I MADE A GAME SO PLAY IT. 

I often go on and on about people who study games and write about games having a kind of obligation to understand how games are made and be familiar with the materiality of game creation.

So I did it. I’m not sure that you can call what I have made a “game” so much as it is a linear narrative where you make choices and that sometimes impacts the outcome that you get. It is maybe a game about information, and playing it optimally means getting the most amount of information and context for what it occurring. Playtesting through it a couple times has led me to realize that you can play through and probably not understand a damn thing that is going on.

I am totally okay with that.

The title is a play on the subtitle of Ian Bogost’s Alien Phenomenology, or What It’s Like To Be A Thing. I can’t tell you what it is like to be a thing, but I can always ask it as a secondary, appended question.

What Is Life, or What Is It Like To Be A Thing?

What Is For Dinner, or What Is It Like To Be A Thing?

See what I did there? (or, What Is It Like To Be A Thing?)

In any case, I am eternally grateful to Anna Anthropy’s post on her blog where she made the sources for her various Twine projects available. It is a super resource. She is amazing. These are things we should all know.

PLAY THE GAME HERE.