I beheld The Message, and it surprised me. Yet once I saw it, I knew it could never have been anything else.
A short Twine game about space and the mysterious things inside of it. Specifically about New Horizons, and how its flyby of Pluto in 2014 changed the world forever. Written by me, illustrated by my good friend Dominik Johann. Made in a couple of days for Rami Ismail's Fuck This Jam, a game jam about utter ignorance for conventions and hate for established genre rules.
This was the first game I actually released into the wild, which at the time was a very nerve-wracking thing for me. I think we were ridiculously lucky with the amount of attention it got, but I'm proud of it nonetheless. I've written somewhat of a post-mortem on my blog.
Videogames for Humans #
The Message is one of the games featured in Merritt Kopas’ Twine anthology Videogames for Humans, so I guess this makes us published authors. Please go buy the book, it's pretty good.
Words & Recognition #
The Message does a terrific job of setting a grim, disturbing mood for the state of the emotional state of planet Earth, and by the end, well, you'll understand why.
the message is a brilliant, artfully written, suspenseful game.
Highly Recommended
The Message is wonderful. The Message is wise. The Message will probably make you beautiful. Play it. Don’t let me spoil anything for you.
Here’s a deeply chilling Twine story about the perils of space exploration in a universe where we are not alone. If you don’t suffer from any major heart conditions, the tense build-up of The Message comes highly recommended.
The Message explores the human psyche so deeply, and you can beat it in less than 10 minutes. 9/10.