Reminisce
Reminisce is a Twine Story Game that takes place in a future where it's possible to transfer your mind to a robotic body, essentially allowing you to live forever, and it's finally your turn to perform the transition. Right before it, you're given the right to reminisce about your life. Would you have the courage to stare at your past and let it stare back at you? If so, how much of it would you take with you in this new phase of your life?
I wrote this project in the span of 3 weeks and had a blast doing so. I also edited it based on feedback from two incredible testers.
Narrative Overview
Goal and Theme
Reminisce came to be when I was trying to decide the theme for my new story. Perhaps thinking about that when we're nearing the end of another year helped shape it, as you have this general feeling of thinking back about everything that happened in your life, setting -or reaffirming- goals for your future, etc.
Whenever I see someone talking about how they wish they could go back in time and change past events, I think about how I'm not sure I would. And that's because all the events in my life, the good and the bad, shaped who I am today. And I'm happy like that. Changing even the slightest thing could have unforeseen effects on personality traits or actions. In conclusion, changing certain things in my life could, in a way, negate who I am now.
This got me thinking about these events and how I perceive them: Through my memories. How much would I keep if I could start again and choose what I want to remember?
I wrote Reminisce intending to provide players with an experience where they are asked that very question. Where you would stop and think a little about your past, asking yourself how much of it you hold dear, how much of it you fear, and, most importantly, how much of it YOU believe defines who you are.
Narrative Challenges
Branching Dialogue
One of the key aspects I wanted for this story was to offer multiple meaningful choices and outcomes. This translated into dialogue choices of different degrees of importance and 4 different endings. Branching comes with its challenges, but the key one for me here was ensuring that critical information is delivered, regardless of the player's chosen path. To do that, I had a critical path where most of the crucial information was provided while taking notes where I believed a branch could (and should) be inserted.
In addition, if the nature of a branch demanded that critical information be presented inside, I would ensure that all paths gave players that information in one way or another.
Working with Twine
I started writing Reminisce with Word, but I quickly noticed that it was not the best way of visualizing all the branches in an organized manner. Then Twine came in. The platform is straightforward to work with and supports an excellent visual representation of my work that helps me keep track of routes and branches. I knew I wanted to practice branching dialogue, and I always wanted to try and create a story for Twine, so this project served as an opportunity of practicing both. Below you can see the web of choices for the final version of the story:
Writing the Player's Character
Since my goal was to make the story about the player and their memories, choosing the "lenses" through which they would experience the story was pivotal. I decided to go with a nameless character that would essentially be the avatar for the player's choices to reach the game. In an effort to connect the player with their avatar, I provided little to no detail about the character's past - or genre, for that matter - and their memories. Instead, I tried to invoke emotions rather than facts through my writing. If I gave players points that happened with the character, that would change their perception and affect their judgement, going from possibly thinking about their own experiences to "What would this character do?".
While I'm not entirely satisfied with how effective my approach here was, it showed me how hard it is to make players play as themselves, even more since the story has moments where the character speaks and reacts without the player's input. It's definitely an area that I will be working to improve in future projects.