Step into the shoes of a 19th century woman enduring the rest cure for hysteria in this indie simulation game. Players navigate a narrative-driven experience blending walking simulator and exploration elements, uncovering the mansion's mysteries through environmental storytelling. Puzzles guide the journey without set goals, revealing insights into restricted agency, denied suffrage, and questioned intelligence.
This PC title draws from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper," weaving in digital archives and museum content for a serious humanities experiment. Sessions last 30 minutes to two hours, shaped by puzzle-solving and ephemera reading. Adult themes of sexuality and mental illness appear alongside nude imagery in classic paintings, suiting thoughtful players 14+ who value classroom-ready narrative depth.
Charlotte is a game about the 19th century writer and suffragist, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her famous short horror story, the Yellow Wall-paper. Part walking simulator and part exploration game, Charlotte puts players into the role of a 19th century woman undergoing the rest cure for hysteria. What is it like to live in a world that restricts your agency? Where you can’t vote? Where you are thought to be less intelligent? Has the world gone mad? Or is it you?
Charlotte is a narrative video game. There are no goals but puzzles are used to structure the exploration of the environment. Experience the narrative through enacted and environmental storytelling as you explore the mysteries of the mansion.
The game can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or two - depending on how long it takes to solve the puzzles and how much of the ephemera are read. This game was created as an experiment in making an engaging serious game about the humanities. As such, it includes a great deal of content from digital archives and museums so that it could be used in a classroom setting. Please see the additional pdfs for lists of references and links to all the ephemera and texts used in the game.
This game contains adult themes of sexuality and mental illness also, some nude imagery is depicted in the classic paintings that hang on the wall. Note that this is the "educational" version so generally it is fine for anyone 14+.
Please read the quick start pdf regarding the SAVE option. You can save the game but it only saves the position of the doors. The player and all other triggers will be reset in order to "re-read" the game without the interference of the puzzles.
in progress...
