Museum of Self is a short form narrative game that is “a mirror and a microscope” It is an interactive museum about how and why my creativity is inspired and stifled by depression and anxiety. Players move around the environment answering questions about how they feel about themselves and the games. The game investigates what it means to create, what it means to be a player and what that relationship is.
Museum of Self was a way for me to explore my own frustrations with the relationship of player-developer when creating personal work. The aim was for players to question their autonomy in games, and recognize that I was not giving them options to express themselves, but instead describing my own internal critic.
Museum of Self is available at https://jackhartgames.itch.io/museum-of-self. I also gave talk about it My Loved Ones Don’t Know The Games I Make at Pixel Pop 2020.