Social Anxiety Game was inspired by my own experience living with social anxiety as a university student. It didn’t just affect how I felt — it quietly shaped my grades, my relationships, and the choices I avoided making.
Skipping classes felt safer than being seen. Ignoring messages felt easier than responding wrong. Parties, group projects, even family calls became sources of stress instead of connection.
What stood out to me wasn’t just the anxiety itself, but how invisible it was to everyone else — and how logical the avoidance felt in the moment, even when it caused long-term damage. I wanted to turn that internal experience into a system players could interact with, not just observe.
This game exists to make players feel the trade-offs of anxiety, not be told about the
Social Anxiety Game is a short management/life-simulation game where you play as a university student navigating classes, friendships, parties, and family expectations.
Players manage limited time and energy while making daily decisions under the influence of anxiety. Social interactions are intentionally ambiguous, feedback is distorted, and avoidance often feels rewarding in the short term — but costly over time.
The goal isn’t to “win,” but to survive a stretch of university life without spiraling.
We built the game with a tight scope focused on one core loop: Daily decisions Immediate emotional feedback Delayed consequences
Rather than relying on complex AI or large environments, we emphasized: Systems-driven storytelling Text and UI as emotional tools Minimal mechanics that reinforce the theme
One of the biggest challenges was representing social anxiety without turning it into a simple meter or morality system. Social anxiety is messy: Feedback is unclear Outcomes aren’t immediate
“Safe” choices often feel correct
Balancing realism with playability — while keeping the scope hackathon-friendly — required constant trimming and prioritization.
Translating an internal mental experience into gameplay systems Making neutral interactions feel emotionally loaded without explicit narration Keeping the experience focused, playable, and intentional within hackathon constraints
Future plans include:
Expanding the variety of social situations Adding more long-term consequence tracking Exploring accessibility options and difficulty tuning Refining UI and feedback distortion systems
Ultimately, we’d like to turn this into a longer-form experience that reflects a full semester of student life.
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