You’re Gone
As my first game, I played an HTML-based game called You’re Gone by Madison Rye Progress on her personal website. In her own words, You’re Gone is “an exploration in grief, told through instant messages to a dead loved one. All you need to do is send the messages. Hard as that may be.” You’re Gone was indeed a story from the perspective of an individual who is grieving the death of a partner. It has a linear storyline where the player has no text- or choice-based input — rather, the only action they take is to click to reveal more text messages. I played the game for just over 30 minutes.
The target audience seems best suited to mature, reflective players who are comfortable with heavier themes in games. You’re Gone leans almost entirely on embedded narrative – the story is pre-written, but as the player clicks through the messages, we slowly unravel more about the relationship and family situation surrounding the death of “Lee”, whom the player is texting. These one-sided text messages are the entire structure of the game, and I noticed myself stepping into the shoes of Markus, who is the grieving individual. While I have not experienced the loss of a close one, I can easily imagine how relatable Markus’ experience is for someone who has experienced profound loss. It seems like You’re Gone tries to build empathy for the isolation of grief: there is an urge to keep talking to someone who is no longer here. By putting the player in Markus’ shoes, I felt some of his helplessness and grief as I read, despite not experiencing something similar myself.
You’re Gone is most similar to a kinetic novel, since it has a linear storyline with zero player choices or branching paths – the only step forward is to click through the pre-written text messages. It removes any player agency or control, and perhaps that was an intentional choice. It’s almost like grief hitting you in the face and leaving you out of control, with no options – just like the design of this game. Messaging someone who has passed has no meaning, but we do it anyway out of helplessness and grief. We don’t want to admit that they’re gone, but we also need to move forward – it’s a way to cope in the meantime.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the game. I doubted that an interactive fiction game with no player input could be “interactive”. However, I learned that the game designer’s choice of removing player choices and input can carry so much meaning. Here, the constraint mirrored the emotional reality of the story, and it was an intentional choice made by the designer that worked really well. My one criticism would be that this constraint could be a double-edged sword. While I loved the simplicity, my attention span drifted at times over the 30 minutes that I played. Adding small variations in the pacing or inputs could potentially help the player stay on the game until the end.
Coming Out Simulator
The second game was another HTML-based game called Coming Out Simulator by Nicky Case on itch.io. In his own words, “you play as a semi-fictional version of me, on a night that changed my life forever”. In this game, we play a semi-fictional game through the eyes of Nick, who came out to his Asian parents about being bisexual. Contrary to You’re Gone, Coming Out Simulator was a choice-based, branching-style interactive fiction (although as far as I know, I believe all choices lead to the same linear storyline). I played this game for an hour, twice to compare outcomes.
Coming Out Simulator mixes enacted and evocative narrative. While the scenes seem to be more or less fixed, the player chooses how Nick responds to his secret boyfriend Jack and his parents. The player’s choices are usually either to lie, deflect, or tell the truth. While the choices don’t sway the linear timeline of events, the player is doing the act of “coming out” at a family dinner table, which incurs some family conflict. Moreover, after the world is painted as Nick’s semi-autobiographical story, we are asked to relive this night and weigh the choices against Nick’s real life. The interface mimics a messaging app window with fast-moving dialogue between the characters,
From Coming Out Simulator, I was inspired by its use of interface. Most conversations are done “in-person” within the game, except when Nick is texting Jack, but I loved the overlay chat window as the conversations progressed. While none of the choices can affect the outcome, which might feel hollow for some players, perhaps this is another intentional decision by the designer – the “illusion of choice” seems to reflect the game protagonist again, because he has no choice but to switch schools and break up with Jake, according to his toxic Asian parents. Moreover, the mix of humor with the pain makes the game still funny and enjoyable.
Overall, while Coming Out Simulator, I felt useless since it felt like whatever option I chose, my hypothetical toxic Asian parents would shut me down anyways. I think it tried to build empathy for the fear of coming out, especially in such a strict and traditional family, and I was tempted to just lie many times during the game. Therefore, I’d say the game succeeds at building empathy towards individuals in similar situations.
All in all, both games made me feel a mix of emotions, because both built empathy but for heavier and more sensitive topics. Both showed that the deliberate lack of choice or power over the outcome of the game can make an emotion be felt by a player, rather than just read about.
