The Secret of the House
Inspiration
Before I started my own Bitsy work, I visited the Bitsy examples to look for ideas.
The first one was Spiral house. The story was engaging, but the moving black and white images make me dizzy. I did not understand the structure of the house and had a difficult time figuring out the perspective of the view. A Gallery Visit is my favorite! The experience is based on a clear path in a gallery. Each label takes me to an artwork, and every artwork is in an individual space. In one of the worlds of art, I even had an interactive experience of being forced to leave a food bar. The storytelling is so great. I headed to the gallery from home with a window showing the rain. This simple context created a much more realistic feeling of the visit. Zen Garden, Portland is the conceptual one. The landscape in the garden triggers thoughts in the character's mind. Moving around in the garden, triggering the thoughts over and over again vividly reproduced the anxiety before a big day. Little Treasures presents a great use of Bitsy. It leaves clues, like half of a ladder, to imply where you can move to. All the rooms are detailed and stylized. And the task to collect things is a smart way to make people walk around. Though I realized I can do nothing with the items except for collecting, I am still curious about the description of the next item that appears. Silverybield Foss is an engaging exploration of a virtual world. The scenarios are beautiful and remind me of my journey in Xinjiang. Paths are clear. The cow in the first scene had multiple texts which were fun.
Story
This Bitsy game happens on a rainy night. The player entered a wooden house to warm up. The house owner welcomed the player and offered plenty of supplies. Everything is good. However... too good to be true. The player had never been there before but everything is familiar in the house. A teddy bear exactly looks like the one the player lost, a trophy for the place the player once won, and even the player's wired favorite food for rainy days all indicate there is something unusual! How can this coincidence happen? When the player came downstairs with confusion, the house owner was not there. Only a note is left to tell the truth. The house owner is the player who entered this house 50 years ago. Now, the player cannot leave this house until the next self pushes open the door on another rainy day...