Safe In Our World, a charity focused on mental health in the gaming industry, has announced the finalists for its 2024 Mental Health Game Dev Champions event, as well as the premiere date of the official Game Dev Champions Showcase. The event, which attracted participants from across the globe, encouraged individuals of all backgrounds and skill levels to take part in a game jam focused on mental health themes. The competition provided an opportunity for newcomers, emerging talent, and those in non-development roles to develop new skills and explore potential career opportunities.

Launched on World Mental Health Day in 2019, Safe In Our World is a registered charity in England and Wales that aims to raise awareness of mental health within the gaming industry. The charity also provides resources, support, and information for those working in or around the industry, including developers, publishers, content creators, and players. The charity’s mission is to create a global hub for mental health resources, offering access to helpful information and sharing personal stories from within the gaming community.

“We are incredibly proud of everyone who participated, from the game jammers to our wonderful sponsors like Xbox and Discord,” said Sarah Sorrell, Charity Director at Safe In Our World. “Your creativity and passion have demonstrated how powerful games can be in addressing the important, but often overlooked, topic of mental health.”

A panel of respected experts from both the mental health and gaming industries has carefully selected the 25 finalists. Awards are given in categories such as design, narrative, innovation, audio, and technology. Here are the contenders.

The Finalists

• A Place to Start – A short narrative game about a quiet man trying to reconnect with his daughter by Muuurbles. The soundscape is interesting, and the narrative touching. It also transitions to a platformer after the introduction within a sort of mind palace.
  
• Close Knit – A cozy narrative platformer about confronting imposter syndrome by luxille’s team. The art style has a lovely hand-drawn quality to it, and its unique in that the whole town is part of the platform-scape. Everything is really well integrated in a way that feels absolutely natural to the game world.
  
• Coyote Summer – A desert walking sim by Intrusive Thoughts. You take pictures of the animals and landmarks you pass while contemplating life. Expect to spend a long time taking in the atmosphere on multiple walks.
  
• Emotional Damage – A 2-D scrolling shooter that you’re meant to lose by Jacob M Wolf. Your character must equip a number of self defense mechanisms to fight off the demon that was unearthed during therapy. Think Inside Out, but with battle cruisers.
  
• For Tomorrow – An action-packed metroidvania set in a dystopian world by Jakob Stalander Sigvard, where you fight and struggle to find reasons to carry on. The game is action-packed, and the sound track is killer, with an emphasis on fun to lighten the heavy message.
  
• Glass Thoughts – A graphic visual novel by Tojak. You play a young prosecutor investigating a series of crimes around the Free City of Gdansk in the Roaring 20’s. This psychological thriller is short , but dark, so player discretion is advised.
  
• Growing Pains – A role playing game by Nibalij’s team, where you play the child in a family that has suffered loss. It deals with themes of grief, parentification, trauma, and healing as a family. Don’t rush too much on your chores, though, or you might get stuck without a way to progress.
  
• Incomplete Books in My Garden – A laid back almost Bennet Foddy-like experience, although without the rage. Fall and hop between objects in an endless world, collecting emotions and listening to the creator, Ingrid’s, reflections.
  
• Just a Month – A game exploring your mother’s old computer from her teenage years. This is the first chapter of a larger game that TheRisingSun plans to keep working on. It promises both nostalgia and tantalizing mystery.
  
• Letters – A cozy life sim as Tiny Whiney’s mailman, by Gara Khachadour. Collect items, deliver letters, and help resolve local conflicts as you bring harmony back to your beloved town. This lovingly created 3D world is best experienced with a controller.
  
• Life in Small Steps – A cognitive puzzle game by La Chapeliere, interspersed with narrative. This game deals with a lot of heavy topics around anxiety disorders, though it becomes more hopeful as you progress.
  
• Magical Greenhouse – A short, simple crafting game by Iyamgtt. You are the new apothecary witch of Sunstone Village, growing magical plants to create potions for customer’s various ailments. The game design itself has a lot of potential, though it likely needs more content.
  
• Mind Over Machine – A stealth adventure by Funny Looking Dice, where you play as a self-aware robot. By solving puzzles on each floor and downloading AI memories, your robot becomes more capable and aware. However, you must dodge the corporate entities that will detect and crush your burgeoning independence.
  
• On Constant Delay – A short, lovely game by Narrativi Digitali that explores the daily struggles of OCD. Its true enough to life that there’s a trigger warning for people affected by the disorder. However the message of the game is sweet and kind. Its very thoughtfully made.
  
• On Trajectory of Your Rocket to the Moon – A short, hauntingly sad game about love and letting go by theApricotCocktail. They say it is a horror game, but it really isn’t. Though, it does leave you with a bittersweet melancholy.
  
• One Off Detective – A mystery adventure by Libero Masini’s team, where you are trying to solve a Halloween murder mystery. This game is a demo, as the team expects to continue working on it for a larger release.
  
• Scribble for Your Thoughts – A visual novel by BicycleBell with two endings. You are an art counselor helping your client draw through their trauma. This game is about earning and building trust, holding space open for others.
  
• Seeds of Hope – A touching short narrative game by MicroGiant. You play as a shopkeep creating unique plants for your customers while dealing with self-doubt and depression. The plant creation system’s marvelous, and everything is pulled together very well by the ending scene.
  
• Still Here – A short poem-writing story by Kick14 about grief and how to move on. The game has multiple endings and no right answers, just self-reflection.
  
• The Boy in the Play – An introspective narrative game by Chipper Deer Studio. It’s about the anxiety that comes from living with autism, and as someone with ASD myself, this hit particularly hard.
  
• The Lonely Architect – Pieces of Him – An atmospheric 2D platformer by TheArchitect, that deals with the struggles of self-isolation. This short game is a demo of a larger project that’s been in the works since June.
  
• The Silence is Loud – A narrative, psychological adventure by Tarik, told through text messages and phone interactions. It deals with themes of solitude and despair, and the way that chat-bot AI plays into self-isolation.
  
• The Wish – A humorous dice-rolling game about wishing for time, by TheMysteryLad. It explores both the hesitation inherent in growing up and the consequences of wishing too hard for the wrong things.
  
• Umbra – A short 3D puzzle platformer by MIG about facing your shadows, your buried emotions. The mechanics are interesting, making you think about the way you interact with the objects in your world.
  
• You Have Ten Minutes – A ten minute game by BluePepperGames. It simulates a situation where you have to deal with executive dysfunction and intrusive thoughts without your medication.

Winners To Be Revealed

The Game Dev Champions Showcase will conclude a year of impactful awareness-raising and fundraising efforts by Safe In Our World. The winners will be revealed during the YouTube premiere of the showcase. Doug Cockle and GeekyCassie are hosting it on Saturday, December 7th at 6pm GMT.

Looking ahead, Safe In Our World is set to announce its Ambassador class for 2025. They invite anyone interested in partnering for fundraising or sponsored events to reach out to Jess Rutland, the Business Development & Marketing Manager.