EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK

Game: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK

Developer: Nathalie Lawhead

Platform: PC/Mac

Download Link: https://alienmelon.itch.io/everything-is-going-to-be-ok

I'm the "weird one" when it comes to my group of friends that I have in real life. When I'm in the mood to, I will often show some stuff to my friends that I find entertaining and see their reactions to said stuff. Some are adventurous and end up laughing worriedly at the stuff I share while others are completely averse to the idea. Perhaps it's to keep their sanity intact, or perhaps they just aren't very adventurous. I don't know. It is a great mystery. I guess I can call myself adventurous when it comes to media in general. I'm always looking to try out something new or something that I haven't experienced before. Will this get me in trouble in the future? I don't think so, but I do find it weird that a lot of people aren't willing to step outside of their comfort zones. Then again, I come from a flock of people that, wording this carefully, tend to be closed minded. They aren't really looking to try something that is way outside of their comfort zone, which on the one hand I get, but on the other hand, it is slightly frustrating in terms of sharing interests.

So why am I bringing this up? Because I'm about to share is pretty weird, even by my standards. That is Nathalie Lawhead's EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK, easily one of the weirdest pieces of media I've come across since discovering YouTube Poops back in 2007 (which I still enjoy to this day). EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a collection of small games and interactive pieces of media bundled together into a single package. Every single one of these vignettes is like a strange fever dream: it's weird, it's horrifying, but at the same time intriguing.

What has stuck out to me about Lawhead's projects, like Electric Love Potato and ARMAGAD (which I still need to play), is the presentation of her projects. Nearly everything is presented in a way that is hard to describe. I can't call it zany just for the sake of it, because that would more than likely come off as callous. It seems more like reveling in one's own weirdness to the point of just owning it, but at the same time, it feels grounded in a way where it comes off as a natural personality. Maybe it's because she's able to present her weirdness through her coding skills. Her presentation reminds me a lot of something that Adult Swim would spotlight or ask a commission for.

Such presentation is well expressed in EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK. Much of the vignettes talk of suffering and pain in a very nihilistic way. It's like the message it's getting across is that life's pain and suffering can't be solved by surges of forced optimism and "ignorance is bliss." This is especially exemplified in "PAGE 2" where when you ask the cute cartoon character if they are okay, they say that "everything is perfect" or "nothing is wrong" when they are clearly suffering from being impaled. When you ask for some words of wisdom from the character, they spout a motivational poster with random phrases that are just as meaningless as advice given on perseverance and finding meaning. As if needing "more of 'X'" is just not gonna cut it. I even got a randomly generated poster that said: "Optimism is never enough." Needless to say, that is very much true.

It's not just physical suffering. There is also social suffering! Like on in "PAGE 18" where your goal is to try to socialize in a conversation without making it awkward. This is difficult because ultimately you're in a conversation that you don't care about and when the conversation gets around to you, you are struggling to answer with a topic that is related to the conversation. If you go off topic, you increase your awkwardness level. It's an introvert's worst nightmare come to life!

With much of these vignettes, there is also some social media actions you can utilize in-game if you connect your Twitter account. For instance, "PAGE 6" has you creating your own nihilistic cult after finding out your wife is pregnant with someone else's child. When you reach the end of the vignette, you can name your cult and tweet about the members that committed suicide with you off the edge of a cliff. Yeah, this game is dark.

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a surreal fever dream of a game that is super intriguing to look at and play. Its nihilistic commentary on hardship and suffering is something to behold and is very relatable for those who have struggles in life, which is pretty much everyone. While I'm not one to think nihilistically, or at least not yet, I do appreciate some of the heavy realities that Nathalie Lawhead brings to the table with this game. For some of us, life is misery, and no amount of optimistic perseverance can save us from it. Sometimes, we just have to live through it and there isn't much we can do about it. EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK is a game that I had the utmost pleasure of playing. It's quirky, dark, and at times pretty funny. Its presentation is stellar and its commentary on life is profound as well, even if I end up not entirely agreeing with it. Maybe I'm not supposed to though? I don't know. I'm not sure if I know anything anymore.