Pathologic
This game is not meant to be taken too seriously, it just was created in a bit of a mood.
I hate flappy bird.
This is loosely related to the Faceblindness collection of games I have been making, but this one more so takes the piss out of diagnostics. Diagnosing prosopagnosia was a fairly challenging process for me, despite having a very obvious case. And even after official diagnosis, I have had neurologists call me fakers to my face, while holding the diagnostic paperwork in their hands.
This game kind of is based on the question from philosophy: what decides that I am sick or if I am sick? Me? The doctor? What does sickness even mean, if it's in the ICD? Or is it enough if I feel bad? Why bother with labels/diagnoses for conditions that have no treatment available?
Well at least for that last part I have a few answers. For one, in most societies you cannot get any state benefits for a disability if you have not been diagnosed with a disability. You can have a broken back and be fully irreversibly paralyzed, but unless it's on paper, you are officially able bodied. And even then, it is not uncommon for the state to come and bother you about needing to prove, again, that your back wasn't magically healed over the last year. If you do not bow to that demand, you will loose the support you need to survive. It is a gross power imbalance and it even can lead to mental health issues from stress of navigating being chronically ill.
Made based on this Unity tutorial for making a Flappy Bird style game in Unity. Idea, art assets and writing from me.
Comments
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This game is so relatable. I've faced problems like this and so have my friends who also have disabilities - especially those of us who have "invisible" ones. My friend was hit by a car and she had insurance people following her and photographing her hoping to catch her not using her cane to prove that her back wasn't hurt. It's disgusting how the system treats people. Thank you for making this game.
Oh my gosh! That is awful! I hope your friend is able to get the care she needs, but that is disgusting behavior. A lot of our problems in the system come down to money saving incentives putting undue pressure on those who actually perform the medical examinations and procedures, but also a lot of deeply ingrained ableism and sexism. Just think of how something like multiple sclerosis used to be put down as hysteria.