'Get home safe." Friends say it to each other at the end of a night, implying fear that the other will not make it to their bed unharmed. The danger of travelling at night inspired a university student to develop an interactive game to highlight the plight of women who return home alone.
Pimpisa Keupram, a student at Silpakorn University's Faculty of Decorative Art, Visual Communication Design, recently launched a project titled Get Home Safe. In the simulation game, a player takes on the role of a female character who will have to make scenario-based decisions to return home unaccompanied at night. Along the way, she will have to choose how to commute and react to an offender, which leads to multiple endings.
These events are based on encounters in daily life, including news and warnings shared by women on social media, and research on how to survive dangerous situations.
The genre of interactive games is handy because the platform features elements that are capable of grabbing a user's attention. Its modern illustrations, dark tones and engaging narration provide an experience that is similar to reading a novel. Moreover, sound effects enable a player to identify with the female character. The "time crunch" in some stages of the game also gets the adrenaline going.
Despite how careful women are, harassment and sexual crimes have not diminished. As people in society tend to blame the victim's dress and behaviour, the creator thinks they do not really understand the core problem and therefore hopes to use this project to promote empathy and respect for women's rights and safety. Above all, she wants them to realise that the one who is the problem is the perpetrator, not the victim.
Check out the interactive game at gethomesafe.newfile.studio/ and follow Pimpisa's project on Twitter: newfilestudio and Instagram: newfilestudi.o.
