Little Moth Games’ narrative adventure Keep in Mind: Remastered tackles crucial topics like depression, abuse, and alcoholism. The two-person studio teamed up with publisher Akupara Games to release it on PC, iOS, and Android today. All profits will go directly to the Child’s Play, a charity that provides consoles and games for children in hospitals.
Keep in Mind follows the journey of Jonas through a personal purgatory of sorts where he must find a way to conquer his literal and metaphorical demons. The landscape and creatures are shown in stark black and white with piercing accents of red. These represent the things that alcoholism and other issues that plague him.
Little Moth’s CEO and cofounder Cherylynn Lima says that she and cofounder Ian Melinn both have loved ones who have struggled with alcoholism, and that’s what inspired the game. Keep in Mind encapsulates many of the things they’ve wanted to say to the people in their lives, and the studio hopes it can act as a conversation starter about such difficult topics.
“It’s a sickness that has taken precious moments from our childhood and warped them into events that a child should never have to go through. It has changed people we once knew into unrecognizable entities, struggling to live normal, healthy lives,” said Lima in an email to GamesBeat. “About two years ago, those we loved were in a very dark place. At the time, their addictions had started to spiral out of control, and each day we suffered trying to understand and help them.”
The original Keep in Mind released in 2016 for PCs. The studio wanted to ensure more people could play it, so the remastered version is available on Windows and Mac as well as iOS and Android mobile devices. It also spent some time researching nonprofits before committing to Child’s Play, and the desire to contribute to charity also motivated Little Moth to re-release the game.
“While Keep in Mind can never be a substitute for therapy or medicine, we hoped that it could be used as a starting point to talk about these issues,” said Lima. “Depression, anxiety, grief, and other forms of mental illness and are often kept in the dark, and this is why they flourish. We need to talk to others and to ourselves to understand them: this is the first step to healing. “
