Breakout 13

Breakout 13 is an FMV narrative adventure inspired by a real-life controversial psychiatrist who advocated electroshock therapy to cure teenagers of internet addiction. The protagonist is a skilled gamer in the virtual realm but, in reality, a teenager sent by his school to the infamous correctional center run by Principal Yang. The center's transformation program runs on verbal abuse, corporal punishment, mutual accusation pressure and actual electroshock sessions.

The game splits into two parts: Gratitude and Fight. Gameplay layers in elements rarely seen in FMV titles: Quick Time Events, scene exploration, clue gathering, deduction, puzzle solving, real-time surveillance monitoring and electroshock challenge sequences. Hundreds of branching paths feed into eight major endings.

ALT Lab developed the project over two years, conducting research and interviews with people who'd been through real internet-addiction correctional facilities. The studio frames the project as an attempt to foster mutual understanding between parents and gamer children, particularly given how often the institutions exploited that misunderstanding for profit. The subject matter is intentionally sensitive throughout.