Today, Sym, a game about social anxiety, releases on Steam, proving that games don't have to be just fun and frivolous, but can also entertain while teaching us important lessons about the experience of life.
Although on its surface Sym seems like a simple puzzle platform game, it also explores social anxiety disorder.
Players take on the role of Josh, a teenage boy affected by this disorder, as he goes through contrasting mazes of black and white, moving between reality and the world he's created to avoid his fears, which appear in-game as obstacles. Of course, Josh must take care: dangers lurk across the divide.
"An exploration of the pressures and uncertainties of social anxiety, Sym is the journey of a teenager navigating two worlds, one real and one imagined, coexisting within the blank spaces of each other," writes game developer Atrax Games in a press release.
Sym, a game picked by the Steam community through the site's Project Greenlight, also features a level builder, so that players can create their own levels based on their own experiences. The shared world allows gamers to connect with each other and play levels built by each other. Sym also features over 44 challenging levels of its own.
"A game is something that can help people, even more so than books or movies because you are inside the world," says Francesco Lanciai, Sym's artist. "Unlike other mediums, you are surrounded by this world and you have to make decisions inside it."
Check out the game's official launch trailer below:
Sym already has some critical acclaim, too: IndieGames called it "something very special."
Previous studies show that video games can help teens fight depression, so a game like this could be exactly what the doctor ordered.
Sym is also yet another example of why we're finally realizing that not only can games be art, but that such games are also as meaningful as good literature and cinema.
Sym is available now for both PC and Mac on Steam. There is a demo available, but for a limited time, players can grab the full version of the game with a discount of 25 percent off.
[Photo Credit: Atrax Games]
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