A Normal Lost Phone
Genre: Nonlinear narrative, found-object puzzle
Bundle: Racial Justice
Rating: 📱📱📱📱
(Content warning: high-level spoilers related to the themes of this game, which can be more surprising to encounter cold. However, I feel like the content warnings on the game itself already clue you in on some of it!)
I've mentioned elsewhere in these reviews the quintessentially queer narrative. It's like the Three-Act Structure or the Hero's Journey for queer stories, a trope framework with certain predictable beats that nonetheless leaves a ton of room for surprise, subversion, and creativity. It might look something like...
1. The protagonist believes themself to be cis/straight/etc. and tries to live that way, but something feels off.
2. The protagonist takes tentative steps toward expressing their authentic self, but encounters bigotry in any of its myriad forms: unsupportive family/friends/significant others, queerphobic language, abuse, etc. etc.
3. The protagonist feels trapped and depressed. They withdraw, lash out, or self-harm.
4. The protagonist finds hope. People who accept them for who they are, ways to explore their queerness in safety, often with a covert or rebellious angle.
5. The protagonist is able to "come out" in some decisive way, escaping strictures both internal and societal.
Now, I'm being a bit tongue in cheek here. And really, insofar as this sort of narrative is common, we can collectively hope it stops being so easy to recognize. If bigotry isn't a thing, if people have support and love and can grow and change and experiment with sexuality and gender and everything else without fear of reprisal, this arc is no longer necessary! But for now, this outline (or something like it, described by someone better versed in such things than I) has an important message for everyone struggling in a variously 'phobic world: You're not alone. Others have been through this. You can do it. You are queer and amazing.
Anyway! That all is to say, A Normal Lost Phone absolutely nails this story structure. By wandering through conversations intimate and mundane, accessing new apps and accounts via password-guessing puzzles, and even--very occasionally and carefully--taking action in the guise of the titular Lost Phone's owner, you piece together the parts of that poignant throughline. I found myself impressed by the craft of the game's pacing, which ostensibly lies completely in the player's control, but in practice lands "a-ha" moments exactly when you need them.
I'm told that ANLP kicked off a subgenre of its own, that other games soon followed with their own spins on the phone interface conceit. I look forward to stumbling across them!
Genre: Nonlinear narrative, found-object puzzle
Bundle: Racial Justice
Rating: 📱📱📱📱
(Content warning: high-level spoilers related to the themes of this game, which can be more surprising to encounter cold. However, I feel like the content warnings on the game itself already clue you in on some of it!)
I've mentioned elsewhere in these reviews the quintessentially queer narrative. It's like the Three-Act Structure or the Hero's Journey for queer stories, a trope framework with certain predictable beats that nonetheless leaves a ton of room for surprise, subversion, and creativity. It might look something like...
1. The protagonist believes themself to be cis/straight/etc. and tries to live that way, but something feels off.
2. The protagonist takes tentative steps toward expressing their authentic self, but encounters bigotry in any of its myriad forms: unsupportive family/friends/significant others, queerphobic language, abuse, etc. etc.
3. The protagonist feels trapped and depressed. They withdraw, lash out, or self-harm.
4. The protagonist finds hope. People who accept them for who they are, ways to explore their queerness in safety, often with a covert or rebellious angle.
5. The protagonist is able to "come out" in some decisive way, escaping strictures both internal and societal.
Now, I'm being a bit tongue in cheek here. And really, insofar as this sort of narrative is common, we can collectively hope it stops being so easy to recognize. If bigotry isn't a thing, if people have support and love and can grow and change and experiment with sexuality and gender and everything else without fear of reprisal, this arc is no longer necessary! But for now, this outline (or something like it, described by someone better versed in such things than I) has an important message for everyone struggling in a variously 'phobic world: You're not alone. Others have been through this. You can do it. You are queer and amazing.
Anyway! That all is to say, A Normal Lost Phone absolutely nails this story structure. By wandering through conversations intimate and mundane, accessing new apps and accounts via password-guessing puzzles, and even--very occasionally and carefully--taking action in the guise of the titular Lost Phone's owner, you piece together the parts of that poignant throughline. I found myself impressed by the craft of the game's pacing, which ostensibly lies completely in the player's control, but in practice lands "a-ha" moments exactly when you need them.
I'm told that ANLP kicked off a subgenre of its own, that other games soon followed with their own spins on the phone interface conceit. I look forward to stumbling across them!