Ghostboy
Two Blackbirds · 2024 · Atmospheric, Tower Defense, Education, Strategy, Side Scroller
PC
Positive100% · 20
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About Ghostboy
Ghostboy is here to challenge your heart and mind with action-packed challenges, while helping you to become a more balanced version of yourself.
Most games are about momentary pleasures without adding anything to your real life. In Ghostboy, we not only challenge your heart and mind, but if you're thoughtful and persistent in the most difficult moments, you'll be given tools that extend beyond the game to help you deal with your losses more effectively in real life.
You're in for a deep psychological journey into the world of mental disorders.
Ghostboy is not for everyone, but if you're interested in psychology and enjoy challenging games, look no further. Artists made it friendly, psychologists made it safe, and developers made it unputdownable with a constantly challenging gameplay.
As you accompany a grieving family through the loss and recovery, there's a lot to learn from them.
Ghostboy is not a therapeutic tool, but it is one of the first video games that not only delves into taboo subjects, but also shows you a way out of trauma by teaching you the tools to process it so you can use them in your own life later. However, it won't be easy, so don't expect to overcome all the obstacles on your first try.
Ghostboy is not " just another TD ".
Prepare your mind and your soul, because Ghostboy's heartbreaking narrative and captivating artwork will keep your emotions and logic at constant check. As the story unfolds, you'll have to make choices in the lives of family members that often lead to mental disorders, and micromanaging them will be essential to overcome negative thoughts. You'll face these in Tower Defense levels, where you'll encounter genre-bending solutions, intense action and challenges that evolve based on your previous decisions. But the number of attempts is not endless, so when one family member's emotional energy runs out, only the help of others can provide hope.
We're not hiding anything: the game is based on the developers' own fear of death.
But Ghostboy is not meant to merely deal with that. To guarantee an authentic portrayal of grief and mental health, a clinical psychologist and a child psychologist were both involved in the creation of every last detail. As you play you'll quickly see how mental disorders can make everyday life more complicated, but we've also provided easy-to-understand descriptions of each one if you want to know more details.
It wasn't us who said...
We could promise you anything, but what's more than our word is that it's been tested at international conferences by professional developers, and they all loved it. We saw for ourselves that Ghostboy really does deliver a lasting experience when a player tearfully expressed gratitude at how much easier it would have been for her to get through a difficult situation in her life if there had been more games like Ghostboy. Because there's a great need for games that make such taboo subjects more understandable and accessible.
Most games are about momentary pleasures without adding anything to your real life. In Ghostboy, we not only challenge your heart and mind, but if you're thoughtful and persistent in the most difficult moments, you'll be given tools that extend beyond the game to help you deal with your losses more effectively in real life.
You're in for a deep psychological journey into the world of mental disorders.
Ghostboy is not for everyone, but if you're interested in psychology and enjoy challenging games, look no further. Artists made it friendly, psychologists made it safe, and developers made it unputdownable with a constantly challenging gameplay.
As you accompany a grieving family through the loss and recovery, there's a lot to learn from them.
Ghostboy is not a therapeutic tool, but it is one of the first video games that not only delves into taboo subjects, but also shows you a way out of trauma by teaching you the tools to process it so you can use them in your own life later. However, it won't be easy, so don't expect to overcome all the obstacles on your first try.
Ghostboy is not " just another TD ".
Prepare your mind and your soul, because Ghostboy's heartbreaking narrative and captivating artwork will keep your emotions and logic at constant check. As the story unfolds, you'll have to make choices in the lives of family members that often lead to mental disorders, and micromanaging them will be essential to overcome negative thoughts. You'll face these in Tower Defense levels, where you'll encounter genre-bending solutions, intense action and challenges that evolve based on your previous decisions. But the number of attempts is not endless, so when one family member's emotional energy runs out, only the help of others can provide hope.
We're not hiding anything: the game is based on the developers' own fear of death.
But Ghostboy is not meant to merely deal with that. To guarantee an authentic portrayal of grief and mental health, a clinical psychologist and a child psychologist were both involved in the creation of every last detail. As you play you'll quickly see how mental disorders can make everyday life more complicated, but we've also provided easy-to-understand descriptions of each one if you want to know more details.
It wasn't us who said...
We could promise you anything, but what's more than our word is that it's been tested at international conferences by professional developers, and they all loved it. We saw for ourselves that Ghostboy really does deliver a lasting experience when a player tearfully expressed gratitude at how much easier it would have been for her to get through a difficult situation in her life if there had been more games like Ghostboy. Because there's a great need for games that make such taboo subjects more understandable and accessible.
- 8-10 hours of gameplay
- 42 TD levels including 9 boss fights
- 50 different tools including 12 towers, 12 special abilities and many more alternative options to defend the family members’ soul
- 20 mental disorders, 10 with unique gameplay changing mechanics
- 24 branches of storyline with different endings according to your choices, 8 for each family member (Important: you will only see 3 randomly picked storylines during your first gameplay to improve experience during replay)
- 4 Buddys to accompany you on TD levels, all allowing different strategies
DLC & expansions
🎁 Complete the collection
Base game + 1 of 1 DLC at today's best prices.
$13.98
to own everything
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
i recently lost a loved one and this game has helped me deal with the grief emerging from that a bit better. i like the depictions and explanations of both healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms, and their effects on the gameplay. it's innovative and very empathetic, even to people struggling. a core message implies that sometimes you can't do everything alone and need help from others which i love and is very important in such a dark time. there are minor bugs and translation issues but overall it's a very good game and there only being 15 reviews should be illegal. give it a shot if you're interested in the topic or like tower defense games at all4 found this helpful
Amazing visuals and addictive gameplay.2 found this helpful
interesting concept, might learn something. definitely offered!2 found this helpful
Special theme, beautiful design. The development team has chosen a surprisingly unique theme for the game. I'm not a fan of tower defense games, but I couldn't stop playing this one because of the drifting story and the beautiful artwork.2 found this helpful
Ghostboy, developed and published by Two Blackbirds, is a deeply emotional and thematically ambitious indie game that combines narrative-driven storytelling with tower defense mechanics in a way that feels both unexpected and powerful. Set in the aftermath of a tragic accident, the game follows a family struggling to cope with the loss of their young son. The twist is that you play as the ghost of that very boy, tasked with guiding his grieving loved ones through their pain, guilt, and denial. The story unfolds through a blend of strategic gameplay and branching narrative choices, where every decision shapes how each member of the family confronts their trauma. It’s a rare example of a game that treats grief not as a backdrop for drama, but as its central mechanic—a system to be understood, managed, and ultimately healed. From its opening moments, Ghostboy sets an intimate, melancholic tone. The game introduces the family—each member broken in different ways—and gives you the difficult task of helping them find balance while unable to interact with them directly. Instead, your influence manifests symbolically through the tower defense sequences, where waves of dark, amorphous enem…1 found this helpful
A wildly unique tower defense game with memorable art direction and an interesting storyline. In-between levels there is a storyline and choices to make that will alter what happens to your family as they carry on. I really like that there is some form of hands-on combat which is often equally as relevant as strategic placement. The writing could use some polish though every bit of it is understandable. One of the more intuitive minimalist UI I've come across. Absolutely worth the time.1 found this helpful
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