Cheshire_Buddha
Member
Love the idea, but I think this would hit a little too close to home for me.
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Emily is Away: AOL Instant Messenger narrative game (creakydooropen.wav)
- Thread starter Miker
- Start date
Tathanen
Get Inside Her!
What's horrifying is that for me the girl was literally named Emily.
Also it was literally 15 years ago.
also I sent it
JigglesBunny
Banned
Were you watching me in 8th grade or something? Ouch.
And for the record, it was Cali, not Emily.
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
Damn.
Milly Osworth
Member
ICQ was my first instant messenger, the sound was so cool.
vatstep
This poster pulses with an appeal so broad the typical restraints of our societies fall by the wayside.
Christ, the feels.
redmetal86
Member
Quite an interesting game.
"yeah, it sucks when people change" looks who's talking emerly :/
Every detail is fucking amazing.
The other girl, Emma, is into the same music as Emily except by one year too late (which possibly means the player character introduced that music to her or maybe he's attracted to her because she reminds him of Emily?). The surfer guy(I think Travis?) gets his shit together and becomes the head of the entreprenur club by senior year. Brad's douchery is signed by him being a guitarist of his band freshman year, guitarist and singer sophmore year and by senior year he's looking for another band to play with presumably because they kicked him out. Also music choices are way to spot on for the era. I loved that Emily is into Snow Patrol, the epitome of generic alt/soft rock of the early 2000s. Also I LOVE that everyone's away page/status are just the cheesest song lyrics.
The Right Deal
Banned
That was definitely worth a couple of bucks. Brought me back to the days of sending important messages about my feelings to a girl and then hiding the window until I was ready to look at it.
I really like how you can see yourself deleting things that may give away how you feel in the early game, really gives the sense that every single thing you send is super calculated,and of course it's used to great effect in the end game. Great stuff, and a fun little blast from the past. I've had a lot of conversations like that final year.
So upset I didn't see this topic when the game first came out. This game made me feel emotions I haven't felt for years. What a fantastic ride and boy do I want some more. Support this game if you can! Great way to spend an hour or so and story details as others have said are quite intricate.
IAmtheFMan
Member
Damn. This hit way too close to home.
Not to livejournal this too much, but this just brought back a shitton of memories. Yeah sure, the nostalgia of being in high school and college hearing those AIM sounds in the background, but just the content too... my high school friend with whom we were always on the verge of hooking up, and clearly each had feelings for. Hell I remember when she AIMed me after she had a bad breakup and messaged me "I love you. I never thought I'd say that to you. Well not so soon anyways," then her hastily signing off and me just staring dumbfounded at this for like a few hours.
I haven't thought about all of that shit in like a good 10 years. I'm happily married now, but damn if this didn't bring some repressed feels back.
Not to livejournal this too much, but this just brought back a shitton of memories. Yeah sure, the nostalgia of being in high school and college hearing those AIM sounds in the background, but just the content too... my high school friend with whom we were always on the verge of hooking up, and clearly each had feelings for. Hell I remember when she AIMed me after she had a bad breakup and messaged me "I love you. I never thought I'd say that to you. Well not so soon anyways," then her hastily signing off and me just staring dumbfounded at this for like a few hours.
I haven't thought about all of that shit in like a good 10 years. I'm happily married now, but damn if this didn't bring some repressed feels back.
petethepanda
Member
Finally got around to playing this. Man did it hit close to home. The way handled the text you type out is perfect, painfully so at times.
Between this and Cibele (tonight unexpectedly wound up with a bit of a theme) I kind of dug back into a period of time that I had been thinking about recently anyway, and I kind of need to go disappear and walk around for a bit.
Between this and Cibele (tonight unexpectedly wound up with a bit of a theme) I kind of dug back into a period of time that I had been thinking about recently anyway, and I kind of need to go disappear and walk around for a bit.
Dang it, that Game dug up memories i actually wanted to forget.
It hurts to see how things played out since i had something similar to that. The way
reminded me of all the countless times i had to talk about my feelings, but instead dragged it out until i missed my chance for good.
This was an amazing short experience, so i will support the developer later with a few Bucks.
Just wondeful
It hurts to see how things played out since i had something similar to that. The way
you run out of topics to talk about (while you actually want to say how much she means to you) with the fact that she didn't really cared about what you are saying
This was an amazing short experience, so i will support the developer later with a few Bucks.
Just wondeful
I'm glad this thread got bumped.
I remember hearing about this game on Idle Thumbs and Match 3.
Reminds me of an even older Cibele.
Looking forward to giving it a go.
EDIT:
Hey, check it out.
The game finally did make it to Steam and is going for the low, low price of FREE!
Props!
There's also a donation section in the Item Store ($.99 to $2.99). Nice.
I remember hearing about this game on Idle Thumbs and Match 3.
Reminds me of an even older Cibele.
Looking forward to giving it a go.
EDIT:
Hey, check it out.
The game finally did make it to Steam and is going for the low, low price of FREE!
Props!
There's also a donation section in the Item Store ($.99 to $2.99). Nice.
Man, that was really cool.
Ending actually got to me, once I picked an option to talk and it wouldn't let me, kind of sucks cause I would definitely not delete what I was thinking now, but back then? Very possibly. Either way that really hit the gut punch of what these kinds of lengthy online friendships that peter out can be like. To this day I've got loads of 'friends' from 15+ years ago that I sorely miss but trying to reconnect is impossible.
I made this thread ages ago and I still haven't played it
You should, it's only like a 20 minute game anyway.
Going to choose my words carefully here, absolutely hated the game overall but it did some things right.
-The aim sounds were great choice
-The buddy info was much more interesting than the away messages
-The icons you got to chose yearly were pretty spot on
Unfortunately this didn't click for me, a text adventure with no control and no ability to explore any options. Basically a TellTale series with even less illusion of choice.
-The aim sounds were great choice
-The buddy info was much more interesting than the away messages
-The icons you got to chose yearly were pretty spot on
Unfortunately this didn't click for me, a text adventure with no control and no ability to explore any options. Basically a TellTale series with even less illusion of choice.
Except in this story you both went to the same high-school. So that drifting apart while makes sense, doesn't really make "sense" in terms of the short-time frame. Double so in that if you two were really the best of friends you'd have still talked on AIM or on the phone like normal people of that time.
I just finished it and found it overrated like Depression Quest. None of the choices really made any impact IMO and the story is barely there given you're going over the course of 5 years. I get they wanted to show a passage of time, but the time skips happen too fast to have any sense of story impact.
StingX2 said:
Exactly.
Killing_Joke
Member
Is there multiple endings? Literally just finished it after downloading it 15min ago. lol
But my ending makes me feel pretty shitty.
But my ending makes me feel pretty shitty.
She liked me, then we had drunk sex when she was on rebound, and now she hates me while i still love her.
I was hoping for something more happy.
I was hoping for something more happy.
Holy shit, what a ride.
The visuals and audio are absolutely perfect for the nostalgia trip that this game is supposed to be, but those are low-hanging fruit. What really sold it for me were the buddy icons, the away messages, and particularly the way
It was also great fun mashing away on my keyboard, pretending to type.
The narrative was simple, but being told through multiple years made things extra interesting. I liked that you could find out more about certain characters if you chose to talk about them in conversation. As someone mentioned earlier, there are miniature character arcs told through away messages over the years, which means Emily is Away wins my #deeplore game of the year award.
The ending,
Overall, I loved it, and it's easily one of the most entertaining 20 minutes of gaming I've had in recent memory.
The visuals and audio are absolutely perfect for the nostalgia trip that this game is supposed to be, but those are low-hanging fruit. What really sold it for me were the buddy icons, the away messages, and particularly the way
your character deletes text as he types, or sometimes replaces a choice with something else entirely.
The narrative was simple, but being told through multiple years made things extra interesting. I liked that you could find out more about certain characters if you chose to talk about them in conversation. As someone mentioned earlier, there are miniature character arcs told through away messages over the years, which means Emily is Away wins my #deeplore game of the year award.
The ending,
in which you want to ask "Will things ever be the same between us?" but instead you ask about movies, the weather, and so on, is a legitimately sad moment for anybody who's ever relied on AIM for companionship and courtship.
Overall, I loved it, and it's easily one of the most entertaining 20 minutes of gaming I've had in recent memory.
Prototype Viktor
Member
gotta go TRILLian
I thought that was the message of this game. No matter what you do it will never be okay.
Just like life itself
That's why it feels real imo.
Edit: Damn that sounded depressing,lol.
gate stormer
Member
Ah man I miss AIM. Had some good memories and friends on AIM that I lost contact with, and unfortunately have no way of knowing how to find on FB or Twitter.
greycolumbus
The success of others absolutely infuriates me.
Well, that left me with a frog in my throat.
Well, you kinda can.
If you make the right choices you will end up with the other girl and Emily will not talk to you in the last chapter