Maia hates the cool kids. Now that she has to spend some time with them, though, will she still despise them or will she reflect on her own judgments?
Maia and The Cool Kids sticks poor Maia with a bunch of the cool kids. Being a loner and an outcast, she doesn’t much care for these folks, but she’s trapped with them for a while and can’t do anything about it. This means the teens will all have to talk to one another for a while, and perhaps through those conversations, they’ll all learn a little something about one another.
The game is an exploration of the judgments we often make about people we don’t even know. Sure, the popular kids seem happy, and when you’re miserable, that feels like enough of a reason to hate them. They’re normal people as well, though, with their own problems that they’re facing in their own way. Once you get to know them, maybe you’ll find that they’re a bit more like you than you thought. Hopefully the cool kids are having the same reflections as Maia.
Maia and the Cool KidsĀ offers a cute, touching look at the ways in which we close people off due to preconceived notions about them, and about the wonderful things that can happen when we push through those ‘beliefs.’ It’s a great message that can be applied to many different people beyond teens, as we’ve all let ourselves make calls about people with little evidence beyond stereotype, jealousy, and fear.
Maia and The Cool Kids is available for free on Itch.io.