(2D Visual Novel, Writer)

Fill in The Way [ ]

"How common it is for humans to get lost in the life they’re living. Come, I’ll help you remember a place worth returning to."

Made in 2 days for the SonderingEmily x Juliestrator Jam. Well-received and placed in the top 5 submissions.

Play

Before The Jam

A month before starting at UCLA as a transfer, I joined my first ACM Studio game jam to meet other student developers. Though unfamiliar with my teammates, I was excited and honored that they trusted me to be their writer, and our diverse skills formed a solid foundation.

Before the jam, while deciding on software and tools (Unity, GitHub, Procreate, and Yarnspinner), we proposed incorporating simple nostalgic mechanics like Mad Libs and Etch-A-Sketch and pairing those mechanics with a visual novel. Once the theme, "Home," was announced, we had to re-evaluate.

Initial Design

We considered starting fresh with the theme, but I saw potential in blending the nostalgia of childhood games with the warm feeling of returning "home." I quickly designed a Mad Libs-style template to guide the player back, then adapted it for Yarnspinner, which also served as a game design document for the team to build on.

I filled in the blanks with deliberately goofy options, since the best part of Mad Libs is the player's freedom to craft absurd stories. Writing the dialogue was a blast, especially as it let me make my teammate Calvin say the most outrageous things. His character, the game's narrator, was written to be confused victim of the story's chaos.

Dialogue versus Voice Lines

For this game, I create a branching narrative around a rogue narrator who is forced to adapt his precious story based on the player's choices, much like in The Stanley Parable. The best moments of the game aren’t in the subtitles; they’re in the voice lines that contradict what's in the dialogue box.

An example is shown on the left, with the written line in the third column and the voice line in the fourth column.

The Endings

The writing in this story is fun and hilarious, but my favorite part is the endings.

Fill in The Way [ ] encourages replayability, offering multiple paths and a true ending.

Spoilers below!!

While "home" is often associated with warmth in many people's experiences, family in the conventional sense isn’t always so comforting. Though I’ve had the privilege of growth within my biological family, I wanted to create this game for those who haven’t had that same experience. The family we find can be just as, if not more, valuable than the one we’re born into. In the initial playthrough, the player arrives home only to find it doesn't feel like "home". The narrator suggests trying again, hinting that a different path might lead to a more satisfying outcome. Even after unlocking the true ending, the unsatisfied player character still craves another playthrough. In a tonal shift from the goofy world, the narrator encourages the player to reconsider whether they might be overlooking the "home" they’ve created.

Results!

In all, I wrote four discoverable characters, the narrator and player, two types of endings, and over 250 lines of dialogue (both voice and written), which can add up to about an hour of gameplay when replayed. Below are some responses to the game! I’m grateful to my team for their reliability and dedication to bringing the vision to life!