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About Dichotomy
Step into the dark warmth of the mind’s eye and use all your focus to carefully guide your thoughts along perilous mental threads. Resist compulsion and distraction to break through your fears and doubts, reveal the celestial clarity that lies beyond.
Dichotomy is an artistic experience set in an abstract, cosmic, representation of the mind. It aims to give players an empathetic understanding of OCD by making them consider their surroundings as an OCD sufferer would. It does this through a series of rhythm game levels designed around the 5 main types of OCD, with each course manipulating the player’s focus into a similar pattern to that of a sufferer of the corresponding OCD type. On each level, it provides an abstract form of compulsion to seemingly make the difficult tasks easier in the short term, before demonstrating the long term effect of these repetitive behaviours.
Players use their hands to guide an orb along a series of threads, collecting beads to power it up before using it to try and break the shell blocking out the sky. They must avoid running into mines or holding the orb for too long lest it shrink into nothing; just as a person with OCD must avoid obsessing over a thought for too long else they risk becoming trapped in a mental loop of decision paralysis/rumination. Power-ups unique to each level offer quick boosts to player performance but bring a hidden monkey’s paw style consequence to the rest of the track, reminiscent to how compulsive actions bring temporary relief to OCD sufferers but drain their quality of life with repeated use.
If you are worried about any aspect of your mental health, the BBC's Actionline website has a list of places where you can find support.
Artist & Creative Director - Cody Wren
Developer - Cody Wren. Music / Sound - Marli Wren. Producer - David Tree
Exec Producer - Peter Richardson, Joseph Amoah - BBC RnD
New Creatives South East Producer - Jo Nolan
Dichotomy is an artistic experience set in an abstract, cosmic, representation of the mind. It aims to give players an empathetic understanding of OCD by making them consider their surroundings as an OCD sufferer would. It does this through a series of rhythm game levels designed around the 5 main types of OCD, with each course manipulating the player’s focus into a similar pattern to that of a sufferer of the corresponding OCD type. On each level, it provides an abstract form of compulsion to seemingly make the difficult tasks easier in the short term, before demonstrating the long term effect of these repetitive behaviours.
Players use their hands to guide an orb along a series of threads, collecting beads to power it up before using it to try and break the shell blocking out the sky. They must avoid running into mines or holding the orb for too long lest it shrink into nothing; just as a person with OCD must avoid obsessing over a thought for too long else they risk becoming trapped in a mental loop of decision paralysis/rumination. Power-ups unique to each level offer quick boosts to player performance but bring a hidden monkey’s paw style consequence to the rest of the track, reminiscent to how compulsive actions bring temporary relief to OCD sufferers but drain their quality of life with repeated use.
If you are worried about any aspect of your mental health, the BBC's Actionline website has a list of places where you can find support.
Artist & Creative Director - Cody Wren
Developer - Cody Wren. Music / Sound - Marli Wren. Producer - David Tree
Exec Producer - Peter Richardson, Joseph Amoah - BBC RnD
New Creatives South East Producer - Jo Nolan
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Dichotomy is a free VR rhythm game with an unusual look. It worked on my HTC Vive and Index system, looked ok, played ok, sounded ok. Has 5 levels to choose from. Very metaphysical themed about OCD. Try this game, maybe you might like it.2 found this helpful
[h1]Before I played Dichotomy, I had a small pp, no friends, no gf, depression, and no life. These things havent changed, but the game is pretty good[/h1]1 found this helpful
This was actually really hard1 found this helpful
Pretty much does what it says on the tin! The game play does a good job of making the player feel anxious and stressed. Admittedly, not everyone will be able to deal with this. However, you can't really fault the game for it since that's the whole point of the game, as it's meant to highlight the issues people with OCD face on a daily basis. Aside from the game play, the visuals are very nice! Some levels look nicer than others, but overall the sky and it's swirling colors are pleasant to look at.1 found this helpful
Игра 'Dichotomy' - увлекательная головоломка, заставляющая мозг работать на полную мощность. Концепция разделения мира на две взаимосвязанные реальности реализована на высшем уровне. Каждый уровень – это уникальный пазл, требующий не только логики, но и понимания взаимодействия между мирами. Визуальный стиль минималистичен, но при этом приятен глазу и не отвлекает от геймплея. Сложность растет постепенно, но иногда отдельные уровни могут заставить попотеть. Решение часто кажется очевидным, но требует точного расчета каждого шага. Особенно порадовал саунд-дизайн – атмосферная музыка отлично дополняет медитативный процесс решения головоломок. Не хватает, пожалуй, более развернутого обучения в начале игры, но это незначительный минус. В целом, 'Dichotomy' – отличный выбор для любителей интеллектуальных игр и тех, кто ищет что-то оригинальное и затягивающее. Рекомендую!
It does what it's supposed to do... I guess? Make sure you have an open space around, sitting down isn't suggested. I was constantly hitting my guardian boundary with just menu selection. I would probably suggest an option to shrink the ring up and down as well as closer to the user. The UI doesn't need to be that huge, honestly.. it made making menu selections a bit of a hassle, esp. at first launch bug. Had issues with getting the game setup right off the bat, the Ring was stationed a good 4 feet above my head. I set the floor before starting the game, so I had to stand on a chair to pull the ring down, which was really stressful in itself. Then, I felt like the game was intentionally trying to stress me out after that... I did not enjoy my time with this...and I have a feeling that's part of the design to highlight anxiety. I enjoyed the menu more than the actual games... but maybe I was just aggravated from the setup and the menu was peaceful. I'll try this again later this week... but for now, it's a hard no on a couple different levels. After reading a little more into this, they succeeded in making a game that stresses you out. Not my cup of tea tho. Loved the menu/…
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