Write (And Re-Write) Letters Of Intrigue In This Fantastic Free Game

If you’ve written an email to a friend, spouse or lover, chances are you’ve gone through a few drafts.

“How do I address him?”

“Should I be so callous?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t close with a joke?”

“How would she read this part?”

“Too many exclamation marks!”

“I don’t want to sound flippant.”

“How shall I sign this?”

The decisions we make, and the letter we eventually send, say a lot about us. But they don’t tell the whole story. Indeed, it’s the questions we ask, the rough drafts of our carefully controlled final message, that reveal a good deal about who we truly are.

That idea lies at the heart of First Draft of the Revolution, a fantastic interactive fiction game by Emily Short and Liza Daly, made using the interactive fiction software Inkle

In the game, you play as a number of different characters in 18th century France. A husband, Henri, has sent his wife into the country for reasons that are revealed over the course of the story. Several characters write letters to one another about their circumstances, and players are given the option to change and re-write their letters. Each rewrite option is accompanied by the character’s thoughts on why he or she might want to re-word the letter, like so:

It’s through these re-writes that we come to know the main characters, as well as their circumstances. First Draft of the Revolution is a marvel—an exploration of the space between the mind and the page the likes of which I’ve never experienced. Go play it!

First Draft of the Revolution [by Emily Short and Liza Daly via Freeindiegam.es]