Artist's Statement

Winter Walk is a game in which, no matter what decisions you take, the end remains the same. As Jeff VanderMeer posits, “every aspect of the journey is important to the writer during the writing of fiction”, and after reaping and playing through Wanderhome, I wanted to challenge myself to create something that embodied the same ideals of prioritizing experience over end-goal and represented my own ideas of interactive fiction (1). In Winter Walk, every journey is (on a surface level) the same, the structure and the narrative varies only in one major way throughout each playthrough. If a player is fixated on the ‘destination’ of the story, they end out missing the majority of the games experience. In addition to this, the section of the game where one writes a ‘poem’ is heavily inspired by the Twine games I had the opportunity to watch within class. If the final destination is one that is heavily restricted and un-malleable, I wanted to provide a moment where players could say exactly what they wanted and see it reflected within the narrative of the game, something I often found lacking from the Twine games I’ve played and choose your own adventure style games in general. Though the words a player chooses to write does not influence anything else of the game, it further reinforces and asks them to participate within the world and embrace. Interactive fiction does not demand that a player be able to make all the decisions about the path of their story, their character, just that they are at least asked and provided with an opportunity to make a change. I hope that Winter Walk is something that is short, sweet and provides that opportunity.  

          1. Jeff Vandermeer, Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction (New York: Abrams Image, 2013), 145.

Citations:

Jay, Dragon. Wanderhome. New York: Possum Creek Games Inc, 2021.

Osworth, A.E. "Twine Games and Interactive Fiction." Creative Writing 312: Interactive Storytelling. Class lecture at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, November 30, 2023.

VanderMeer, Jeff. Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction New York: Abrams Image, 2013.