Depression Quest is a strong departure from what we would typically consider as “gaming”. It lets players have an interactive experience through a narrative that addresses the very real nature of depression. Created by Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey, and Isaac Schankler as a browser-based Twine game, it targets adults who want to learn more about the mental health experience behind depression, maybe from a place of personal familiarity or a desire to develop more empathy. Through its design choices, Depression Quest presents players with a strong feminist intervention in gaming by pushing against typical expectations of what players may define as agency and placing emotional vulnerability as a core experience for the player.
The game’s key feminist design choice is how it intentionally restricts player agency – in opposition to traditional games that may prioritize empowering the player. Unlike mainstream games where players might expect increasing mastery and freedom, Depression Quest uses its mechanics to show depression’s reality through crossed-out options that remain visible but unselectable. As shown in the above image, more positive or active choices like “Enthusiastically socialize!” appear but aren’t able to be clicked, which forces players to pick from more negative choices. This shows depression as a constraint on any individual’s agency. This stands in opposition to what Shira Chess calls the “masculinist ideals of power and agency” that dominate gaming.
We see an aesthetic experience that combines both submission and fellowship. Players have to surrender to the storytelling and experience while also connecting with the understanding of depression’s power to limit others, which may develop empathy or ties with others indirectly.
Additionally, Depression Quest turns traditional gaming on its head by focusing its conversations around domestic relationships and how taxing emotional negotiations can be. The relationship with Alex shows both the emotional labor performed and the labor neglected in the context of depression. This is probably most shown through quotes in the game, such as this one: “While you are always appreciative of your partner’s efforts to take your feelings into account and help make sure you’re socially comfortable, you sincerely worry that you’re holding her back from enjoying a more fulfilling relationship.”
This focus on both maintaining the relationship and caretaking represents what Shira Chess would call “play at the margins,” which are gaming experiences that validate concerns that might have been coded as feminine rather than focusing exclusively on power, fantasy, and domination that might be more masculine-centered.
Depression Quest also uses second-person narration, which intentionally creates ambiguity about the protagonist’s gender. While the game shows a relationship with a female partner named Alex, the protagonist is only addressed as “you” without gender specification, and this allows players of any gender to be the person being spoken to, as they are.
The above image shows this: “You met Alex through a mutual friend a few months back. The two of you hit it off pretty well that first night, and after a series of initially awkward dates you finally became a couple, much to your surprise and excitement.” This lets many people be in the narrative as opposed to conforming to an existing gendered character.
Depression Quest also redefines what a meaningful game comprises by focusing on vulnerability instead of conquest or mastering the game. In the above image, the main character struggles with basic productivity: “All of the motivation and ideas you had when you arrived home vanish in a flash. Your brain seizes up and you find yourself physically incapable of any sort of productive thought.”
This is not framed as a failure in a value system of the game but instead as a legitimate experience that’s worthy of attention and understanding. This approach goes against the conventional focus on achievement, progression, and “beating an enemy.” Instead, it validates a reality that’s often been kept at the fringes of common discourse instead of reinforcing existing power narratives, which is in line with the feminist gaming perspectives that Chess provides.
Despite its contributions, Depression Quest falls short in fully exploring how factors beyond one’s personal choice – especially socioeconomic status and other attributes to one’s identity – affect depression treatment. While the game does acknowledge the protagonist isn’t seeking professional help (as shown at the bottom of each and every screen in the game), it doesn’t look much into the structural barriers of accessing meaningful healthcare.
There is a quote in the game: “You have a day job which you feel is really nothing special… A lot of days lately, you have a really hard time getting out of bed and forcing yourself to go in.” This game mentions a menial job, but it doesn’t particularly focus on how aspects like financial insecurity could change access to care, which could be an important intersectional perspective.
A stronger approach would have addressed intersectionality and other factors (like class, race, and gender) could intersect each other and amplify mental health crises. For example, Depression Quest could have addressed how monetary constraints affect therapy access or how cultural expectations around expressing emotion change across gender identities.
Depression Quest is designed in a minimalist way, which is also in contrast to what gaming design stereotypically is. The game just provides simple text on textured backgrounds with a photo or two on each page. This design, seen in every image above, might prioritize accessibility and emotional content over technical skill and lavish design.
This approach might challenge what Shira Chess calls the “technological spectacle” that might deem legitimacy to games. By using accessible technology and design and also focusing on narrative depth, Depression Quest shows how games can communicate experiences with a lot of weight without reinforcing the technical barriers that might exclude creators and players from the gaming world.
Depression Quest creates a strong feminist statement by pushing against gaming norms that might prioritize masculine-focused experiences, validating emotional vulnerability as a legitimate experience, and prioritizing accessibility over spectacle and effect. It focuses on marginalized experiences, which hones in on Chess’s idea that it’s important to keep “playing as if the margins mattered.”
