Firstly, a huge thanks to everyone who played and voted for this game. Second place is amazing, especially as this didn’t seem to generate that much ‘buzz’ on the forum. It may be that some people are surprised this scored so high – don’t worry, me too! Also a big shout out to the authors, the ‘Miss Congeniality’ award is a genuine honour. And of course thank you to my testers - a mixture of people new to IF and resident IntFiction experts: @Draconis, @alyshkalia and @pieartsy.
I should say that for those who didn’t get around to playing this – the game is better going in without spoilers. And for anyone who decided to avoid it because it looked a bit creepy, don’t worry, it’s not that kind of game (but it is guilty of leading you down that path).
So, if you have any inclination to play it - go do that, then come back. This will still be here.
Also, apologies, this post-mortem is far too long. Sorry, but I didn’t have time to write a shorter one.
Ok? Let’s go…
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User log 1 of 9: THE END
So where to start? You know that little animation right at the end? That was pretty much the first thing I did. It contained within it the entire premise – everything flowed from that idea. The entire story was then: ‘how do we get to this point?’. I often wondered if I should go back and tweak it, but I think it still does its job pretty well.
Rewinding further, this wasn’t originally going to be my IFComp entry. The original story was based around playing as a tourist on a sci-fi off-world vacation, taking photos of your various adventures. Creating these ‘photos’ by hand was going to be all but impossible (and there were going to be loads!). So I made a start using the dreaded AI (yes, I know, I’m sorry). It was a fun and genuinely creative process, and I amassed well over a hundred images – but got about halfway through before seeing quite how heated the AI-related debates got on this forum. So I ditched the idea. Sometimes you have to read the room. A small glimpse of what could have been.
With that shelved, I didn’t have as long as I’d like to make something new. So, I figured I’d pivot and try something ‘simpler’, but this time – and a first for me – as entirely text-only!
User log 2 of 9: INSPIRATION
One of the inspirations for the story and especially the ‘tone’ of it came from the TV series ‘Silo’ (if you haven’t seen it, it’s good! Season 2 coming soon). The grimy underground bunker with its ageing concrete, multiple levels and citizens torn between feeling trapped, but also thinking that maybe home is still preferable to whatever might wait outside.
It featured old tech that made it tricky to work out where (and more importantly when) the story is set. That element is something I really wanted to go to town on - making the computers feel different to the main story – where you had to go through old text menus, stumbling across a bit more backstory, finding a random setting that might unlock a door or a report you weren’t supposed to see.
But I didn’t want it to be all doom and gloom. I wanted to lighten the journey and make it fun too. So take the optimism and enthusiasm of a YA story and smush that together with a backstory about the end of the world – kinda ‘Harry Potter and the Apocalypse’.
User log 3 of 9: GENESIS
If I’m going to make a ‘choice’ based game, what’s a good starting point? How about the first choice humanity ever made? A choice that damned us with knowledge, and lost us our place in paradise? Y’know, slice-of-life stuff.
This game isn’t meant to be a celebration or critique of the Bible. I’m not a believer myself, and I think that most(?) Christians would be ok with saying that Genesis is more fable than fact. However, I apologise if any of my thoughts below (or in the game) offend anyone.
With that out of the way, this game isn’t meant to be a subtle allegory, but rather a complete ‘re-imagining’ of the story of the fall (or escape?) of Adam and Eve from Eden. But however you look at it, when you actually go back and read it, Genesis really is quite a strange (and dare I say it, misogynistic?) story.
So, this is a Genesis ‘reboot’! But it still had to include the iconic elements. There is always an apple, there is always a male/female couple and a dominating, Old Testament style ‘Father’ figure (always with a cap ‘F’). Oh, and there’s also a serpent, but in the end, I decided that the serpent got in the way – so in this version, it’s hiding in the background (but there at every key moment).
But I could also tweak a few things too. In this, Eve/Vee is the smarter, braver one who makes an active choice to break the rules for good reason and persuades Adam/Aiden to do the same. But it’s Aiden who has the greater character arc. He starts out as a slightly annoying teenager and is forced to grow up by the end. And even though the final choice to take and eat the apple has an (almost) unavoidable inevitability, it’s the player who still has to actually make that choice (for both of them).
User log 4 of 9: GOALS
The first thing was to attempt to write something that is equal parts story and game – the player needed to have a real sense of agency with non-linear exploration and puzzles that pause, but don’t stop the player – ideally never halting forward momentum for too long. I hope I succeeded there but the answer to that will be different for everyone.
As there are two defined characters, 3rd person, past tense seemed like a good fit (or at least, worth a try). Whilst creative writing is not a big strong point of mine, I just had to hope there were enough elements here to keep people entertained. And whilst the puzzles all serve the story (rather than the other way around) there would be enough locations, items and computer settings that even simple puzzles would take on their own complexity – down to the number of options available.
I also wanted a balance of ‘light’ and ‘dark’. The background story is a bit grim, and the idea of being trapped in an underground bunker with an over-controlling ‘Father’ carries a possible horror vibe. So to balance that, the characters needed to be much more optimistic and upbeat. They give the player the feeling that maybe everything will work out ok. Again, whether that combination works is down to the player.
Technically, I had a few other things I wanted to try:
Create a relatively large play area that the player could get around so seamlessly that they wouldn’t need (or miss) a map. Of course, I had to make my own map just to make sure the space made some sort of logical sense – players never get to see it though!
And because Adam/Aiden is completely familiar with the rooms around the den, there is no need for him to explore, he just picks a room and heads there. So in place of a map, he just has a ‘fast travel hub’ and it made sense to use the lift – as that’s a space that takes on more importance as you progress. Incidentally, creating a lift that eventually became a crucial part of the final puzzle was also an interesting challenge!
I also wanted to have a limited set of items to be discovered and used (and even combined) - crucially all without needing an inventory. That really streamlined the UI / UX. The only time you ever need to worry about items is when you need to use one – and there they are.
I wanted to ease exploration with updating room descriptions and links which include adding tick marks to completed rooms or lock icons to doors that you know can be unlocked later. This does two things: it gives a sense of completion but also indicates where there’s more to be done.
And then there’s the character switching. With two equally important characters, switching between them was integral. I had no idea how to do it in Twine though. I just assumed it was possible because I’d seen something like that done in the ‘Rosalinda’ games. I guess that’s one of those cases where you just keep trying stuff till you find something that works. It had a few tweaks along the way (especially as one reviewer accidentally found a way to break it). Thankfully, it’s now updated and a lot more robust!
Oh and one more thing. Something I’m not sure reviews mentioned. But I made an entire arcade game to fit the theme! There was originally going to be much more integration (with a backstory about it being created by the WHO in a desperate attempt to raise awareness of the vaccine). And the original puzzle was going to require players to actually play the game and check the real high-score table for the top score to get the ‘admin name’ (very transmedia). Probably good that I cut that.
I’m still proud of that game - I know it’s a bit basic, but there’s a lot of work that went into it (I know, that doesn’t necessarily make it fun, or interesting for an IF audience)! It’s an HTML5 game made entirely from scratch using ‘Adobe Animate’. No one uses that to make games these days. I guess I should try learning Unity one day, but that seems like a lot of work!
User log 5 of 9: STRUCTURE & THEMES
So the end came first. Then I wrote the intro section which is purposefully low-key. The player has no real idea what genre it is, when it’s set, or the game mechanics that will come into play later. It sets the scene, introduces the ‘commscreens’, how items work and the fact that there’s this large area with rooms and levels that are all physically connected. And of course, there’s a ‘Father’ figure who sounds like bad news. Then Adam/Aiden goes downstairs, and the game can start in earnest.
Additional game mechanics like character switching and ‘hacking’ the computers are slowly introduced. Then the player gets to the lift and discovers they now have freedom to explore. From then on it’s about figuring out what to do and when to switch characters – and trying to find a damn screwdriver.
Originally, the final puzzle: getting them both to escape (within a turn-based time limit) was designed to be much harder. But I discovered that under pressure, and as the finale is ramping up, failure isn’t actually fun, it’s annoying! So I had to find a way to present this so it seemed pressurised, with a complex solution (requiring interplay between them) that’s discovered rather than laboriously figured out – but crucially there are enough ‘nudges’ that it’s difficult to fail. There’s way more time on the clock than the player needs (the player doesn’t know that though)! There’s a moment (it won’t happen to everyone) where Eve/Vee sends the lift down and it auto-switches to Adam/Aiden. That’s one of my favourite bits as it really plays on the idea that despite this being written in past tense, you are directly controlling things in real-time.
I wasn’t sure quite where to place the ‘reveal’. I mean sure, some people would get the idea just from the cover art (shakes fist in mock anger!). However, much of the game is keeping players too busy doing other things to spot all the little clues. If I was going to stick to a literal apple and the choice that Eve/Vee has to make, then that moment would be the reveal. I even keep that bit just off the critical path, so it’s possible to miss it entirely. I’m sure some people got it way before that though (and that’s ok). I think there were a few who were less enamoured about the ‘Adam/Eve’ theme. Despite that, I think most enjoyed the puzzle-solving adventure – and as that’s the majority of the game, that’s fine!
Whilst this is an adventure mystery about two teens trying to escape from the bunker they’re trapped in (which ends up being an ‘escape from Eden’ story), there are some secondary ideas shoe-horned in there too. A coming-of-age story where the young adults see their parents as over-controlling and are desperate to leave home and live their own lives. And the flip side of that – it ends with a father’s point of view: ‘empty nest’ syndrome and the fears and responsibilities of parents over their kids. There’s also a bit on the idiocy of vaccine deniers, and the importance of diversity - especially in a world that seems to be becoming obsessed with immigration whilst their own populations are ageing and their birth rate is slowing.
…but that’s all side stuff that people can easily ignore.
User log 6 of 9: UX / UI & TOTALLY NOT WORDLE™
As a graphic designer, a text-only game was actually a little daunting. This was going to be less puzzle-based, less ‘escape room’ and more story-based than previous efforts.
So what can a designer bring to IF? Well, UX is important. I guess since my first Twine game I’ve been developing my own personal style and ‘interpretation’ of what a Twine game looks (and plays) like - and I’ve built on this each time. This one actually makes use of a LOT of the stuff I developed for my previous Twine ‘remake’ (see Spring Thing ‘24). I don’t really know what is and isn’t possible with Twine so it’s all just: aim high and get as close I can. (Side note: one of the puzzles requires you to use some ‘Twine’ - I know! So meta).
Despite no images, the visual aspect was still important. I chose a classic serif font (Merriweather) to give it that ‘book-like’ look (I even went through every. single. quote mark and apostrophe by hand, replacing inch marks with true quote marks just because it looks nicer). This also contrasts nicely with the monospace font (Chivo Mono) used for the computers. That helped to visually differentiate between the systems and again, made the tech look ‘old’ so the player isn’t sure when the game is set. The monospace font also makes the ‘decryption keys’ easier to check – as the letters are all in the exact same position.
Talking of the ‘decryption’ puzzle. I wanted a mechanic for ‘hacking’ the computers - something more interesting than ‘find the password on the post-it note’. Yes, ok, what I ended up with was basically Wordle (©NYT). But that wasn’t what I was originally going for. I had in my head something more like the hacking from Fallout 4 (which ok, is also a bit wordle-like too). The end result was the best I could manage with my humble coding skills. It took a while to figure out a system that actually worked, looked good (on desktop and mobile) and was easy enough for the player to work out without having to explain the rules.
Naturally, the original idea was that you’d have to hack every terminal and the puzzles would slowly get trickier with each one. I built in a ‘skip’ word just for testing, but fairly soon I realised that the hacking game had a shelf life before folks would start to get bored with it. So later, when I started cutting things to reduce play duration, that was one of the first things I changed. After doing it 4 times, the user discovers the in-game ‘skip’ code.
User log 7 of 9: PACE
This was an interesting one. Because the story has a structure and a natural arc to it, I felt the idea had an ideal duration - any more than 2hrs and it might start to run out of energy. And of course, the Comp has a judging cut-off at the 2hr mark and this game doesn’t work so well unless you get to the end. But… my first playtester took well over 4hrs! So, I had to cut and streamline and try making the puzzles easier to speed things up. And I think this process actually ended up being hugely beneficial.
Whilst this may not always be true, I suspect it’s a good place to be in when you have too much content. Almost half the time I spent on the game involved cutting, editing and streamlining. Towards the end, pace became the overriding factor - ie. does this bit help or hinder?
And it’s really tough to cut stuff! (see: why is this post-mortem so long) Everything felt like it was in there for a reason, it all added to the story, but I would ask every tester (and even PM’d some reviewers) for suggestions as to what I could cut. My focus was on frustration points - what slowed people down. I would then either cut it completely or add a ‘nudge’ or extra bit into the conversation system to help point the way.
Whilst there are no in-game chapters, it’s fairly clear early on that there are 9 ‘stations’ to find. The stations’ list then becomes an approximate progress guide – another element to help the sense of momentum.
Although the end result is a smoother game with more obvious flow (and hopefully with the deadwood removed), play time is still a complete guess. The more options there are, the more variability there will be between players – reviewers ranged from just over an hour to almost 4 hours. The average seems to be in the 2hr range.
User log 8 of 9: HINTS
There are two levels of hints built into the game.
The conversation system got more complex as it tried to cover all the frustration points people might have. By halfway through, I realised the dynamic ‘system’ needed an overhaul, but I never really figured that one out to my satisfaction. One of the issues is that I have no idea when (or if) a player might choose to use it. That means that if Aiden and Vee haven’t talked in a while, their conversation can just fill up with stuff and look odd (depending on what they’ve done). That said, most of the time it works well enough.
And there are ‘nudges’. Nudges come in the form of: ‘Aiden wondered if there was anything else in here that could help.’ They’re added to the room description and only appear when you’ve done certain things / visited certain locations. Some only show up on a 2nd, or 3rd visit (and only if the player seems to have missed a key thing they need to do).
Nudges are the ghost trails left behind by other players. If you ever see one, that’s because some poor playtester (or reviewer) before you got stuck there or missed something that frustrated their progress.
I’m sure a few people found all the various hints made the game too easy, but that’s a small price to pay for more people being able to complete it (and I’m aiming at a wider audience, perhaps even folk who have never tried IF before). The goal is to create a ‘guided’ game without making it toooo obvious. Again, whether that works is down to the player.
I also tried to balance the slow ‘drip’ feed of backstory, with the ‘frustration graph’ of puzzle solving. It’s tricky to match up when players can do things in any order, but ideally, a harder puzzle is rewarded with a bigger reveal. Make the puzzles too tricky or obscure and the graph gets spiky. Every big spike risks greater frustration (but potentially a greater sense of reward when it’s solved). Smooth out frustration to increase the pace, but smooth it too much and you’re basically just turning pages. I also wanted to avoid too much of an even distribution – in this game, I was aiming for a ‘lumpy’ rather than ‘spiky’ graph!
I’m probably just authorsplaining now to folk who have far more experience doing this sort of thing.
User log 9 of 9: IN PLAIN SIGHT
This is the third story where I’ve hidden the central premise in the title. I think I’ve probably exhausted that idea now!
Naturally, the most obvious ‘hidden’ thing was the title: ‘EDEN’, but give yourself bonus points if you spotted any of the below:
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The ‘serpent’ has a role to play in this story, but it hides in the background, guiding our characters onwards. Here’s the first time it crops up: “…something about the snake-like tear in the wall unsettled him. Everything beyond that wall should not exist…” It appears many times, at key moments later on.
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The strange bone-like object Vee finds in the Medical Research room - the one they were both cloned from? A human ‘costae’ - ie. Latin for rib.
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The binary code that flashes up any time you try doing something on one of the computers. Yeah, of course, there’s text hidden in that. That’s half of ‘Genesis’ in binary form.
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And did you find the one spot in the game where they can actually see each other? For anyone wondering how to get that last ‘survival rating’ point, it’s there.
I did warn you it was long. Thanks for reading!
This game has taken a lot of time and effort to create. It’s fantastic that it got some recognition, but the one downside of getting second place is that I now feel duty-bound to make another!
A post-comp version has been released, with a few minor tweaks and additions – including a few more ‘nudges’, a complete guide / walkthrough and some more info at the end of the game such as an explanation of the ‘survival rating’ score.
(not me guiltily recalling the time in Spring Thing I commented on someone’s incorrect smart quotes . . .)
I, errr, didn’t realize there was a real game! I think I told Aiden play it once (I think I actually thought “hmm, am I going to have to beat the high score or something to progress”), read the description and was entertained by the idea of the WHO making a game. But then I got back to work on my critical in-game objectives!
