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I found this one thanks to a post on Indie Games Festival. While Gamer Mom is described as a text adventure game, and "a character adventure game" on its own site, I'd say it has more in common with visual novels. No puzzles to solve, no need to input commands, and the graphic user interface just allows the player to click on a choice to continue.

This is essentially a short story about a family's conversation. The mother is talking about World of Warcraft, and she is trying to get her family interested in her hobbies. There are multiple endings.

I'm not sure if it would be fair to compare this to the indie game Facade. Someone else probably knows far more than I do about it...

Haven't played the game yet, but I just wanted to say that the autobiographical comments in his code (The one linked in the comments on that page) are very interesting. Definitely pulled my interest, not only to the work but to his person as well. Will definitely play in a bit.

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This. Is. Depressing.

Can't get them to listen. Walkthrough, anyone?

edit: no walkthrough necessary.

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Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Writer for Pet Project II: Heavy Petting
More about me in my blog

Played it too. According to the game creator, there IS a good ending, though some people spent 1-3 hours looking for it and didn't find any. Apparently it had a heart image of some kind? Of course, good is pretty subjective too so...

It's a depressing game, but also very thoughtful. If nothing else, it's a good exercise in empathy.

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I played it and felt sad. Very sad... I don't even play WoW... The portrayal of the family seems pretty realistic.

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The "heart ending" is an open ending, at best. It's a small, small sign that someone in the family still feels at least something for the mom. Though if you think about it, she's still not really anybody's priority...

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Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Writer for Pet Project II: Heavy Petting
More about me in my blog

Maybe it's just me, but I don't particularly find this depressing. Not at the level of The Company Of Myself, All That Matters, Don't Look Back or You Have One Chance, no. Maybe it's because of WoW as the subject matter, which I personally see as a frivolous thing anyway.

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Because there is no such thing as too many variables.

I think it's not the lack of family's interest for WoW that depressing, but how they treat the mother like that... at least that's for me. They could at least pretend to be interested and then politely (or cleverly) reject.

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For me, it's more because this is just another day for her - that is, this has been her life for a long time, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. And I feel that it wouldn't have made any difference if she had wanted them to go on a picnic, or visit a theme park, or go fishing. The reaction she would have gotten would be pretty much that exact same thing. Being ignored is a pretty hurtful experience. Of course, that's my interpretation of the game based on a lot of assumptions.

@Taleweaver

Y-You got it!? @_@ Do you have any kind of walkthrough/tip on how to get there?

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I can see that, yes. Still doesn't make it too depressing... if only because in today's world this is supposed to be commonplace. I can easily see where the daughter and husband is coming from here: "Bah, my old woman and her good-for-nothing hobby again" and "Good gosh, can't she see that I'm propping this whole family up all the time? Why not do something more productive and leave me alone?" respectively.

There is also the fact that, as I said, WoW is a frivolous thing. That the mother brings it out as a (good-intentioned) attempt to bring the whole family together just screams juvenile and irresponsibility to me. Now, if the subject matter were something much, much more important - a distant relative on the mother's side of the family being sick and she wants the whole family to help out, for instance - the message would ring home that much more powerfully. Or better still, don't mention what it is that she is trying to persuade the family to support her to focus on the fact that she is being ignored rather than her hobby is being ignored. Not that the game doesn't try to portray the first, but the second is too much of a red herring.

Just my two cents. At the end of the day I guess it boils down to perspective.

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One Province Minor - 120 class variables and still counting!

Because there is no such thing as too many variables.

Exactly.



This is why I consider this a piece of good, even brave writing. Denying your readers a happy ending if the story can no longer have a happy ending is a daring task.



Well - not I got it. Someone on jayisgames got it:

Open ending.

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Scriptwriter and producer of Metropolitan Blues
Scriptwriter and director of Daemonophilia
Scriptwriter of Zenith Chronicles
Writer for Pet Project II: Heavy Petting
More about me in my blog

Tried it once again, thanks for the walkthrough

_________________
"Double the princesses, quadruple the fun!" - Haken Browning (SRW-OG Endless Frontier)

DeviantArt Account
MoeToMecha Blog (under construction)
Lolicondria Blog (under construction) <- NSFW