A pair of Copenhagen-based students are creating an game for the Oculus Rift that tackles the subject of rape.

According to the game’s official website, Autumn is a story about the aftermath of an attack and sexual assault: the struggles and conflicts with fear; the guilt and the shame; but also about perseverance and healing.

Designer Marta and developer Mikkel, who are making the game under the name Tusmørke, go on to explain the reason they choose such a taboo subject.

“We have created Autumn because we believe that an interactive experience, where you literally walk in someone else’s shoes, is the best medium to explain what words alone cannot,” the pair wrote.

“We have created a game that asks of players to experience something very difficult, to have some distressful emotions first-hand.

“It is very challenging to try to project your own personality into the personality of another in order to understand that person better and relate to their emotions, and that is why we wanted to create an experience about empathy and identification, to take you on an emotional journey, and to engage with these emotions deliberately.

“We also believe that the medium of games can be used as instruments of examination of the world around us. Therefor games should be able to address any subject, just like film, music or literature does.”

Marta hopes the game will help change the way society discusses rape, and that it will go some way towards removing the stigma around sexual assault for the victims.

"People have a lot of problems understanding what those who have been attacked go through afterwards," she told Kill Screen. "The constant consequences: the pity, the shame, the lack of empathy. Understanding their trauma gets obscured by all that noise, and the victims become quiet and paralyzed."

Autumn is an entrant in the 2015 Independent Game Festival (IGF). Tusmørke hopes it will see a winter 2015 release.