Welcome to (a more complete version of) Apartments.! This is an IF game about two friends finding mystical and surreal things.

For this newer version, emphasis was placed on telegraphing possible decisions for the player to make, some much needed line editing, and a limited amount of visual editing (It’s colorful now!)

After several years of poking around with this game, I feel like I’ve finished! This game was a real learning experience. It was my first one, so I spent a lot of time learning the game engine, as well as learning how a player might experience game narrative (and how that experience differs from other forms of narrative).

The first thing I created was the narrative shape (a shape like two neighboring trees). I wanted the player to experience interacting with a place, similar to my experience playing Bethesda-style open-world RPGs, where I meander, inspect objects and read item descriptions.

Next I sketched out the two studio apartments. Mapping out the levels was crucial for me to create a game with continuity.

Then, I wanted to gamify the experience (with a constraint of creating something I could realistically code). I added some small puzzles, and created a few opportunities for player choice leading to a variety of different endings (Although, the narrative really only has one ending, with the two characters developing a stronger bond.)

Lastly, I edited for brevity, clarity, and aesthetics. I believe editing is critical for making a good story, no matter the medium. Because there were no time constraints, I spent a lot of time editing, in the same way I pour over a poem I am making, so that the writing achieves my peculiar and indescribable expectations.

If I were to make a sequel to this game, it’d probably revolve around two characters (not these two) exploring a space together, discovering surreal and mystical things. The player would play from a “we” perspective. This way, I wouldn’t have to create two seperate narrative shapes.

I hope you enjoy playing this game as much as I enjoyed making it!

Link:

Apartments. (revisited) on Itch.io

Play Duration:

30 minutes

Publication date:

September 12th, 2023