Ludic Mind Studio
Development updates, design essays, and game reviews. Here's the open process behind everything we build. Not quite a blog, not just a changelog. This is where we share what we're learning, what we're playing, and what we're making.
Deep dives into design decisions, postmortems, and technical breakdowns. The long-form stuff.
Quick updates — what we shipped, what we're working on, milestones hit. Keeping the beat.
Game reviews through a mental health and design lens. What works, what doesn't, and what we're learning from other games.
Studio news and announcements.
Ludic Mind Studio is now a registered Quebec non-profit. RE-303. TRA started inside the Ludic Mind Lab at McGill and the Douglas. That setup carried us through years of research, prototyping, and two demo releases. But the…
We met with Unity in June. Showed them where TRA is at, talked through where we're trying to go. Good meeting. Quick context for anyone who hasn't been following the production side. We switched from RPG Maker to Unity a while back. The old engine got us through two dem…
Three Canadian outlets covered TRA in January, all within about a week. CTV News Montreal sent Swidda Rassy to the Douglas. The piece…
Trent, Arkana, and Manuela brought TRA to Games for Change in June. Similar workshop to CGSA. Different crowd. G4C draws more devs, funders, and publishers, so the conversations afterward went to things like structuring co-design teams when contributors are youth with fluctuat…
Filip, Trent, and Manuela ran a workshop at the Canadian Game Studies Association conference this year. CGSA draws game studies academics, designers, and critics. We opened with the research that started the project, then had attendees analyze game clips through the ant…
by Corina Lazarenco
Sonic X Shadow generations is an action platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA in 2024. The current game review will focus on lived experiences presented in Shadow’s story, the second protagonist of the game. To a large extent, Shadow the Hedgehog’s appeal…
by Corina Lazarenco
Disco Elysium is a top-down role-playing game made by ZA/UM team. It delves into a wide array of themes, from philosophy, politics and socioeconomic conditions, to mental health. Through the eyes of detective Harrier “Harry” Du Bois, the player explores the city of Reva…
by Arkana Fuentes-Pilafidis and Connie Guo
By Arkana Fuentes-Pilafidis Spiritfarer is an aesthetically pleasing management sandbox style game created by Thunder Lotus Games. As captain of a ferry, Stella embarks on an adventure by helping trapped spirits reach the afterlife. The young woman must do so by buildin…
by Di Ah Lim
Life Is Strange: True Colors (2021) is an emotional, narrative-led video game developed by Deck Nine and published by Square Enix. It is one of the games in Life Is Strange series. The main character is a young girl called Alex Chen. After being separated from her brother, Gab…
by Anaïs Mortazavi Zadeh
Originally released in 2021, Impostor Factory is the third and final game in the Sigmund Corp. Series which also includes To the Moon and Finding Paradise. Though the previous games in the series follow doctors who can wander through their patients’ minds, Impostor Factory is…
by Anaïs Mortazavi Zadeh
“Dumb Ways to Die” was originally launched as a music video campaign by the Australian government to promote safety and raise awareness for suicidal thoughts near train tracks. Upon its release on YouTube in November 2012, the video quickly gained immense traction, which led t…
by Corina Lazarenco
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is an open-world action role-playing game developed by Bethesda in 2002. Like its well-known successor, Skyrim, Morrowind immerses players in a captivating world, this time set in Vvardenfell, where they can seek their own adventures. However, Morr…
by Connie Guo
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a major installment in the Assassin’s Creed series, is an action-adventure, role-playing game. Its plot builds on the backstory of a historical tension between the Order of Assassins, who fight for peace and free will, and the Knights Templar, who des…
by Arkana Fuentes-Pilafidis
Actual Sunlight was created by Will O’Neill using RPG Maker VX Ace. This platform allows for creators to make use of their creativity in creating a narrative. Through Actual Sunlight, the developers explore the themes of depression and unfulfilling work based upon the creator’…
by Shannon Pagdon
Baldur’s Gate 3, a role-playing game developed by Larian Studios and originally released in 2020, offers an immersive and expansive experience. The game unfolds its narrative across three "Acts," each presenting unique stories, puzzles, side quests, and memorable environments.…
by Yedda Lam
“When The Darkness Comes”, developed by indie creator Sirhaian, is a poignant exploration of mental health wrapped in the guise of a psychological horror game. Free on Steam, this title diverges from commercial gaming by focusing on impactful narrative and thematic depth rathe…
by Connie Guo
Night in the Woods is a 2D, narrative-based, beginner friendly, “point-and-click” genre game where the players can follow the characters’ personal journeys. The majority of the plot unfolds in the format of conversations. The story telling style is novel, and sometimes poetry-…
by Arkana Fuentes-Pilafidis
Child of Light, a platform role-playing video game released by Ubisoft Montreal in 2014, introduces players to the captivating tale of Aurora, a young princess grappling with the loss of her sister and mother years prior. As her father falls ill, and the kingdom faces impendin…
by Anaïs Mortazavi Zadeh
Batman: Arkham Asylum is an action-adventure game that presents players with a third-person perspective on Batman’s journey through the Arkham Asylum facility. Originally developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive and Warner Bros. Interactive in 2009, t…
by Di Ah Lim
Limbo is a 2D side-scroller puzzle-platform video game published by Xbox Game Studios. It covers several topics related to mental health: phobia, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and trauma. The main character is a nameless boy who wakes up in a forest on the "edge of hell" an…
by Filip Vasileski
Firewatch, released in February of 2016, is an indie game developed by the studio Campo Santo. It is a short adventure game set in a national park, where your character is instructed to watch over the forest for any potential fires, hence the name “firewatch”. The portrayal of…
by Michael Serravalle
Mother 3 is a top-down style Role-Playing Game published by Nintendo. The game covers a variety of complex issues such as grief, guilt and the conflict between man and nature. The story follows a young boy named Lucas. The happy-go-lucky community that Lucas lives in is change…
by Michael Serravalle
To the Moon is a 2D top-down Role-Playing Game that covers a variety of topics. These topics include living with an autism spectrum disorder, memory loss, trauma and coming to terms with one’s own mortality. The game is set in the not-too-distant future where a new technology…