An interactive fairy tale about a young woman, who weds a wealthy man who harbors deadly secrets. Search the mysteries of your husband’s mansion and find a way to survive.
Date Released: 2022
Game Engine: Twine
Platform: Browser
Play Time: 8-10 minutes
Development Process
A detailed explanation of my process developing Bluebeard can be found in my essay, “What I Learned Making My First Twine Game,” published at SUPERJUMP. Some of the key points from the essay include:
1. Illusion of Choice
In order to keep the scope of the project within reason, I focused on creating choices that avoided dividing off into infinity. Therefore,
2. Passage Length
Throughout the the creation of this interactive fiction, I was particular about the length of both passages and paragraphs — drawing on my experience creating concise lines of text as a poet and the page-turn theory of comic book design. Each passage and each paragraph within that passage needed to be short enough to make it easy to read for the player.
In addition, each passage needed to provide enough intrigue to draw the player forward through the game — and in certain sections, create a sense of tension similar to how comic book writers and artist use the turn the turn page. Just as in turning a page, there is a moment before the player completes the act of clicking on the link — and it is this space between one passage and the next where the potential tension lies.
3. Fonts & Colors
Working in a text based format, I wanted to be able to affect the visual experience through the limitations of the medium. Since I did not have access to art at the time of finishing the project, I focused on utilizing font and color to help support the player experience. I used a color palate generator to choose the colors for the links and, in particular, I utilized a background color shift during an emotionally charged moment in the game to reflect the emotional state of the player character.