FRAGMENTS OF ME

Narrative Design and Writing

For this project, I wished to explore the idea that people are a collection of the habits they pick up from others, or are made up of the influence others left on them. I also wanted to reflect on what happens to those habits when the people who gave them were no longer in the person's life. This project concept came about due to the isolation of lockdown and lost friendships I experienced throughout my own life. 

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For the narrative design, I decided that due to the time limit, it would be a short game and intended to be a single playable experience. I wanted the paths to be similar in their flow and key words, allowing for quick test and transfer of code, while also pushing myself to have a consistency between the various elements of the narrator's personality. I hoped that the similarities in the branches would also reflect a pattern in the narrator's life for any players who decide to replay the game. It would show that the narrator is trapped in their own thoughts. This part was also shown as the game goes on, the narrator going from introducing themselves normally to disconnected inner thoughts. When writing, I intended for the narrator to be looking into a mirror, trying to piece together who they are and falling into a rabbit hole of self reflection.

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The disappearing text and timing was planned, not only to give me experience with Twine's features that I hadn't used for Manzil, but also to emphasize the fleeting nature of these relationships. The text disappearing when clicked showed that the new state of the person overrode the old, fond memories held by the narrator. The timed events showed how the passage of time changed or influenced the beliefs of the narrator.