Wayfarers postmortem and swag

[linkedstories]

Wayfarers was my first Twine game. I initially wrote it as a creative writing assignment way back in 2013, and I never got over the uneasy feeling that a straight-forward text was not the right format. My first readers were not gamers and were largely confused by it, to be honest. They most resisted the fact that we were starting in medias res with Chapter Four. But that was my favorite part!

Here is a screenshot of what the very first draft looked like. I tried using different fonts to differentiate passages:

In 2021, I was inspired by what I’d seen was possible in Twine when I played a game called unfolding… But it took me until late 2024 to start work! I ditched the Chapter Four opening for a time…then brought it back. I loved it too much! I entered Spring Thing to give myself motivation and a hard deadline for the project.

Since Spring Thing, I have soft-launched Wayfarers on itch.io, so you can check out the new version here. For the full making-of story, you can check out my devlog, but I want to share some of the key takeaways I got from Spring Thing 2025.

On Writing

@wolfbiter

I’m not sure I totally understood some of the plot points, although that could certainly either be a flaw in my reading or the intended effect.

Oh gosh, even I wasn’t totally sure of what some things meant, and so many readers, including this one, put pressure on me to refine that. I pray the new version answers questions more satisfyingly.

@dgtziea

I think the only real thing is that the commentary is pretty heavy-handed at points.

Thank you! Another reviewer also pointed out this heavy-handedness. I completely revised the opening of the game and went through the game sniping the moments that were just too navel-gazing. I added in a few more specific details about Zero’s life to get at why she enlisted.

On Gameplay

@dgtziea

One other note: there’s a major choice near the end that was presented in a couple of in-line links (those are links which are words within a passage, as opposed to for example links that are at the very bottom of a page). And there were a whole bunch of warnings on the page telling me it was an irrevocable decision, and I still clicked on the first inline link before I read the rest of the page. Oops, my bad! But as a general design choice, should major choices be in-line links?

In answer to this question - no, major choices should not be in-line links! Thank you for pointing this out. It taught me a lot about how I was teaching the reader to navigate the story up until this point. It was unfair to have these choices displayed as in-line links. I changed the format in the revised version. I also added clickable arrows so users know when they’re moving to subsequent passages. I am not totally satisfied with the look of the arrows, but I’m waiting for inspiration before I change them.

@iaraya

A most linear game with most choices being inconsequential until the very end (including some strange parts where the game presents multiple options but only one is clickable?)

I couldn’t change how linear this game was, but this did make me think deeply about what players are looking for in their interactive fiction. I am toying with some ideas for next time.

Some other changes I made based on reviews: Folks were frustrated when the “back” arrow seemed to randomly disappear, so I made sure you can “go back” at any time; (I think there is just one instance in which you cannot.) I also created a Journey+ option so players can experience other story endings more easily.

On My Work Process

This process made me realize that I am a shy perfectionist, and I tend to hold on to projects until they are “perfect.” Well, guess what - they never are! I am so glad I had a deadline and a community of people who were ready to try my work, including my friends/beta readers before Spring Thing, and Spring Thing players/reviewers. I also gave myself September as a deadline to launch on itch.io. It feels good to have this work out there.

Thank You + Swag

Thank you everyone for playing!

I created some Wayfarers swag as a design experiment - a bookmark and vinyl sticker. Here is a pic my beta reader/player snapped of hers:

If you are interested in this bit of swag, send me a note! I can mail you some Thank you again!

[mathbrush (Brian Rushton)]

Thanks for sharing this! I love the kind of story you told in Wayfarers (anything with multiple worlds/realities is cool in my book.) I also liked the way the game looked overall, and the relationships between the MC and the other player. I would definitely look forward to more games by you in the future.