Everything is Going to Be OK
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| Everything is Going to Be OK | |
|---|---|
 Steam header art | |
| Developer | Nathalie Lawhead |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS |
| Release | 31 January 2017 |
| Mode | Single-player |
Everything is Going to Be OK (stylized EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK) is a 2017 work of digital art by alienmelon, the pseudonym of independent net artist Nathalie Lawhead. Described by Lawhead as an "interactive zine",[1] the work is a vignette of several non-linear and interactive elements informed by Lawhead's experiences with "struggle, survival and coping with the aftermath of surviving bad things".[2] The work received positive reception from publications, with attention directed to the game's use of humor to humanise and relate to experiences of trauma and victimhood, and received several awards and nominations at the Independent Games Festival, IndieCade, and A-MAZE. Following release of the work, Lawhead showcased the game at Double Fine's Day of the Devs event in November 2017, prompting a discussion from Lawhead and media publications about the challenges of publishing and exhibiting experimental or art games and the risks of online harassment relating to streaming of these works.
Everything is Going to Be OK is a non-linear interactive work interspersed between a series of individual animations, games, "silly artistic tools (and) cryptic toys" accessed by the player in separate windows.[2] The sections revolve around the experiences of a cartoon bunny and similar characters who are subject to existential angst and comic violence.[3] Many sections are interactive, with players selecting dialogue choices to progress the animations and text similar to interactive fiction. Players navigate between sections of the work by selecting icons in a user interface imitative of an operating system. Several interactions in sections of the work blur the line between the player's computer and the work's user interface, with some sections allowing the player to export files locally to the player's computer, or connecting to the player's Twitter account.[4]
Development and release
Everything is Going to Be OK was conceived by California-based[5] independent developer Nathalie Lawhead as a "cathartic" expression of a "collection of very abstract life experiences, things I felt while going through hard times, and how I felt, or moved on afterward", with the work aiming to open a "discussion about alternative views of power from a survivor's standpoint".[6] Lawhead noted that the work was motivated by "really wanting to talk about these topics" to deconstruct the "veil of shame placed over survivors",[5] in order to normalise the "discussion of victimhood" in literature and explore works "that make us feel uncomfortable, vulnerable, admit a level of brokenness, and that maybe we just can't win."[7] The work was developed by Lawhead over one year of "non-stop, completely focused development" following the completion and showcase of their prior work, Tetrageddon Games, at IndieCade in October 2016. The work was created using self-made tools, with individual pages "built from the ground up".[8]
Lawhead expressed a preference for Everything is Going to Be OK to be viewed and evaluated beyond the typology of a video game, noting the work conforms with the conventions of a zine. They stated the work was closest to a zine as it consists of "pieces of personal writing and abstract cut-together imagery to convey a theme...they're vignettes, which zines often are."[7] In line with this design, Lawhead described the approach to the work as evoking a "collage art style", with an emphasis on distorted archival stock images that were "cut out, magnified and layered (so) it looks like something else," using their own shaders to create a "pixelated, glitch-y effect".[5] Lawhead also stated that they pursued the design of vignettes to convey the work's messages as they "lend well to life commentary" and are "more personable", citing the games Oikospiel by David Kanaga and Problem Attic by Liz Ryerson as inspirations for this approach.[8] Other inspirations applied by Lawhead included the use of a "net-art" aesthetic influenced by "early computer UIs, citing interest in how their "almost alien" design was evocative of a "fever dream" and allowed "use (of) what people expect about computers to surprise them."[8]
From September 2022 to July 2023, Everything is Going to Be OK was showcased at the New York Museum of Modern Art as part of the exhibition Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design.[9]