A Moment Free from Darkness

A Moment Free from Darkness is a transmedia game to engender player empathy for a fictional girl sold into sex slavery. Situations presented through her subjective experience range from hopeful to horrific. Games have enormous potential to make players feel empathy for game characters, an experience with deeper resonance than the usual fantasies of mastery or diversion in commercial games. The game has four acts comprising a cycle of everyday moments in the main character’s life. It presents a challenging, engaging experience that deals with heartbreakingly dark, raw, and real content. A very unique feature of the game is that it is played on four platforms in a four-act sequence: Mobile, Desktop, VR, and Apple Watch. The first three acts increase in immersion and emotional intensity and the final act played on the Apple Watch is the least immersive allowing the player to collect her thoughts and recenter herself as the fictional character by smoothing out the threads of her dress.