Would you return from death to help your loved ones through grief? Make fate turning decisions, micromanage the family’s relationships and defeat the negative thoughts on tower defense levels. Watch out, your job will be harder the more severe their mental disorder is.
All Reviews:
Positive (14) - 100% of the 14 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date:
Jun 24, 2024
Developer:
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Curator Review

Recommended
By Noteworthy Video Games 3 September 29

“A psychologically authentic, challenging, and emotional tower defense where you play as a dead child "haunting" his family to help them through their grief. It's pretty too.”

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Buy Ghostboy Collector's Edition BUNDLE (?)

Includes 2 items: Ghostboy, Ghostboy Soundtrack and Artbook

$13.98

Buy Mental Health Bundle BUNDLE (?)

Includes 2 items: Ghostboy, Robotherapy

-20%
$11.98
 

Reviews

“Nonetheless, this is probably one of my favorite indie games of the year.”
4.5/5 – Indie Games

“This is a beautiful game that tells the story of death and dealing with it in a really respectful way.”
Grajmerki

“A Masterful Blend of Emotion and Innovation”
7.5/10 – Fix Gaming

About This Game



Ghostboy is here to challenge your heart and mind with action-packed challenges, while helping you to become a more balanced version of yourself.
Most games are about momentary pleasures without adding anything to your real life. In Ghostboy, we not only challenge your heart and mind, but if you're thoughtful and persistent in the most difficult moments, you'll be given tools that extend beyond the game to help you deal with your losses more effectively in real life.



You're in for a deep psychological journey into the world of mental disorders.
Ghostboy is not for everyone, but if you're interested in psychology and enjoy challenging games, look no further. Artists made it friendly, psychologists made it safe, and developers made it unputdownable with a constantly challenging gameplay.

As you accompany a grieving family through the loss and recovery, there's a lot to learn from them.
Ghostboy is not a therapeutic tool, but it is one of the first video games that not only delves into taboo subjects, but also shows you a way out of trauma by teaching you the tools to process it so you can use them in your own life later. However, it won't be easy, so don't expect to overcome all the obstacles on your first try.



Ghostboy is not " just another TD ".
Prepare your mind and your soul, because Ghostboy's heartbreaking narrative and captivating artwork will keep your emotions and logic at constant check. As the story unfolds, you'll have to make choices in the lives of family members that often lead to mental disorders, and micromanaging them will be essential to overcome negative thoughts. You'll face these in Tower Defense levels, where you'll encounter genre-bending solutions, intense action and challenges that evolve based on your previous decisions. But the number of attempts is not endless, so when one family member's emotional energy runs out, only the help of others can provide hope.



We're not hiding anything: the game is based on the developers' own fear of death.
But Ghostboy is not meant to merely deal with that. To guarantee an authentic portrayal of grief and mental health, a clinical psychologist and a child psychologist were both involved in the creation of every last detail. As you play you'll quickly see how mental disorders can make everyday life more complicated, but we've also provided easy-to-understand descriptions of each one if you want to know more details.



It wasn't us who said...
We could promise you anything, but what's more than our word is that it's been tested at international conferences by professional developers, and they all loved it. We saw for ourselves that Ghostboy really does deliver a lasting experience when a player tearfully expressed gratitude at how much easier it would have been for her to get through a difficult situation in her life if there had been more games like Ghostboy. Because there's a great need for games that make such taboo subjects more understandable and accessible.

  • 8-10 hours of gameplay
  • 42 TD levels including 9 boss fights
  • 50 different tools including 12 towers, 12 special abilities and many more alternative options to defend the family members’ soul
  • 20 mental disorders, 10 with unique gameplay changing mechanics
  • 24 branches of storyline with different endings according to your choices, 8 for each family member (Important: you will only see 3 randomly picked storylines during your first gameplay to improve experience during replay)
  • 4 Buddys to accompany you on TD levels, all allowing different strategies

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

The story is about a family who lost a child in an accident. That means it depicts grief and the mental illneses that can be developed because of that.

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
    Minimum:
    • OS *: Windows 7 (SP1+) and Windows 10
    • Processor: x86, x64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: DX10, DX11, DX12 capable
    • Storage: 2 GB available space
* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.
    Minimum:
    • OS: 11+
    • Processor: A7 SoC+
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Metal
    • Storage: 2 GB available space

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