Discover My Body is a very short, very blunt game by Yames.
The world has changed by 2040. For however many reasons, trust in traditional institutions is faltering, and people are no longer drawn together by them—leaving many people without a sense of belonging or unity.
But past traditional institutions lies the appeal of science.
You play as a student studying the results of this trend, up-close and personal. A perfectly upbeat man has made the move to integrate a particular strain of fungus with his form, confident that it will bring him unity never before known to mankind.
It goes exactly as expected, give or take a few bits of dialogue.
The player's input is to investigate this man's form as it alters beyond recognition, with an interface unnervingly reminiscent of old Edutainment games. This is accompanied by the subject happily detailing precisely what has happened, is happening, and will happen to his body.
Available for pay-what-you want here.
A sequel known as Discover Our Bodies is in development, said to feature additional subjects.
Due to the very short nature of this game, spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.
Aha! You've discovered that my tropes are all in order!
- Assimilation Plot: Albeit an oddly consensual one. Integrating the fungus with oneself allows one to become part of a hive-mind. In the second phase, the subject happily goes on about how referring to himself as 'I' and 'me' feels increasingly wrong.
- Body Horror: The central aspect of the game. Diving into it and investigating the details is the only way to progress. The details cheerfully added by the subject do not make matters any better.
- Chemical Messiah: The psychically oriented fungus is being chosen over 'traditional institutions', presumably religion. With the erudite manner in which the subject speaks of it, the trappings are laid.
- Crapsack World: While there isn't a lot of focus on it, the setting is in the year 2040 where thousands of people are lonely enough to go through with the same horrific procedure we witness.
- Death of Personality: Between the rather loaded ramblings of the subject, capping off with simply "Death..." before slamming into Madness Mantra, and the Hive Mind alluded to, this is likely the fate of the subject... precisely as he seems to have intended.
- Dissonant Serenity: The default operating mode of the subject, cheerfully-to-calmly narrating the twisted effects of the fungus upon his form. He'll be just as upbeat noting any pain, itch, or trauma.
- Fantastic Drug: We've all heard of taking shrooms to get high, but integrating them into oneself is another step down. It is also noted by the subject that the integration process involved injection.
- Fingore: "Aha! You've discovered that my hands have fallen off."
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: The subject is naked, but his hands are over his genitals. When he enters the second phase, his hands fall off, but at that point he's not human enough for it to matter.
- Hive Mind: The subject's end goal is to integrate himself into one of these. He succeeds.
- Madness Mantra: "I AM SO HAPPY"
- Mushroom Samba: The point of the game is invoking a nightmarish physical application that lasts for the rest of the subject's existence. It's hard to escape, once the mushroom is part of you.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: The subject is consistently very upbeat about the deformations his body has accumulated, perfectly happy to detail every bit of the experience from his end—as much as he can manage, anyway.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Aside from a blur on your screen, the true final form of the subject is left to the viewer's imagination.
- Painful Transformation: Despite being so chipper, the patient makes no attempt to hide the incredible amount of pain he's in, and lets out a bloodcurdling scream at one point.
- Stepford Smiler: The patient is ultimately a mix between the depressed and unstable type. Despite his friendly personality, he expresses how lonely he is after the death of his mother. The unstable part comes in when you remember that he is fully aware of the ramifications of his transformation and is facing it with such an upbeat attitude.
- The Tooth Hurts: Between the two documented phases, the subject asks that his wallet is inserted into his mouth to bite down on. After the transformation, he calmly notes that he bit down so hard that quite a few of his teeth had to be spit out.
- Transformation Horror: The entire game consists of documenting the effects of a man's transformation into a psychically unified fungus... thing.
- Understatement: The subject lets out a horrific scream when he enters the second phase. Once he's done screaming, he quietly states, "Wow! That hurt."
