Taming Yore Dragon

When I first heard about Taming Your Dragon, the concept sounded great. A video game co-developed with psychologists (but still made by the goverment lmao) to help people work through mental health challenges? That’s exciting. And it still is...in theory. But with games like this, you either [u]go all in and do it right[/u], or [i]don’t do it at all.[/i] With a movement engine only a mother could love, basic, unpolished UIs (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3495831428), and narration on EVERYTHING, which isn't so bad, but the fact that the (one) narrator sounds depressed [u]himself[/u]! If you’re going to use voice acting to guide the player, it needs to be engaging, not something that makes the game feel more emotionally draining. Worse, there’s little accessibility beyond subtitles and the narrator, and you’ll absolutely need both turned on just to follow what’s going on. That’s not good design. That’s patching over a lack of clarity. And here’s where things get seriously concerning: the actual challenges in the game are tough. They're not explained properly, and they're even bugged. They're difficult in ways that could genuinely frustrate or upset the very people this game is meant to support. If someone is already struggling with their mental health, failing repeatedly in a game designed to help them cope might just make things worse. That COMPLETELY defeats the purpose. Like I said: do it properly, or don’t do it at all. My Colourful Mind Games and Mini Mammoth Games clearly had a great idea here, but the execution falls so short. Honestly, the most useful thing I did was improve my finger dexterity — I mean, can you hit W + D + Shift + F all at once for an extended period while gaming? Great, now take that newfound skill and go use it to play a better game. What could’ve been a meaningful, standout game ends up feeling like a Unity demo that someone expanded just enough to toss on Steam. ..…Oh wait. It was made in Unity? Yeah. That checks out.

This game teaches a lot of CBT! Learning CBT becomes crucial to playing the game, but luckily the game has a detailed in-game journal where you can read all about it :) On the whole, the game has a cute and peaceful atmosphere, and nothing too confronting. Every problem can be solved by persistently following others around through platforms and puzzles, then helping them navigate unhelpful thoughts using CBT techniques. I like how the world slowly grows more colourful as problems are solved. There were a few flaws - the story was very simple, there were some glitches and times where my character got stuck, some parts where it wasn't clear what to do next, and I found the section with Markus to be particularly frustrating and repetitive. Overall though, the game is still very playable. I'd recommend this game for people with anxiety who want to learn about CBT. Probably not younger children because the in-game journal uses complex language, but teens and above can likely benefit from it. Thank you to the game creators for letting me try this game for free, it was much appreciated! :)

Love me a good puzzle