Project Goals and Intro
web was made for my Writing in Video Games class to satisfy a multimedia assignment. Over the course, I had been interested in researching the unique qualities of interactive narrative, especially stories that only work because of the player’s interaction with a system rather than text or cutscenes alone.
I set out to build a game with a pared-down narrative that relied on as little semantic context as possible. The goal was to see whether a simple sequence of player actions could still create meaning and an emotional response on its own.
Design and Development
The player controls a bug-like creature, connecting nodes across the world and gradually filling it with color. Eventually the bug starts shaking, turns into a node itself, and the player may feel distressed by that loss. Then they discover other bugs that can continue building on the network they started.
The purpose was to create a simple narrative where the player feels their involvement matters and has some kind of emotional reaction to the sequence of events, even without traditional dialogue or exposition.
Visually, the game was inspired by Vib-Ribbon and Asteroids, both chosen to push how stripped-down a game and its narrative can be. The graphics are about as simple as they can get, and at the start of the game there is not even any color. This was also the first project I made using only art I created myself, mostly basic vector graphics. The simplicity was intentional, and I still like the style it landed on.
On the technical side, I learned about Unity particle effects for this project. I wanted a basic particle burst when nodes were connected, and implementing that was one of the most satisfying small touches in the build.
Outcomes and Learnings
My professor said she enjoyed the project and was impressed by the timeframe it was built in, even if there was some room for technical polish. That feedback felt encouraging for a 24-hour build focused more on concept and experience than production value.
Beyond the narrative experiment, I came away with a better sense of how much can be communicated through interaction alone, and with new Unity skills I could apply to future projects. Making all of the art myself also pushed me outside my usual workflow and made the whole thing feel more personal.
Next Steps
There is still room to polish the feel of the game and refine some of the technical rough edges my professor pointed out. For now, though, I am happy with what the project set out to prove: that a very small system can still ask the player to care about what they are doing.
The game is playable in the browser on Itch.io if you want to try it for yourself.