The Lady is a 2D surreal puzzle horror adventure, featuring hand drawn character art, stop motion animation, and a hauntingly abrasive noisecore soundtrack. The game takes the user on an emotional experience like no other indie game.
Reviews
“I am lost. I don’t know which way to go, nor can I be sure where I came from. I feel like no matter how hard I try to progress, I’m holding myself back – I am my own worst enemy. I am The Lady.”
Jennifer Mugridge
“A true indie game, The Lady gives players a peek at how scary mental illness can be and provides a strange, yet comforting source for those who may be struggling with their own mental health.”
Noobfeed
“While the controls are a bit simplistic, the game itself is an enjoyable play, especially for those who love to challenge themselves and aren’t deterred by failure.”
LADY WASD
Description
“The Lady” is a very personal game created by Michael Patrick Rogers about his own struggles with panic disorder. Every second of the game is inspired by his own experiences with being forced to live with panic disorder when it hit him out of nowhere all of a sudden at the age of 35. There are 5 stages in the game, 4 bosses, and each level plays out as a stage of what it’s like to experience anxiety and depression. From the initial confusion, to feeling helpless, to all out anxiety and hopelessness, it’s all there for the user to experience.
The visuals are all symbolic, most noticeably the armless nude lady that is the game’s protagonist. The missing arms represent a feeling of helplessness and feeling like you have no control over anything. All of the puzzles represent the confusion that one feels when first experiencing panic disorder and depression, not being sure what to do or how to handle the situation. The soundtrack is meant to sound like the nonstop never ending thoughts when experiencing extreme anxiety, especially when you can’t sleep. The game’s difficulty is brutal, because that’s what life becomes like when you have to live with panic disorder. There’s a lot of trial and error and confusion. There is no UI or voice acting in the game, but there is a story there. The story is left open for interpretation, for the user to hopefully identify with the struggles The Lady goes through in the game, and possibly relate to experiences they come across in the game with things they’ve dealt with in their own lives.