming an angel. Unlike most horror stories, which feature victims being trapped in a house with a powerful ghost, Gloom is a powerless ghost who is trapped in a life that never changes.
Developed by Drew Pan of Neo Tegoel Games, Gloom and Doom takes the genre a step further by featuring an entire cast of quirky characters and slacker comedy to tell a unique story: sometimes, horror doesn't originate from the supernatural but rather from super-relatable elements.
Besides the demon-slaying Gloom, there is Wynona
Wynona is a young girl cursed to become the Doom Bringer, a demon that triggers the apocalypse.
She is aware of her fate and decides to kill herself, only to fail many times because she is immortal. This is a message about people who are seemingly unable to change their fates no matter how hard they try, and we can all relate to that.
"A lot of us didn't really like who we were in high school, or what we do at work, and we desperately wanted to change ourselves," said Pan.
"This game is about that desire for change, if you can imagine angels as the cool kids and the demons as the kids rejected for their individuality."
Players will get to play from the perspective of Gloom and Wynona
Both of whom partner up to defeat goth assassins, consult a skateboarding angel, and argue endlessly about video games. Most importantly, they will find hope that things will get better.
"As Wynona says early in the game, she needs movies in her life because 'I need to know that if someone works hard enough, they can beat the odds and save the day'. As a first-time indie game developer with no training except for the YouTube tutorials I watched during the COVID-19 lockdown, I personally needed to believe that too," said Pan.
Pan shared that he scanned his son's drawing of the main character Gloom and put it into the game as an easter egg.
Image via Drew Pan/Neo Tegoel Games (Facebook)There are tonnes of elements players can expect to see in the game
A quirky tone reminiscent of 90s slacker and social outcast movies like Reality Bites, Clerks, Edward Scissorhands, and Before Sunrise - complete with cynical characters, solitary urban environments, and stinging sarcastic retorts.
A nostalgia trip to the 90s, with 16-bit games, CRT monitors, and the Britney/Christina rivalry.
Unique characters like a skateboarding angel, a demon girl-next-door best friend, and an exploitative archangel that echoes bad bosses everywhere.
A colourful visual style inspired by 90s spandex superhero comics - complete with thick outlines and solid black inking.
Last but not least, there are seven different endings to uncover where players can save the world from a demon apocalypse or save Wynona's soul.
Gloom and Doom is now available for PC and Mac on Steam, and will be published for consoles by Viridian Software in mid-2021. Gamers can decide the fate of Wynona’s soul now by visiting the Steam page here.
The full article originally appeared on IGN Southeast Asia.
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