28Traumacore
Read personal memory through objects that are covered, kept and mended.
Definition and context
Traumacore is an online label for personal imagery involving vulnerability, fractured recollection and lost safety, often using childhood or everyday material. Boundaries vary between makers and communities. An image does not establish its maker's medical history. These original intimate spaces translate an expressive approach without depicting a real person's experience.
People and ecology
A person may remain absent while clothes, folded photographs, a toy and a retained gap carry the story. Pets and plants may participate in comfort without automatic therapeutic meaning. Recordings and photographs carry fragments; their interruptions matter more than their age.
Spaces and forms
Bedrooms, lockers, spaces under beds and school corners stay close to the body. Partly cover one photograph and leave a faded rectangle where another was removed. Keep room to sit and sort belongings. Specific absence and repair can carry more personal meaning than total destruction.
Color and materials
Soft cloth, plain paper, tape and erased marks create distinct layers. A rough local covering can coexist with gentle color. Patches should join actual seams, and folds should change paper shape. Avoid applying one dirty texture everywhere.
Light, composition and scale
Keep one comfort object clear and leave quiet space around it. Side light reveals folded edges, impressions and stitches. A cropped or covered photograph need not expose a person's expression. Compose preservation and loss together.
Sound and graphics
An incomplete recording, a pause, erasure and fabric movement can shape sound. If handwriting is used, give it a particular speaker's pressure and revisions. These illustrations communicate through objects rather than borrowed distress quotes.
Motifs and distinctions
Compared with kidcore, the emphasis falls on interrupted private memory and comfort. Unlike dreamcore, impossible space is unnecessary. Blood, dolls or sad sentences alone do not define this approach; quiet imagery can also carry it.
Ideas for game environments
Keep a cloth pouch repeatedly handled. Relate a missing photograph corner to an empty drawer space. Interrupt an otherwise recognizable recording with one pause. Sorting, looking and listening can reveal a private relationship without assigning a diagnosis.
Read scene descriptions
Main environment
A mended plush toy remains clear beside a bed. Partly covered photographs, old tape, folds and a faded empty rectangle suggest repeated handling. Quiet space focuses attention on preservation, absence and comfort.
An adult sorts a folded photograph beside a plush toy and cloth pouch.
A cat, old blanket and tended plant retain a quiet domestic presence.
Paper folds, tape and uneven stitches show covering and keeping.
A paused recorder and partly stored belongings suggest an incomplete record.