Benchmark Game Case Study: Missed Messages
What is the Game About?
Missed Messages is a game by Angela He published in May 2019 to itch.io. It is a visual novel style game that follows the story of the MC, who receives a strange message from an unknown contact. The story covers themes of depression, mental illness, suicide, family pressure and overall struggles many people deal with. The game has 4 different endings, and each playthrough is roughly between 20-30 minutes long. The story is incredibly impactful, and represents mental illnesses and other struggles in a respectful and accurate way that makes the story very relatable and understandable to the audience.
What features does the Game contain?
Missed Messages is a visual novel style point and click game where the choices the player makes change and impact the storyline, all leading towards different endings. Throughout the game, players can look around and interact with different environments and features in the game in a 'point and click' style to unlock new and useful information, and to help themselves make better decisions and choices as they play. Throughout the games story, It touches on many deep and sensitive topics, which are all handled very respectfully and accurately. The choices given throughout the game feel realistic, and each one leads to different paths for the audience to play through.
What parts of this game do I like best?
One of the main features of this game that I really personally like is the art style. I think that the style of the artwork used throughout the game showcased across the characters, assets, ui and background design all look beautiful. They all look and work well together, and create a very cozy feel due to their usage of colours and brushes. The entire game feels like a watercolour painting, and the artwork is soft on the eyes making the game feel cozy and very immersive to the viewer. This is something I would really like to incorporate into our game, as I feel that the idea we are going for is something really similar to this. The usage of colour and style would be perfect for our story and I think we as a team could work together to create something like this to create a really beautiful and aesthetically pleasing looking game.
How will we use this Game as Source of Inspiration?
From this game, I am really inspired by a lot of different features. I really like the artstyle and overall vibe of the games production, and think this is something we could incorporate into our game too. As the Lead 2D artist on our game, I think this is a style I could defiently achieve and create something along time lines as this game, using warmer colours and softer brushes to really create a cozy and personal feeling to our game. By doing this, it will help players to feel more immersed in our storytelling as the game will feel much more personal and inviting. As well as this, I really like the storyline and development of the game. I think that the storyline is similar to the type of game we are wanting to create, and we can take lots of inspiration from how the story is set out - and how it slowly unravels and develops after uncovering information. The progression of the game doesn't feel rushed and is really thought out, as each conversation and event lead into each other well without jumps or cuts that can confuse players.
I also think this game really accurately represents mental illness and other struggles. Each sensitive topic covered in this game, such as depression and suicide is treated with lots of care and is handled maturely and accurately. When making games involving sensitive topics such as these, it is really important that they are handled with care to be fairly represented and to not be insensitive (for example, calling someone with schizophrenia crazy would not be appropriate or respectful). I think the game handles that portion really well, and we should defiently take notes to include features like this in our game too. To do this, we will need to carefully research into different mental illnesses we want present within our game, and make sure we are really educated on them to ensure we accurately write about them and showcase them without being insensitive. We can research these issues online from trusted sites such as the NHS website, which accurately lists symptoms of these illnesses. As well as this, we can also talk to people who have experience and live with these mental illnesses, and ask for their input and to document their symptoms and how they effect them on a daily basis.
Why is this game successful?
I think that this game is successful due to its lovely and accurate storytelling, as well as the breath-taking artwork used throughout. The story is interesting and well thought out, and is really fun and emotional to play through which keeps players interested, especially those who can relate to the topics within the game. It is evident that this game has a lot of love and care put into it, and this is something I really want to showcase within our game too.
The game has overly positive reviews, with 120 ratings on google and a 5.0 star rating. Most people commented on how respectful and accurately they felt the storytelling in the game was, and how emotionally impactful the storyline is.
References:
Anon, Missed messages. By angela he [online]. itch.io. Available at: https://zephyo.itch.io/missed-message [Accessed 17 May 2025].
Blerdy, 2019. Missed Messages review - how will you spend your time? [online]. Blerdy Otome. Available at: https://blerdyotome.com/2019/06/24/missed-messages-review-how-will-you-spend-your-time/ [Accessed 17 May 2025].
Wikipedia contributors, 2025. Missed Messages [online]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Missed_Messages&oldid=1287639076.
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