ELIZA

Format PC

Developer/publisher Zachtronics

Origin US

Release 2019

Throughout his five-year journey to make Eliza, Matthew Seiji Burns was plagued by a nagging doubt. “I was worried I was making a game for nobody,” he admits.

A story about a virtual counselling app, the people responsible for it and those who would use it, here was a visual novel unlike any other, lacking many of the features you’d normally associate with the genre. It didn’t have anime-style visuals, for starters, but more significantly it had been deliberately designed to limit player choice. Burns knew his game was effectively a niche within a niche. Had he created too many hurdles for his intended audience? “Eliza sits in this weird space… I felt like I really had to explain it so people could get on board with it.”

The concern about potential failure is just one of the anxieties reflected in a game that approaches the intersection of mental health and the tech industry with great nuance and intelligence. It’s a story that had occupied its creator’s mind for half a decade: the idea for Eliza first came to Burns six years ago, during his day job as a producer at the University Of Washington’s Center For Game Science, essentially a research lab into videogames.