itch.io

Ah, I see. Then Maria had many things to say like “my original target was Critique” although it’s not certain how that would have helped. But I was thinking at the end “hmm she really got to pick her words carefully now”. Reversely, the fact she was so clumsy/honest at the end made me think she wasn’t a professional spy and therefore it made me want to believe her, that she was genuinely a civilian who loved poetry and was picked for her affinity with the library but she ended up just sharing what she loved with someone who needed it.

But as always in these spy “love” stories, timing is key: the spy who reveals themselves before being uncovered gets more trust than those who wait to be uncovered. As an afterthought, since Maria really got close to Tractatus, I think revealing herself one day before the departure would have actually been a good timing, to give him one night to think over it. But then that would be a rather different story (the kind that is not kinetic and where you can choose to forgive or punish, maybe).

In fact, after playing the game I kept thinking a lot about it and possible endings. I think it’s good, as John Truby called it the “endless story”, when you keep thinking about the story after reading it, it means it was impactful and connected to universal themes.

For instance, when both characters went into the star I thought the two would disappear and their absence would allow to bring another balance to the universe. Maria would have succeeded in her mission but still be shocked as she started getting attached to Tractatus.

Or, the end could be basically the same but a slightly different timing, where Tractatus leaves the ship alone, trying to swallow his sorrow, losing himself and becoming emotionless as before. But then he realises he won’t make it and then he projects the hologram of Maria as an emotional support so he can go on. That would end up the same but give a slightly different feeling.

But I realise that these particular ideas matter less than the reflection I put in them, as a writer, as it makes me work on my character evolution and endings. So the analysis and feedback ends up being more important for myself in the end (because you probably thought about all of this already).

Thank you for making this game, I’ll try to focus on writing more short stories in “closed” spaces like this. And since I’ve been writing 2-character dialogues for O2A2, I’ll try to handle 3-character interactions next!