Trauma

It would appear that it is impossible to go through life without having some kind of fears or traumatic experiences, even if they are not very serious. However, these experiences can also help you learn a lot about the world and yourself, which is why many consider them necessary in order for a person to reach a certain level of maturity and knowledge.

Trauma is a short jam game that allows you to explore your own mind and think about the things that do not make you happy. It’s not necessarily about sadness or fear, since nostalgia and joy are also part of the deal, but there are a couple of unnerving sights along the way that may trigger unpleasant responses. On the other hand, the game is not long enough to have any kind of lasting impact on anyone.

As such, you start playing as a little boy with a torch in some kind of mysterious dark world. The world is full of rocks, bushes and other unpleasant obstacles, but it also contains a few calming places that allow your character to rekindle the strength of his torch. In fact, the whole point is to keep exploring the darkness and make sure that your torch doesn’t go out.

Not every object you stumble upon is helpful and jolly, on the other hand, because there are also those that mess with the flame of your torch and actually consume your light if you get close enough. Naturally, you must avoid and learn to recognize these places, because they can quickly put a stop to your adventure and return you to the last checkpoint, which is actually not that hurtful, truth be told.

As far as the technical side of things is concerned, the game has a pretty unique look and atmosphere, which is to be appreciated in a jam production, given the short development window the developers had to work with. Hence, it’s certainly not impressive and not very memorable, but the environments look pretty nice and enjoyable, or even scary in some cases.

In the end, Trauma is not much of a game at the moment, but it has the potential to evolve into something unique if the idea is expanded and refined. Granted, that may never happen, but it’s great to see such games flood the indie market lately.