BAFTA/Jesse Waymont I Seek Death (Desktop) – Jesse Waymont (13) Crawley
“After the death of her father, 7-year-old Frankie sets out on a journey to find Death and ask him to send her dad home; she finds herself as a patchwork doll in a magical land while her story is told in chapters representing the five stages of grief.”
Denial:
The game open's in Frankie's room with the objective of leaving her home to find death. The player follows her into a forest where she solves puzzles and trades with bugs that gradually get larger in size. At the end of the level, she goes behind a tree and re-emerges as a patchwork doll in a patchwork village.
Anger:
In order to solve puzzles and get through the door to Death's city, Frankie has to destroy the village as she gets more and more frustrated, if a meter measuring her mood gets too high she'll faint.
Bargaining:
Frankie enters the City of Death and finds two guards at Death's castle in need of something valuable, she has to trade with other skeletons to find such an item and makes a new friend named Alfie, a dog made of roses who decides to tag along once he hears that she's going to the Land of the Dead.
Depression:
After meeting Death, she's told that she needs to walk through a corridor full of timed puzzles (involving turning on lights) with him and will then be allowed to see her father. The problem is, he has an aura of hopelessness and fatigue which slows her down, she has to complete the puzzles before he catches up with her.
Acceptance:
Frankie exits the corridor and has to help some of the dead in order to find out where her father is, once she finally sees him she tries to head home but Death tells her that he's been there for too long and can't come with her. She starts to cry but her father wipes away her tears and tells her that they will meet again, but until then she needs to keep him in her heart and live her life to the fullest.
The game ends with a montage of Frankie living a beautiful life before dying as an old woman with her wife & kids. Once in the land of the dead, she runs into her father's arms as everything fades to black.
The player uses WASD/arrow keys to move (it's 2D so W is jump and S is crawl), F and C / maybe enter to interact with something and WASD/arrow keys to choose a dialogue option and enter to actually say it.
This game would be suitable for anyone over 12 who likes puzzles and light-hearted games with heavyhearted topics. It's real. Not all the mythical bits, the real world part. Her dad didn't die in a tragic murder, she's not looking to avenge him or serve justice. He just died in a way that millions of people do and she knows she can't change or make it any better, she just wants him back. She just wants him to be back in her house hugging her and telling her that everything's going to be okay. That's it.
