Harvest Hunt

Harvest Hunt (Steam) is a first-person stealth horror game based on dark European folklore. I had a great time creating characters, fleshing out the game’s lore, and building up its mysteries. The team were very open to telling interesting stories together, and it’s great to see the finished game out there.
The narrative was well-received as well! People consider it to have “fantastic writing – the lore of the monster, the town and each warden is full of intrigue and character” (Gamer Social Club), and it “captivates by handing out snippets of tantalizing information every night, leaving the player hungry for more. This mystery won’t untangle itself after all.” (Movies Games and Tech)

You, Me and Coffee

I entered Spring Thing for the first time in 2022, and it was a wonderful experience! My entry was a tiny visual novel made in Bitsy called You, Me and Coffee (Itch), exploring your relationship with an old school friend. If you find all the topics to talk about, perhaps it’ll unlock something new, allowing you to say what you’ve really been thinking all this time…
Spring Thing doesn’t have rankings (which is part of what I like about it), but you can receive ribbons – You, Me and Coffee received “Best Two-Hander”, “Most Sentimental” and “Cutest Art”.

Rites of Our Own

If I don’t make a small side game every year or two I get antsy – Rites of Our Own (Itch) was made over the course of a month in 2024. It’s about honouring honouring an acquaintance and finding the perfect ritual to say goodbye. It plays around with explicit choices alongside implicit choices. I’d be curious to see what kinds of preparations people decided to make for their final cup of tea.

…Of course, as is often the case in this industry, I’ve worked on a lot of games which either haven’t come out yet, are for educational purposes, or are no longer available to play. There’s also ongoing work on Elemental Flow, which I can’t say much about yet, but has been really exciting!

Alongside all this, I’ve also taken more of an active role in two organisations I care a lot about – the Oxford and London Interactive Fiction Group (Meetup) and the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain (website). I care about making spaces for people to share the joys and frustrations of their work, while providing whatever help we can, from hosting talks, workshops and playtests to crafting official responses to government policies. It’s a fair amount of work, but I’m looking forward to seeing both continue to grow.

I’ve also started using Bluesky as Flom, if that’s a form of social media you use.

Stay safe, and take care!

First, Dish Life: The Game is out now on Steam (paid), iOS and Android (free). You play through your career as a stem cell scientist, from undergraduate student to professor, and encounter lots of interesting dilemmas along the way. I wrote the story for Dish Life (putting my research experience to good use!), so I’m excited to see it out there.

I also released a short, free game called Reverie which you can play on Itch. It was made for the SubQ jam and had quite a restriction: you could only use 1000 words or less! Reverie is a short, replayable game about relationships and their evolution over time. It’s not an easy topic to cover in a thousand words, so there was a lot of careful editing involved!

(Reverie was actually released a while ago, but I didn’t post about it at the time!)

Restless (play it here)

“You’ve been haunting old Mrs Fagles for decades. Now she’s sold the house, and the new owner’s moved in. Sylvie’s broke, bad at plumbing, and anxious about everything.  And with a living, breathing, fretting roommate, how are you supposed to rest in peace?

Drink blood. Set fires. Tell lies. Give advice, loan out a wedding dress, reclaim your true name.  Remix your dialogue options to reflect your mood or dig deeper into the topics that interest you.”

I’ve been doing more freelance work (writing or art, depending on the job), and this is the first project that’s been released. Working on Restless was great fun! Destina (the other half of Tea-Powered Games) and I worked with Emily Short (a writer I really respect) to make this game in time for Ectocomp. I was in charge of the visuals, so I did my best to accompany the story and fit its mood and characters (…and place the buttons. Restless has many buttons.)

Home (play it here)

Haunt a House Peacefully

Another game where you’re a ghost! I wanted to try using Bitsy for a while, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to make with it. [spoiler warning] Rather than moving between rooms, I wanted you to stay in the same place and watch it change over time. What better way to show the passage of time than a magical realism multi-generational story? It was fun trying to fit an Allende or García Márquez style story in 5 minutes. [end spoiler]

Attunement (play it here)

Anaïs’ monthly magical ritual is interrupted, but perhaps that’s for the best…

I made Attunement for Ace Jam in January. It’s not the kind of thing I write often, but this seemed like a good time to try. I got a little ambitious in what I wanted to implement – it was a month-long jam, it seemed plausible – and I did manage to get most of the interactions in, even if they weren’t exactly what I envisioned. Both Home and Attunement received some nice feedback, which always makes me smile!

Elemental Flow – Sofia’s Side Story (play it here)

“Elemental Flow is a role-playing game (RPG) with conversation encounters instead of battles. Explore a modern optimistic world, where technology has developed to coexist with nature and society has evolved in a cooperative direction.”

I guess it’s only been a year since the demo was up! This is our main project as Tea-Powered Games, so I’ve talked a lot about it in other places. We’re working on the game itself while we look for a publisher, but the demo is a good approximation of what it’ll be like to play the game (mechanically, at least – Sofia’s not the main character of the game proper, so expect a different story)

Also, as you may have seen, I shelved my Bite-Sized Thoughts for now. I really enjoy highlighting games that may not get as much recognition otherwise, but I’ve had a lot more to do, so it seemed better to take a break and start it up again later, rather than post less and less frequently. If you enjoyed using them as game recommendations, I did two twitter threads (here and here) where I talk about games I enjoyed.

That’s it from me! A lot has happened in 2018, and I still have plenty left to do, but I’m looking forward to 2019!

Quick​ ​Summary

Rainbow Bridge is a two-room parser game. Gabriel (the angel) and his boyfriend Demeter are enjoying spending some time together, but their holiday is cut short due to an emergency at Gabriel’s workplace. In order to head back, he needs to charge his sceptre with the seven colours of the rainbow.

What’s Interesting About Rainbow Bridge?

You’re getting ready to leave, but you seem to have misplaced your keys. Your partner’s staying home, so they try to read a book while you look, but they’re secretly thinking of places you might have left them – if you ask they’ll help out, but they’re not in a rush for you to leave, not when you won’t be back for a while. This isn’t the kind of scene you find in a game (except maybe in a clunky early-game QTE tutorial), yet here is a game that is just that. While it’s not novel to say ‘small intimate moments convey a lot about characters and their relationships’, I want to appreciate it when it happens, especially in video games. Besides, there aren’t enough romances like this one around.

Explaining silly-sounding things with mild embarrassment to a loving partner. It happens.

My Play

Rainbow Bridge is short, simple, and pleasant. I tried it while I was playing through (almost) all of the games in last year’s IFComp, and it was as though I released a breath I was unknowingly holding in. The simplicity of the game, and the fact that I was searching for colours, helped me picture the scene in my mind – I wonder what colour the armchairs are? Burgundy, like the bedspread, okay. They almost match the rug, don’t they? While I liked plenty of other games in the comp too, I didn’t hear much about Rainbow Bridge, so I’m giving it some time in the spotlight. Also of note, I rarely try commands like ‘kiss’ – when does it ever feel appropriate? – but it felt like the relationship was there in Rainbow Bridge, that a goodbye kiss before leaving for work would be welcome.

If you want to spend some time in a cozy, snowy cabin, try Rainbow Bridge on IFDB! (In case you’re new to IFDB, once you follow the link, click ‘Play-Online’ to try it)

Quick​ ​Summary

Look for mushrooms in the forest with your grandma. It’s a short, half-hour experience.   

What’s Interesting About Lieve Oma?

You start a new game and find yourself in a new area with a quest and some quest markers. You probably run right at them, missing a bit of explanation text from an NPC who started talking at you. Does this sort of thing happen, even in a game as mechanics-light as Lieve Oma? Well… it could. It doesn’t matter that your grandma said there’s no rush, or that you’ll be fine even if you don’t find any mushrooms, you still run for that shiny item in the distance. Wait, is this question-mark mushroom the right item? Oh, I walked close enough to grandma and she automatically appraised it. You spend the first part of the game running circles around her, turning the camera this way and that to ensure you don’t miss anything. But slowly, as your character opens up more and you’ve played with the world just enough, you’ll slow your pace to match hers, focus more on the conversation than your collection.

Maybe we will have mushroom risotto tonight after all.

My Play

When I say the section above could happen, I’m trying to say that’s how I experienced the game. I enjoyed that it got me to do things that may have been annoying in other games, like following a slow NPC along a path, and spinning the camera around because the trees blocked my view. That’s partially because it’s a short game so I wasn’t losing much time, but mostly because it’s your grandma walking slowly, and the forest is thick with trees and leaves. Why rush when you can admire the view in good company?

If you want to go for a serene walk, you can find Lieve Oma on Itch.

Quick​ ​Summary

As a travelling doctor, you treat a stream of patients, each with a combination of various diseases. Use your mouse to pull out gem splinters, swat mosquitoes and suture wounds to cure your patients before they run out of health! (But don’t worry, you can just try again if you’re having trouble).

What’s Interesting About Wunderdoktor?

How to describe it? Wunderdoktor is a bit like A Mortician’s Tale, but with living beings. …No, now that I’m a bit further in the game, I’d say it’s more like a string of Warioware minigames. …Actually, it also reminds me of Papers, Please, as a rush of patients require your attention but there are some overarching issues to act on as well. In Wunderdoktor you’re an independent doctor who tries to help people (unlike those ill-meaning Quacks!), a story reminiscent of the games above but with a lighter tone. Comparing games to each other isn’t always the most productive endeavour, but the same way each patient’s challenge is similar but different to everyone else’s, Wunderdoktor evolves over the course of its lifespan. It’s a short game that changes without having to give you lots of additional mechanics, instead mixing what you already have in interesting ways or giving them different context, something I always find quite elegant.

Clear all these afflictions in 20 seconds! Yes, with your hand. Just another day in the Wunderdoktor life…

My Play

I played through Wunderdoktor in one sitting (quick dinner break notwithstanding), and only stopped playing because my mouse-hand was in dire need of a rest. Plenty of patients were challenging, but with the ability to restart, it didn’t feel punishing, so I wanted to keep going until I finished. …Then I went back in to tie up some loose ends because my hand didn’t hurt that much, really. It’s a great game to pick up when you’re feeling a bit bored with life and want a dose of weird medicine to spice up your evening. Just make sure you don’t let those mosquitoes roam free for too long!

You, too, can become a Wunderdoktor on Steam and Itch!

Quick​ ​Summary

You take on the role of Zoe, a neuroscientist whose work focuses on reconstructing the dead by saving their memories. When your girlfriend Sara has a fatal accident, you have to choose which memories will be saved, and which will be lost.   

What’s Interesting About What Isn’t Saved (Will Be Lost)?

I went into What Isn’t Saved expecting a struggle, an attempt to weigh disparate values to decide the fate of another. It’s what good narrative games have been known to do, right? However, in this game, my scales changed drastically as I played. You can’t read all of the memories in one playthrough, which means that for your first few sessions you have very limited knowledge of the situation. What you thought was a ‘decent outcome’ at first would not feel the same if you knew about that other aspect of your relationship, about that conversation Sara had with a friend, about her childhood. And what does the outcome, the ending, matter in the end? Why are you still playing, still reading everything you can, when it feels increasingly clear that the whole thing is futile? …There’s still a glimmer of hope, as the end of the game is just the beginning of a new story.

A simple binary choice, right?

My Play

!!Spoiler warning – skip the next paragraph if you’re planning on playing What Isn’t Saved!!

Unsurprisingly, what stuck with me the most was the relationship between Zoe and Sara, and the decisions it led me to. I alternated between wanting to give her all the memories pertaining to the relationship (I don’t want her to take my word for how things were!), and none (isn’t it selfish to value our relationship over her parents, her friends?) After trying to somehow balance the memories to make her as close to ‘herself’ as possible, I could really see the futility of the exercise – how you can only ever capture a fraction of a person. The ending that made me smile the most was the one where I prioritised any memories of Sara without Zoe (assuming, in my mind, that I could recount the joint ones if needed), and Sara woke up with more of a sense of self. I felt I had at least done my best to retain what was core to ‘her’ intact.

But of course, that was my assessment after having sifted through her memories and hand-picked a few to return. And yes, I know I’m using me and her interchangeably with Zoe and Sara, but my/her story merges into one.

You can find What Isn’t Saved (Will Be Lost) on Itch.

Quick​ ​Summary

Charlie, a mortician from Rose and Daughters Funeral Home, prepares the bodies of the deceased and aims to give their loved ones the funeral they most need. Help embalm or cremate the deceased, attend their funerals and see how Charlie’s life changes as her funeral home gets bought out.  

What’s Interesting About A Mortician’s Tale?

While there are many Indie games that treat subjects with kindness and respect, every minute and aspect of A Mortician’s Tale feels reverential. From the struggles of a family-run funeral home to the way in which Charlie bows to show her respect, from the calm music and simple visuals to the emails about best funeral practises, the game feels extremely respectful. The slow pace really sets the stage – there’s no rush, no speeding through ‘boring’ parts of the game, just doing what you can to help other people. You can really feel Charlie’s care and respect for her work, without her having to say a single word.

Charlie during a funeral, paying her respects.

My Play

Time to be a little more candid than usual. I don’t like thinking about death, so I end up dreaming about it instead, usually painful dreams that end in tears. Is it my struggle to believe that there’s anything beyond this life? Is it that I’ve (thankfully) not had to deal with it as much as other people? For whatever reason, I wouldn’t have thought I could get through this game with a smile, but I did. It’s the kind of game that makes me feel like maybe, having played it, I can have a more peaceful relationship with death, and I can think of no higher praise.  

Side Note

Given how many accolades A Mortician’s Tale received, I thought it was too well-known for a Bite-Sized Thought, since I’ve tried to focus on lesser-known games. But despite its praise, it’s not as much of a runaway success as it deserves to be, and the least I can do is tell other people why I think it’s worth playing.
You can find A Mortician’s Tale on Itch, Humble and Steam.

‘I didn’t know this was here. Eight years and I still feel like a tourist,’ he says, crossing his arms against the cold.

‘It’s easy to follow the same routine,’ she smiles as she makes her way to the swings. ‘But if it makes you feel any better, most of this was added after you started teaching here.’

She swings slowly at first, tentatively, but soon speeds up in earnest. She stretches her legs on her way up, folds them on the way down and pushes off against the ground when she can. It’s a bit awkward; she doesn’t quite fit in the swing, but it’s clear she’s enjoying herself.

He leans against a tree in silence. A few minutes pass.

She stops abruptly, looking sheepish; only then does he approach. Each step is a soft, squeaky thump on the playground floor, a sound quite incongruous with his formal shoes.

‘Sorry about that,’ she says, ‘I got a bit carried away. But hey, we’ve killed another ten minutes!’

‘No need to apologise, I was the one twiddling my thumbs in the staff room.’

He’s still twiddling his thumbs now, out in the cold, they’re just inside his pockets. She feels an unease she’s not sure how to deal with.

‘Let’s go back and get coffee. It’s chillier than I thought, and I have lab reports to mark.’

‘I’ve had enough coffee for today,’ he smiles, ‘but yes, we can go back.’

Her response dies in her throat.

He doesn’t like you. You show him your true self assuming you’ll become closer, but the more you swing, the more you laugh, the more you lose him. It’s time you said goodbye – but you can’t, can you?

The walk back takes even longer, as if drawing it out would keep him by her side. Gravel crunches underfoot, the wind picks up again, clouds ever-threatening with rain.

Then I’ll do it for you.

With the campus gates looming, he starts patting his pockets, trying to find his ID card.

She slows down – I slow her down – and goes back around the corner, where she can’t be seen. She’s checking her phone, or looking something up, something unimportant.

I walk up to him. I’ve rarely been so close to him, and never without her – relegated to a corner of her being, I watch in frustration as she progressively destroys any chance of him smiling at her, at us, at me. I’ve only emerged when she’s on her own, but today – now – I’m out. Let’s get this over with.    

He finds his card. He’s about to unlock the gate when he sees me, shadows and thoughts, looking identical to her but not similar in the slightest. My face is a mask, a mockery of her features yet also those features exactly, my reality superimposed on hers.

‘Don’t worry, I won’t bother you again. It’s clear you’re not interested in her – in me – so let’s drop all pretense and move on.’ My words are a cloud of ash, they envelop him for a moment before dissipating.

He is silent, his mouth slightly open.

‘Goodbye,’ I whisper, and it tears me apart to say it – bits of skin and hair come off, forming another dust cloud which rushes to meet him.

He breathes it in, still silent.

I leave, hoping to catch up with her soon, to recede into her depths in silence. She’s just around the corner. I keep walking, my heart thumping in my chest, thump thump thump… No, I’m silent. There is no heart to beat, and my steps are as quiet as a shadow, but his – his aren’t.

I turn back and look into his eyes. He can’t vapourise his feelings as I do, and struggles to use his vocal chords.

‘You’re only half-right,’ he says at last. ‘I’m not interested in her. You, that shadow behind her eyes… you’re another matter.’

I shrink as my disbelief diffuses, permeating the air.

‘It’s easy to think I was mistaken, that I saw something I wanted to see, rather than something that was there. But that’s not the case, is it?’

A smile graces his lips. He reaches out to me, across dimensions.

I try to raise inexistent hands but feel myself tugged backwards, towards her. My anchor, my host, my self.

I struggle, but I can’t defy her pull.

My particles tremble, vibrate, oscillate, ever more desperate, every second an exponential increase in frustration, in speed—

‘—You’re not her,’ his voice cuts in, his conviction steadying me, slowing me down.

His smile grounds me.

He breathes in deeply, and I escape into him.

It’s been a while since I wrote something that wasn’t part of a game. No prompt or anything this time, just something a bit different.