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Psych 101

Attend a mental health lecture, share perspectives with classmates, and reflect on the lesson’s twist ending.

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Game overview

Mental health storytelling

Psych 101 was created for the Safe In Our World Mental Health Game Dev Champions jam. You attend a psychology class, interact with classmates, and experience a narrative designed to start conversations about wellbeing. Choices influence dialogue and the tone of the session’s conclusion.

Remarkable Games built the VN in Ren’Py, combining classroom art, character sprites, and a reflective ending that ties together each student’s perspective.

Controls

Ren’Py interface

  • Left-click: Advance dialogue and select responses.
  • Right-click / Esc: Open the Ren’Py menu for saving, loading, or settings.
  • Scroll wheel / Page Up / Page Down: Review the dialogue backlog.
  • Space / Enter: Fast-forward through text (when enabled).

Why play it?

Jam highlights

  • Focuses on empathy, listening, and supporting peers.
  • Short format—complete the full lecture in one sitting.
  • Open-source project for anyone exploring Ren’Py storytelling around mental health.

Tips

Engage with the class

  • Read classmates’ experiences closely; they foreshadow the twist.
  • Use the backlog if you need to revisit a point before making a choice.
  • Try alternative responses on a second run to see how the conversation shifts.

Our take

Why Psych 101 is interesting beyond the jam

Psych 101 uses a very small slice of classroom life to explore how we talk about mental health, which makes it feel different from typical jam entries that focus on mechanics. The Ren’Py format lets conversations breathe, and the twist lands precisely because you spend a few minutes getting comfortable with the professor’s tone first.

It also doubles as a neat teaching tool: you can imagine using it as a conversation starter in actual courses, then forking the script to reflect your own institution or topics. That gives this little narrative more longevity than a one-off jam experiment.

Who will appreciate it?

Psych 101 will resonate most with players who enjoy short visual novels and games that focus on dialogue, themes, and small choices over mechanics. If you’re primarily looking for action or complex systems it’s not the right fit, but as a reflective, discussion-friendly piece it’s worth a read.