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breakinglight11Ostensibly the fourth scene of my new horror piece Lacuna, after #4 - New Game, #5 - Curious, and #7 - Streaming.
A thing I often struggle with, particularly when I’m still figuring out the structure of a project, is the right speed of information release. I often find myself uncertain of what is good foreshadowing, what is giving too much away, and what is too empty because I’m trying to keep things hidden. This is a scene that is supposed to have early hints of important information under the surface, but neither immediately expose too much, nor waste the audience’s time. I don’t know if I’ve achieved either of those things here, but at least it’s down on paper.
Day #10 - “Inspiration”
From Lacuna
By Phoebe Roberts
AMY WEI, a game journalist
TWIST, Davis Allister-Dolan, game designer and creator of Lacuna
On the Internet, in the present day
~~~
(In a video from Motherboard, AMY WEI interviews TWIST.)
AMY: I’d love to hear about what inspired you for this new game.
TWIST: Well, I found myself in a place where I felt really compelled to do something completely new.
AMY: Well. The last Bone Collector installment didn’t do very well, did it?
TWIST: Heh… I think everybody knows that at this point. But as you can probably imagine, I was going through a petty bad time. Professional disappointment, a bad breakup, and then my dad died. I had all these emotions, and I was feeling too creatively blocked to do anything with them.
AMY: That sounds really rough.
TWIST: You have no idea. So I needed to take some time away. Not just from the games industry, but from my life.
AMY: Yeah, you kind of dropped off the map for a while there. You didn’t even post on any of your socials.
TWIST: Had to really detox from it all. The business, the technology, all the opinions, all of it. To look at things from a fresh perspective.
AMY: So what did you do during that time?
TWIST: Heh, you think I just moped around my house?
AMY: Oh, I didn’t mean to imply—
TWIST: Tempting as that was, I actually got myself out there— out in the real world, away from my little programming cave. I actually did a lot of traveling. And I stayed off my damn computers. Yeah, they’re the tools of the trade, but I think my focus was starting to limit me. I was so obsessed with the functions, how I could use them to execute ideas that were so much bigger than them, I really think they were starting to limit me. So I knew I needed to have some non-digital experiences.
AMY: Like, what kinds of experiences?
TWIST: What do you mean?
AMY: I mean, did you go out in nature? Go to museums? Explore dead malls, I don’t know.
TWIST: Heh, not exactly. But I did go to places I’d never been before. Talked to a lot of people whose perspectives I never considered before. Helped me expand my own outlook, even get a little in touch with my spiritual side.
AMY: Oh, man. Could it be that the techno-visionary discovered religion?
TWIST: Ha! No, I wouldn’t put it that way. But it did help me see the world as more than just zeroes and one.
AMY: How would you describe your new viewpoint?
TWIST: Well, I don’t know if I can put it into a few words. But there’s more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy. Like I said, I was dealing with a lot of feelings that didn’t have a great outlet. Once I opened my mind a little, that showed me other ways to deal with my emotions. And from there, well… that’s where the creativity could finally come back in.
A thing I often struggle with, particularly when I’m still figuring out the structure of a project, is the right speed of information release. I often find myself uncertain of what is good foreshadowing, what is giving too much away, and what is too empty because I’m trying to keep things hidden. This is a scene that is supposed to have early hints of important information under the surface, but neither immediately expose too much, nor waste the audience’s time. I don’t know if I’ve achieved either of those things here, but at least it’s down on paper.
Day #10 - “Inspiration”
From Lacuna
By Phoebe Roberts
AMY WEI, a game journalist
TWIST, Davis Allister-Dolan, game designer and creator of Lacuna
On the Internet, in the present day
~~~
(In a video from Motherboard, AMY WEI interviews TWIST.)
AMY: I’d love to hear about what inspired you for this new game.
TWIST: Well, I found myself in a place where I felt really compelled to do something completely new.
AMY: Well. The last Bone Collector installment didn’t do very well, did it?
TWIST: Heh… I think everybody knows that at this point. But as you can probably imagine, I was going through a petty bad time. Professional disappointment, a bad breakup, and then my dad died. I had all these emotions, and I was feeling too creatively blocked to do anything with them.
AMY: That sounds really rough.
TWIST: You have no idea. So I needed to take some time away. Not just from the games industry, but from my life.
AMY: Yeah, you kind of dropped off the map for a while there. You didn’t even post on any of your socials.
TWIST: Had to really detox from it all. The business, the technology, all the opinions, all of it. To look at things from a fresh perspective.
AMY: So what did you do during that time?
TWIST: Heh, you think I just moped around my house?
AMY: Oh, I didn’t mean to imply—
TWIST: Tempting as that was, I actually got myself out there— out in the real world, away from my little programming cave. I actually did a lot of traveling. And I stayed off my damn computers. Yeah, they’re the tools of the trade, but I think my focus was starting to limit me. I was so obsessed with the functions, how I could use them to execute ideas that were so much bigger than them, I really think they were starting to limit me. So I knew I needed to have some non-digital experiences.
AMY: Like, what kinds of experiences?
TWIST: What do you mean?
AMY: I mean, did you go out in nature? Go to museums? Explore dead malls, I don’t know.
TWIST: Heh, not exactly. But I did go to places I’d never been before. Talked to a lot of people whose perspectives I never considered before. Helped me expand my own outlook, even get a little in touch with my spiritual side.
AMY: Oh, man. Could it be that the techno-visionary discovered religion?
TWIST: Ha! No, I wouldn’t put it that way. But it did help me see the world as more than just zeroes and one.
AMY: How would you describe your new viewpoint?
TWIST: Well, I don’t know if I can put it into a few words. But there’s more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy. Like I said, I was dealing with a lot of feelings that didn’t have a great outlet. Once I opened my mind a little, that showed me other ways to deal with my emotions. And from there, well… that’s where the creativity could finally come back in.
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