The Roots is a whimsical fantasy game about finding unexpected friends and living with disabilities. It was made by myself and Luke King for 2021's Global Game Jam, based on the theme "Lost & Found". We wanted to make a narrative game about characters who have all lost something and are seeking that which they have lost, only to find support and friendship instead. It's currently very incomplete and only has the introduction and a few other scenes included, but we're considering returning to it someday as we both had a lot of fun working on it.
I was the game's writer, programmer and designer, while Luke was our artist. It was tough to juggle writing, programming and design for a 48-hour jam, but I think we managed to create a functional and charming (if unfinished) prototype that has strong foundations if we ever wanted to return to it.
premise
The game's story follows five different characters over the course of four converging/overlapping routes. Hedgehog, who has lost her spines; Lizard, who has lost her scales; Owl, who has lost his memory, and who joins up with Moth, who has lost their family; and Bat, who has lost their sight. Three out of five of the characters are searching for something very specific at the heart of the Stump, a great tree stump whose gigantic roots enclose the valley and forest the game takes place in. The other two, Owl and Moth, are just very lost. In coming together, the characters all help each other see that they don't need to "fix" their perceived defects, they just need support, love, and understanding.
Inspirations included Over the Garden Wall, The Wind in the Willows, and Redwall.
design
Gameplay & Narrative
The idea behind the gameplay was to offer directional choices more akin to old text adventure games like Zork and Colossal Cave Adventure (e.g. "go north" "go left", etc.), and to have encounters depend on which area the player ends up in. In this way, The Roots is much more linear than interactive fiction that allows you to pick dialogue options, actions, and other impactful elements. The intent was to offer a story that is flavourfully different each time, rather than a massively sprawling branching narrative. This was partly due to the scope and time constraints of a game jam, but also to give the game a "storybook" feel closer to a CYOA novel than a video game.
In terms of the overall structure of the gameplay and narrative, the scenes that occur in each area depend on whether or not another character is also in that area. As the characters make their way to the top of the map, they can find each other and join up, building to several different endings dependant on which characters have made it to the base of the Stump and what combination of characters have found each other.
If this sounds like it was a bit lofty for a game jam, that's because it was! More on that below in the "Retrospective" section.
Interface
We decided on the monochrome/white-on-black palette early on. Luke has achromatopsia (total colour blindness), and I felt it made the most sense not to add colour to the game so everyone would see his artwork the same way he sees it, honouring his "vision" in a literal sense. The use of underlining to indicate clickable words was also an accessibility choice; Twine's default light blue for links and white for regular text renders links invisible for Luke, as they're tonally identical. Rather than mess about with colour/tone options that might not work for everyone, we decided a simple underline would do the job.
The black background/white text & images, as opposed to the reverse, was an atmospheric choice. We wanted the game to feel a little spooky (in that Over the Garden Wall way) and claustrophobic, as the characters are all traveling through a dark and unfamiliar forest. The white lineart makes the characters seem kind of like they're being viewed through night vision, which I think works really well.
retrospective
The Roots was my first project in Twine, and I think it contained all the right elements for a solid introduction to the software (text, links/branching, images, audio). I used the Harlowe format, but have since switched to and prefer using Sugarcube. Despite having worked with Luke on so many projects, Twine was a bit of a wakeup call regarding visual accessibility in games. I was shocked when I realised the default interface wasn't colourblind-friendly. I now make a habit of (with his blessing) running visuals by Luke for feedback.
The most glaring flaw of The Roots is its scope. It was way, way too big for a 48-hour jam. If I do a narrative-centric game for a jam again, I now know to set myself realistic expectations (especially if I'm wearing multiple hats/can't spend the whole jam writing). I'm aware that scope is something I struggle with without a producer or lead to keep me in check, so this is something I'm actively trying to work on.
The Roots was my second go at being the designated programmer for a game jam, and it went a lot smoother than my first try. I think this was likely because the team was smaller, and Luke and I acted as collaborators, whereas last time I was acting as de facto team leader for a group of four at a time in my life (early in my degree) where I had fewer team skills and far less technical experience.
The interface is the main area of the game that I think needed more attention in hindsight. It really could've used an in-game menu, alongside the option to open the map at any time. I also think a little character bio menu would have been a cute and fun addition, with information about each character updating as the player continued. But there I go, increasing the scope again! The alternating use of a clickable icon vs a text link to progress was an odd choice, and I think were we to return to this game, I would remove the icon and keep the underlined text as I like how it emphasises important parts of the story.