In the game You Can Not Help Everyone the player walks around a city, where NPCs need help. One is missing their suitcase, another complains about the dirty street. It’s up to the player to go up to them and offer their help. Whether the player helps or not, their mental health worsens. Not helping them has a negative effect on the players psyche, but helping others is straining too. With time the players posture slouches and their vision dimms, text, negative thoughts, appear on the screen until the player collapses and reawakens in a garden, far away from the city. There the player can rest, interact with cute little creatures, until they feel well enough to return to the city, this time , hopefully, taking breaks between helping people.
The game aims to teach people to better take care of themselves. Of course it’s good to strive to help others, but you can only do so when you aren’t struggling yourself, because
,when you push past your limits, you burn yourself out. A lesson I had to learn myself and I’m still trying to find the perfect balance for me.