Vortle

I was excited when this product showed up in my Curator Connect feed, as it decribes itself as "anxiety management and stress relief app designed by and for neurodiverse, disabled, or mentally ill people." As someone who falls into all three categories, I was hoping to see something tailored for people like me... but this is not even what it claims to be on the store page.

Positives

* Free
* Technically playable Tetris and match-three (though Tetris can be very slightly laggy)
* Music volume slider, additional sounds on/off toggle
* The lightly animated backgrounds seem to have had some effort put into them
* A vase gradually filling up with water to make flowers bloom in the match-three is a nice touch

Negatives

* No unique selling points worth noting
* There are far better free Tetris and match-three games out there
* Unpolished feel - no audio feedback from actions in the games, for example, and opening interface is not particularly user-friendly
* The background designs weren't particularly aesthetically pleasing to me (this is subjective, but I suspect the art style and scenes depicted are slightly too generic for many people to genuinely like)
* No overt accessibility features in settings menu, despite claiming to be a game designed with disabled people in mind - what about making the tiny game screens and icons larger for people with visual impairments, for example?
* No actual content relating to stress management, mindfulness, mental health, neurodivergence or disability
* Misleading store tags - to give the benefit of the doubt, I suspect the developers don't actually understand the tagging system or what half the tags they selected actually mean... but if they did understand, then it's wilfully misleading potential customers to try and get them more clicks

Overall, this product is not what it claims to be, and unless substantial efforts were made in future to add in more provision for stress management and cater to the specific needs of users who are disabled, neurodivergent and/or mentally ill, it is unlikely to benefit anyone much.

You can follow my Steam Curator page at Inclusive Games!

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A lot of thought has gone into removing as many triggers as possible from these simple games to make them nice calming activities when you need a short mental health distraction. I found this app more useful than meditation apps like head space which can be difficult to engage with if you are in a stressed state. Sometimes you need a distraction like a game, but most games are predatory and designed to be stimulating and addictive - this app aims to address that.

Would love to see this be fleshed out even more.

Pros:
- Calming game sound that doesn't change in intensity (e.g speeding up as you reach higher levels etc)
- No disruptive pop-ups or ads, no paywall services
- No score counter, easy to break away from the activity when needed
- Muted colours and animations

Cons:
- No obvious keybind for rotating tetris pieces on pc
- Tetris pieces not differentiated by colour
- Would maybe be nice to include some links to self help resources/information
- You can set a timer, but maybe after a set period of constant play, a non-interruptive pop-up prompting users to take a break would be a nice idea 'Hey, you've been playing for a while, don't forget you can pause anytime and take a break to move around, maybe get a drink or a snack'
- Could be finished a little nicer, but it is a personal project so I get it