Encapsulate

Part video game, part choose-your-own-adventure game, "Encapsulate" is a text-based video game born out of the anxieties introduced through the COVID-19 pandemic. You fill the shoes of a struggling college student who lives alone in New York City, who, after losing everything and having a near-death experience, is transported into a strange, nightmarish world called 'That Place.' There, they come across a strange array of places and characters, including a shapeshifting mascot with a penchant for cheese, a series of living topiaries, a book-caterpillar, seraph-newscasters who shoot web-arrows and misinformation to unsuspecting victims, and more. Through this game, the character learns what they need to fight for: themself. They lose and regain their identity through the game, just as we all have felt like we’ve lost ourselves in this pandemic. Inspired in part by Alice in Wonderland, it is a darkly whimsical piece that reveals the grim realities of this pandemic through political satire, imagery, iconography, and experimental writing--and this piece shows us how the pandemic can teach us to be better, both to each other and to ourselves. It is a fight for life in a world that’s so overcome with death.

It is rated M for mature and contains themes of abuse, violence, suicide, death, and mental illness.