I just found this twine game, Little Witch Story and I rather love it. I’ll copy and paste the description below since I’m not going to be able to describe it anywhere near as well as the author does.
There’s two different poly relationships possible, a number of GBLTQ characters, and you get to be a witch. It’s in Twine and plays quite similar to how our choice of games do.
Little Witch Story
A lot has changed in the last year. After the growing suspicion that a magical sub-community existed, a discovery was made; the ability to identify the ‘magic’ gene through a simple blood test.
All of a sudden, there was scientific proof for magic.
Forced into responding, the magical community had no choice but to reveal themselves. For the first time, the world was introduced to Witches. People who had spent their whole lives hiding were suddenly thrust into the spotlight, and the world demanded to know everything about them.
Now, a little over twelve months later, things have calmed down but not exactly improved. Legally, Witches are in a grey area. Their DNA is slightly different to the average human, and there are those who argue that they aren’t human, and therefore aren’t entitled to human rights. All across the world, the first wave of legal cases are still underway.
It’s still unclear just exactly what Witches are capable of. Despite experimentation, their magic has proven difficult to categorise or explain. People are afraid, wondering what this means for the future of humanity and for themselves.
Just started playing it. I like it so far! The drawings and music add a lot to the atmosphere of the game. Thanks for sharing it The concept reminds me vaguely of True Blood, except in that story it’s vampires who have been outed to the world at large
The music kept stopping for me. I’m not sure if that’s intention or just Chrome being buggy. I did strangely like it, after I stopped looking for a mute button. I liked the pictures too.
It’s a common theme, one of the themes I love and I really liked how this game tackled it. Since it’s playing on the sort of ostracisation and dehumanisation that some minority groups experience, while actually containing those groups in the game. I enjoyed how it draws the parallels.
As you’ve said, True Blood does it. Or like with Marvel, and the mutants and the mutant registration act. I’m sure there’s other examples too.
A very compelling little game. My one quibble with it is that we don’t understand the magic well enough to know what the hell is going on - but maybe that is intentional. Thanks for showing it to us.
I do like this game so far, though I do wish the author had been a little less heavy handed in the message they were trying to send.
I get they’re drawing a parallel with racism, but… it just seems a bit ridiculous sometimes. Witches have a lot of movies, tv shows, and such depicting them in a positive light. Those stories would color people’s initial reaction to learning they exist.
Regardless, I’m gonna keep going. I’m enjoying it thus far.
@OdicHastings Not just racism parallels, but also parallels with being LGBTQ+ and coming out to parents, friends, society in general, etc. I have never had to go through anything like this, and I appreciated this story giving me just a little more insight into how scary/painful/freeing the process can be. I’ve had friends’ parents disown them because of their sexuality, some come to awkwardly accept them (Sometimes, even with the “acceptance” it’s never the same). This game is short, it can only show so much, but I think it did a decent job, and hopefully it will get people who have never experienced or even witnessed anything like this to think about it a little more.
The story moved me to tears at several points. One of the most heartbreaking endings was you try to suppress your powers but eventually kill yourself. That was a very coarse description, but the ending was well written and touching, hiding your true self is a soul-crushing way to live. So many LGBTQ+ people end their lives early, LGB are 4 times more likely, and questioning youth are 3 times more likely, to attempt suicide as their straight peers. Here’s a site with more stats and sources: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/pages/facts-about-suicide
I appreciate that this story addressed that, and gave people who’ve never had to experience this kind of repression a glimpse into how miserable it is.
I also think that society would NOT react particularly well to finding out some people had magic powers. I think the reaction depicted was fairly on-point. People would be jealous, some people would be excited, but mostly people would be afraid. Being afraid of what we don’t know or don’t understand is (unfortunately) a common theme in human behavior.
Also, I completely understand that this story in no way completely covers all of the experiences that LGBTQ+ people go through, but it’s stories like this that can make readers reflect more seriously on the subject, and call attention to it. I’m going to forward this game to a few of my friends to play.
Seems like the reason things are so dark and gloomy for witches here is that there’s not that many about and they’re all considered unpredictable, it’s not like the X-Men with an entire school to enlist in and wise leaders like Professor X and Cyclops, or the Inhumans with a kingdom led by kind rulers Black Bolt and Medusa. So it seems like here most humans are acting like the Purifiers, if you’re a X-Men fan you’ll know who those are.
I didn’t play all of the game but I did kinda wish that your character had the option to try and be more sympathetic with the parents than the overly aggressive responses given, but that’s just me.
Sometimes parents just suck. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you say to them, they’re still going to kick you out just because of who or what you are. When I played there were a number of choices to be pleasant to them, and it didn’t change a thing.
That said, there is actually a premature ending to the game where you can end on good terms with them. It involves sacrificing everything you are though. If you refuse to put on the uniform, and keep refusing to put it on you get a phone number. Don’t tell anyone about it but your parents.
I’ve found the endings by doing this:
1.Dating Eli
2. Dating June
3. Dating Eli and June
4. Dating Mira
5. Dating Robbie and Davina
6. Taking the “cure”
7. Dating no one
8. Refusing to register if and not telling your friends I don’t know if that one is REALLY an ending though. It’s listed as ending 0/8. I found it like 6th or 7th but it reset my endings counter thing after that. So is it an actual ending or am I missing one?
This sounds great, I’ll have to play it. As for “witches would be more accepted” - at various points in my life I’ve identified as a neo-Pagan, which is basically the closest a non-superpowered human can come to being a “witch”.
There isn’t a lot of institutionalized prejudice - it is legal, there are no more witch trials, and so if someone attacked someone over being a pagan, it would be a hate crime - but it’s not exactly widely accepted. In high school when I wore a Pagan star outside my clothes, people would assume I was a Satanist and not seem to care about the difference if I tried to explain it. People have thought I was crazy, evil or various other things because I followed a fairly harmless and benevolent sort of religion.
I was studying for awhile in Costa Rica, where traditional Catholic beliefs are ingrained into culture. I revealed to a good friend, after knowing him for several months, that I could be considered “a witch” by some people. He was terrified and suspected he had only become my friend because of manipulation through dark magic.
It is not incredible that real witches would face even more of these prejudices. If people don’t understand something, especially if it’s powerful, they tend not to react well.
I have to admit this game did make me think more about the sorts of things certain groups go through, so objective achieved I guess. Though that male Witch is kind of an ass in that one ending for forcing you against your will to go to another facility altogether just cause you’re hesitant about telling your friends because you’re still adjusting to the whole thing. If that was me I’d be ticked at both sides for that.
Quoting both of you because this is one of the things I absolutely love about this game. And thank you for saying that.
It’s one of the things I think games are so much more powerful at doing than any other medium. They can immerse you in the story in a way that nothing else can.
As someone who was heavily bullied at school, and who also got kicked out by their parents, and who was homeless as a result, the story did ring true for me. And didn’t feel ridiculous.
Discrimination, not racism, I’d think. Specifically as @Alliebee explains though, the game felt very much a metaphor for the LGBT experience.
I’ve been thinking about the term heavy-handed too, since I’ve used it before in the past when speaking of stories that tackle issues. But I’m getting to think that maybe I shouldn’t. Sometimes there’s a place for subtlety and sometimes not. Sometimes being heavy-handed, telling these sorts of stories that matter and being oh so obvious about the parallels is the point. Especially in platforms that are giving authors the voice the sorts of stories that they usually wouldn’t be able to. And to be able to use their own words, without those words being controlled and edited by others.
So maybe, when I’m saying that I think people are being too heavy handed, I’m actually sort of saying “don’t shout so loudly about these issues” and that’s not a good thing for me to be saying. Not when they’re important points. It’s sort of trying to silence people. “You can write these awesome stories, please do, but just be quiet about the bits that make me uncomfortable.” When the whole reason they’re telling awesome stories is so that they can do some shouting. (I’m speaking specifically of me here though, when I use I and things I’ve been thinking of, ever since that LGBT argument scene in the second Heroes Rise which really got me thinking.)
The concept reminds me vaguely of True Blood, except in that story it’s vampires who have been outed to the world at large
