To Leave, a Game About Mental Illness (and Door-Surfing) Launches Today

The first title from Ecuadorian developer Freaky Creations launched today: To Leave, a platformer and puzzle game about mental illness, is now available on the PlayStation 4. To celebrate its launch, Freaky Creations creative director Estefano Palacios shared some information about the game on PlayStation’s blog.

To Leave is a hardcore game about manic-depressive illness, social alienation, and the burning desire to bring all inner and outer pain to an end. The game’s main character, Harm – a manic-depressive young man in possession of a magical, flying door – has finished orchestrating a plan to solve all his troubles – and all the troubles of his world – once and for all,” he wrote. “In To Leave, players will experience what it feels like being Harm at this crucial moment of his life: a deeply conflicted, half-lucid, half-insane teenager with muddled thoughts but with one very clear intention in his heart: peace for himself, and peace for his world.”

The game utilizes multiple genres and points of view within its style of play—according to Palacios, it’s categorized as “Unique” on the PlayStation store. It’s meant to be an experimental game without a set genre. Additionally, the game’s difficulty ramps up steadily in a way that is supposed to convey meaning to player. “Challenges are not random, nor are they unfair: by the time a player reaches a challenge, he or she will be more than capable to face it. One of our ideologies in Freaky Creations is that games should respect players, both their grit and their capacity to grow and improve. In that light, To Leave will challenge you,” added Palacios.

The product of six years’ development and research, To Leave is available now on the PlayStation store.

Glenn Carreau: Hi! I'm Glenn: recent college grad specializing in interactive arts and media, writer, game creator and connoisseur, pop culture junkie, and semi-professional fan-artist and blogger. In my free time, I function as an unnecessarily specific gaming encyclopedia. I also play the violin, binge crime/detective procedural shows (still not sure why), and do a large amount of digital painting. I'm probably too attached to Dragon Age, but not really inclined to do anything about it. I'm a huge fan of cosplay, foxes, the prose of Jenny Lawson, and Strong Female Characters™.
Related Post