“alone.” : A New Visual Novel That Tackles Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is a topic that not many people talk about, but experience in their day to day lives.  From adolescents to adults, we’ve all likely experienced social anxiety in some form or another, whether severe or subtle.

“alone.” tackles the topic of social anxiety for a college Sophomore who’s on the hunt to make friends in his second year of college.  After a first year that’s gone horribly for Derek in terms of making friends, he aims to make his second year better by attempting to be more proactive in his efforts. “alone.” tackles some interesting topics in regards to human nature, personal relationships, the need for acceptance, and why it all makes us anxious and depressed.  The story is told through the interactions that the main character, Derek,  has on a day to day basis throughout the course of his semester.

With a topic as such, the creator warns potential players that the game “may not be healthy to play for people suffering from depressions, anxiety, or related mental illnesses.”

A visual novel available on itch.io, alone was created by Dylan Siegler, and if that name sounds familiar, you’ve seen his writing here on Attack of the Fanboy for the past six months.

Over on itch.io the game can be downloaded for free, or you can “pay what you want” if you enjoyed the game and want to see more like this from the creator.