Choice of Games Presents “Creatures Such as We” by Lynnea Glasser

Announcements
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Choice of Games is proud to announce that Creatures Such as We by Lynnea Glasser is now available for free on iOS, Android, and our web site.

Creatures Such as We is a philosophical interactive romance novel where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. It’s completely free, including no in-game advertisements and no in-app purchases.

In Creatures Such as We, living on the moon is lonely, and stressful, and exhausting. Video games have always offered you an escape to a better life. The easy, happy life you wish you had. Which makes it so frustrating when the game you’ve been playing ends badly. But you have a chance to figure it out, because the next tourist group is the game’s designers. You can debate with them about art, inspire them with the beauty of outer space, get closer to any one specific designer in particular, and finally find out how to get the ending you always wanted.

  • Immerse in the beautiful setting of a moon-bound tourist destination a tourist destination.
  • Explore the meaning of gaming as a form of artistic expression with a cast of game designers.
  • Inspire profound discussions, courage, and even love with the visiting space tourists.
  • Six unique character paths, with options to be romantic or maintain strict professionalism.
  • Play both your character, and the character of the game-within-a-game.
  • Decide for yourself the best way to bridge the gap between game players and designers.
  • Inclusive options for gender identity, orientation, race, and age.

Creatures Such as We is One of the Best Games of IFComp

Lynnea wrote Creatures Such as We in ChoiceScript as part of the 20th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (IFComp), where it took second place.

One of the beautiful things about IFComp is that people post lots and lots of online reviews for IFComp games. Leigh Alexander posted about Creatures Such as We in The Guardian. Emily Short posted a full review and highlighted it in her “top tier” (best of the competition) roundup, calling it “Well-paced and richly written.”

If you enjoy Creatures Such as We, you might also want to try another of Lynnea Glasser’s games, Coloratura, which won last year’s IFComp and won “Best Game” in the 2013 XYZZY awards. Coloratura was originally parser-based interactive fiction, where you type your actions instead of clicking on them, but Lynnea later rewrote Coloratura in Twine, which may be easier to try for those of you who are unused to parser-based games.

CoG fans would probably also enjoy a few other choice-based IF games from this year’s IFComp, including:

  • AlethiCorp by Simon Christiansen, an alternate-reality web site from the future
  • With Those We Love Alive by Porpentine, a game that asks you to draw on your own body with a pen or sharpie while you play
  • Krypteia by Kateri, a game about lycanthropy, but also about queerness and social identity
  • Missive by Joey Fu, in which a series of mysterious letters tell the story of an old love triangle that ended in murder

(IFComp is open to the general public to vote for the best games, and it was very tempting to post about it here, but, in coordination with the competition organizers, we decided not to post about IFComp on our blog or forums until the competition was over, remembering what happened when Choice of Games fans flooded the XYZZY ballot box in 2012. Now that the competition is finished, we’re more than happy to publish Creatures Such as We under our “Choice of Games” label.)

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I really enjoyed this game when i played in in IFComp. Congrats on the placing, and I highly recommend it to anyone considering playing it. Literate and involving, with lots of meta on games, playing and developing in a fun scifi setting.

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I thought this was extremely well done. A few times the discussion of game design got a little too explicitly on-the-nose for me, but other than that it was a great read. Although I do have to be the nitpicky douche that points out the dark side of the moon isn’t literally dark.

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lol come on TumTum it is sci-fi its allowed a bit of embellishment.

I loved the game & hope to see more from the Creator

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This was great! I loved the setting and the characters, as well as the philosophical moments and meta discussions about games (although I agree with TumTum, sometimes it felt a bit heavy handed). This game felt unique and I’d like to play any other content that the creator comes out with.

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It was very good, I was happy with the ending I got - ha! I just figured that ties into the in-game game as well.

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I enjoyed the story and the characters, however I am struggling with a ‘good’ ending. I understand the link to the in-game story but is there a way to different endings with the main story? If not, do your choices really matter?

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I loved Creatures Such as We and I’m glad there’s finally a thread I can discuss it on.

The game always ends with them returning to earth. There are a few variations on that depending on your choices though. There is a good ending in which you can have a long distance relationship, and meet them while playing the game though. Have you managed to get that? I know some of my beta-test feedback involved my own difficulties of getting that ending.

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Yes, it was my first ending. Whilst I liked it I was hoping to say goodbye in a more personal moment, cementing the romance face to face.

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Yeah, unfortunately you got the best ending. All I can suggest it take a suggestion from the game itself and write a fanfiction scene with the goodbye that you wanted.

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I loved this game so much, I spent way too much time beta testing it because I wanted to see all possible content!

While I agree some of the discussion was on-the-nose, I thought it was written well enough to be believable. The character felt solid to me, not mouthpieces to the author. And I loved, loved, loved the parallels between the in-game video game and the rest of the plot, it was so well done and facinating.

The settings were really interesting to me too. Imagine what it’s like, being so close to earth and yet so isolated. Playing video games as a way to connect to something, to search for emotional engagement in something because you feel so distant from everything else. I love that concept.

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As this game was originally written for the IF Comp (with a ~2month judging period), there used to be a feature where you could email each of the NPCs after the game and they (me) would write back, with an appropriate reply. Oftentimes, Grant would offer the player a job at Synthplay (on a different floor) for the PR department. You can consider that semi-canonical, expand on that, or write your own post-game ending. Interestingly, nobody who ended up writing to the NPCs accepted the offer. You could be the first.

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When did you take that out?

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I took that out mid-November, 2014.

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This was the original review i made on AppStore, since i didn’t think it would reach as many people (actually the community i want) im posting it here because i didn’t want to waste it.

Apreciation // A recommendation on “why to play” for readers // A question for writer

First of all, all writers who put their work out there regardless to the answer to art is for artist or society dilemma, should be apreciated. Its beautiful how we get to live the stories and relate -or not- to them and feel wether happy, afraid, mad or sad.

~ A little bit of a SPOILER ALERT ~

In this case, the game gives you the chance to live a beautifully written, philosophical, exciting story that almost everyone can relate to and really feel it. It makes you actually think of certain topics and actually gives you a chance to decide what you think about them, without writers influence. Just give it a try for 10 mins and you will get stuck in the story and i actually found myself playing it in my best moments, (mostly at nights) with the intention not to finish it quickly and be left with emptiness.

We’ve come to my question to writer at last. This will be about the games ending but it doesnt contain a spoiler as much. Still, if you’re like me im sure you wouldn’t want to see this so i warn you for the last time to leave. So, through the game, you make us think about gamers influence on games and how they brute-force the story they want and if art should give an insight on artists feelings, dreams and thoughts. I assume you’ve foreseen that most readers would accept that art is for the artist and in the meantime i assume that you think the same. But i didn’t quite understand why you would add a choice to change the ending of the story. Was it because you wanted to give the reader a chance to see what they were curious about or what they were desperately in need of, another philosophical topic which has been offered to be thought by the reader, in the game “Creatures” about saving Elegy, continuously repeating the game and trying different options. Or was it a cheap sales trick to give that force to readers to satisfy them after a bittersweet ending. Or was it thought more deeply and you thought it would be a good contradiction to first make the readers accept its bad to brute-force and then use that force to satisfy themselves. Or did you want to see if anyone would realize that. Or something completely different. I dont even know if you are going to read this but still, this is my question to you Lynnea. Im sure you will answer this (of course if you want) with complete honesty because i believe in your sincerity.

I will leave my contact info if you wouldn’t want to share your opinion on that publicly, acknowledging that writing this review neither makes me different nor gives me the right to be answered privately. And i believe this is a great community and won’t abuse my e-mail.

okanogluardakemal AT gmail DOT com

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Note: Sorry for those complicated sentences. That shows how my brain works and at the same time it probably shows english is not my native tounge :slight_smile:

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“Creatures Such as We” for me is a beautifully written masterpiece that evoked emotions in me and immersed me in the passage of the game. One of the few games that I really remember and imprinted in my mind. I express my gratitude to the author for creating a wonderful work, especially considering the fact that my concentration suffers in recent times. I love this game. :star2:

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