Saving Sarah - building a game for mental health management & Covid-19 anxiety

So this game idea about mental health is something that’s been germinating in my head since last May 2020 at the height of my own mental breakdown from the lockdown. It’s something that my 10-year-old nephew consulted on with his einstein-level knowledge about games. 

We call the game, “Saving Sarah”

“Saving Sarah” was about to have a painful death in my head as I was slowly and gradually gaining confidence, direction and momentum in my other baby Raaji after the cities ropened. 

My nephew whispered “don’t tell anyone, Khala. They will make it and we will lose out on our most awesome idea.”

He still finds poop jokes hilarious, so I take all mentorship from him with a grain of salt.

But I really want to see Sarah and her struggles come to life. Even if it means I have to show her concept to the world way before I create a prototype. Even if it means my nephew and I lose out on our billions (poop out on our billions) 

Most of all, I want to be an example to my nephew of “doing”. That you think about an idea and make it real. I worry though that once I make Saving Sarah happen, he will realise all his poop related games. His latest idea is a pacman where the maze dots are all brown (i usually stop him before he can add the potty twist) 

So getting back to the game and its main character. 

Sarah is a gifted writer whose emotions veer from one end to another. She can be smart, and driven one moment, and a mess on the floor in the other. You meet Sarah in her room with the TV blaring that her city is on lockdown for the next few weeks. 

Every day, you have to open the app and choose her thoughts for her day, make sure she doesnt watch too much TV, the people she has to call for emotional support and the kind of exercise she needs. You have access to her bank app, her Amazon account and can decide if she should buy a designer handbag or a treadmill. 

You can choose her meals for the day, and make sure she doesn’t eat pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Limit the coffee intake and get her to drink some water. 

Most of all, make sure you turn the TV off in her room to stop her from getting Covid anxiety. You have a music player in the room to put on meditation music for an hour. 

Swipe on her different body parts to make sure she exercises every day. She hates jumping jacks but that’s the stuff that brings up Sarah’s energy levels the next day. 

Don’t forget to put her in bed at the right time, every night. Forget to put Sarah in bed on time and you’ll not only reduce her energy levels, you’ll get Sarah complaining notifications on your app in the morning. 

Players who can keep Sarah alive through the pandemic, eventually get to see their Sarah get therapy, go cycling, take swims in the ocean, be ready to adopt a dog and publish her very first book. 

When I finished reading this, my nephew added: “and she lived poopily ever after”