Unwording is a puzzle game that teaches you to be kind to yourself

gamedeveloper.com:

Unwording is a puzzle game about overcoming negative self-talk, following a character’s journey through a flat 2D world into a vibrant 3D one as they learn how to better talk about themselves to themself.

Game Developer sat down with Armaan Sandhu, the game’s developer, to talk about the personal reflections that lead to the creation of the game, how they turned the process of improving self-talk into puzzles when they had little experience with puzzle games themselves, and how they reflected an increasing beauty and appreciation for life through the progressing, changing visuals of the game.

Unwording is a game about overcoming negative self-talk. What interested you in exploring this subject with a game?

A few months after moving to my new place in Mumbai and living alone for the first time, I noticed my thoughts growing louder and my mood dipping. It happened so gradually that I almost didn’t notice it. This started affecting my productivity, and it took me a while to realize that my negative judgment of my life situations was creating self-defeating thoughts.

These thoughts and messages then began to shape my reality. Although nothing was wrong in my life, I nitpicked and labeled everything as not good enough. The brain always agrees with your perception and gives you appropriately colored glasses to view life through. It’s like the famous saying about the two wolves— the one that wins is the one you feed.

At this time, I was in the early stages of a big horror project. As my negativity affected my productivity, I felt the need to switch to something quicker and easier. By this point, I had become aware of my negative thoughts, and during a good day out with a friend in December 2021, I imagined a scene where a