Into the Abyss: An Interactive Fiction Game
1. Intro
I am a huge fan of crime stories. I would follow podcasts, columns, documentaries, and TV series. I read them almost every day.
When I first found this hobby, I dreamed of becoming Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple — a hero who can help people find their justice. However, as I read more stories that focus on the family, friends, and childhood of both criminals and victims, I’m drawn to understanding the “behind the scene” parts of these tragedies.
This game is also profoundly influenced by a real-life story. I work part-time as a volunteer for an online support group that aims to help parents who have lost their kids. In one of these meetings, I became friend with Yao, whose sixteen-year-old daughter was raped and killed by her classmate in the school dorm two years ago. As a single mom, she is severely traumatized by this tragic loss and she must stand up for her daughter on her own. I admire her courage, and I hope this game can let more people gain awareness and help these people who lost their loved ones.
2. Premise
(1) Settings: Your daughter was murdered by her boyfriend a year ago. With the wish to forget about this tragedy, you moved to another city. But one day, your nephew’s words motivated you to search for what really happened.
(2) Roles:
a. Jen: I (this game is first-person, from her point of view)
b. Julia: my daughter
c. Maurice: my ex-husband
d. Gavin: Julia’s friend from church
e. Lydia: Julia’s friend from school
f. Mrs. Marcus: our neighbor
g. Snowball: Mrs. Marcus’ cat
h. Mr. Hawkins: Julia’s chemistry teacher
i. Police officers
(3) Journey: To understand what really happened to Julia, you go back to your old home. During the day, you talk to people who knew Julia, while in the evening, you look for things in the house. Piecing pieces of evidence together, you will find out the truth — or will you?
(4) Understanding: The understanding I expect my players to get is twofold. The first one is that they would learn the right way to treat someone who is suffering from problems. The second one, since I don’t want to spoil the plot, is something that (hopefully) you’ll learn by yourself at the end of the game.
3. Game
Here’s the link: http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/u4pyzpnevue-cdgixzseaq/into-the-abyss
I’m still working on the dialogues and description, but the structure of the story is basically like this. I also plan to add more options to make each chunk of the plot more fun.
4. Process
(1) Prototype #1: A detective story
As described in my earlier Medium posts, I started off trying to design a game in which the player can pick from two characters. They have two distinct storylines, but their experience would eventually come together. However, it didn’t work because not only was it hard to write two stories that are different yet also along the same line, but it was also almost impossible to coordinate a huge, expansive plot that includes over fifteen locations.
(2) Prototype #2: Grandpa’s story
I made a big shift after the first prototype didn’t work out. I decided to make an interactive fiction about my grandpa so that players (presumably college students or young professionals) can understand how their life decisions affected their life trajectory and even our lives now. I interviewed my grandpa and summarized it into a 2000-word interview script (I promise I’ll make use of that sometime in the future!), and then I realized it is hard to come up with many parallels, especially when writing about something I never personally experienced.
(3) Prototype #3: When you lose your loved ones
I came back to my thoughts about Mrs. Yao’s story. I thought I would write a game about a woman who lost her daughter that ends with the murderer getting a death penalty. But the problem is: there is no suspense, therefore not an engaging story.
(4) Prototype #4: A healing game
I still thought about Mrs. Yao, so I thought I could create a healing game that would help parents in the support group I worked with. However, after consulting other volunteers and psychiatrists, I realized I have too little professional knowledge, and I didn’t want to build something that is very superficial.
(5) Final Prototype (YES!)
