Left on Read

It’s March of 2020; you were just sent home from college because of the coronavirus, you have a few small regrets, mainly not telling someone how you really feel.

Left on Read is an choice-driven narrative platformer about the harsh realities of modern age communication. You play as a college freshman, texting your crush over a long period of time. You must carefully choose dialogue choices to keep the conversation interesting and the relationship alive as you do your best to not get left on read. Good luck.

Homepage: www.leftonreadga.me

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1306580/Left_on_Read/

Artistic Statement

It’s March of 2020. America is quarantined. Loneliness and regret has a whole new meaning. Text has become the most popular form of communication especially among Generation Z. We’re dealing with unprecedented circumstances while living during a tech golden age. So can tech save us? Can it help us to find love, to communicate, to fix regrets? All my friends were telling me how depressed and lonely they were during this time. And I knew this feeling extended everywhere. I wanted people to know they were not alone in this feeling. So I made Left on Read. After publishing the game, I received countless messages claiming that people thought I was spying on them because “this is my life.” By reading the Steam reviews, the impact of Left on Read became obvious. People deemed Left on Read, “The most relatable protagonist in video game history” and “This game is the message I wanted… no, needed to hear.” The game’s theme is simple and timely: Don’t wait, you never know when it might be too late.” I wanted to tell a love story that reflects the pitfalls of modern communication, and gives people a little hope so they have the motivation to “seize the day” when this all passes.

By combining platforming and a choice driven narrative, Left on Read replicates texting in its gameplay mechanics. You miss a jump, you send a bad text. Every jump the player takes is a risk. The user is constantly afraid they might get Left on Read. Texting is immediate and succinct; it’s also prone to misunderstanding and aggravation. This game triggers all these emotions and more in the user. Once the player finishes the game, they unlock “realistic mode.” In realistic mode, the user experiences the agony of real time responses… which sometimes, as in life, may take days.

Upon completion of realistic mode, the user is presented with a code. The code is a caesar-cipher that leads them to an ARG online scavenger hunt to get the final Steam achievement in the game. A massive community has gotten together online to try and solve it. The scavenger hunt is designed to last the entirety of the stay at home order for California in hope of keeping players occupied and entertained. 

Background

“It’s March of 2020; you were just sent home from college because of the coronavirus, you have a few small regrets, mainly not telling someone how you really feel.” That’s the logline of Left on Read. That’s also the life I’m living. It was my second semester at USC’s Interactive Media and Games program. Everything was going perfectly. Suddenly: coronavirus. We were sent home from college. Stripped of the final semester of freshman year. And, of course, I had a few small regrets, mainly not telling someone how I really feel. One night, Sheehan and I were calling, having one of our classic late night deep talks. The feeling of regret was mutual. We were debating whether texting our respective crushes would help further our relationships. Instead, I made this game as a coping mechanism for that feeling. I brought on Sheehan as an engineer and Natalia as the 2D artist. They were fascinated with the concept and very passionate about using games as a platform to tell meaningful narratives.

Left on Read was made in just under a month. We started it while in school and finished it just as summer began. After publishing a demo on itch.io and receiving incredible feedback we knew that we had to finish it. I received feedback from USC Game's professor Peter Brinson. I wanted to spread Left on Read’s message as soon as possible which gave me a pretty solid timeline for the project. Left on Read became my life. Many long nights turned into mornings and before ya knew it: Left on Read was completed and published. We still continue to update as we find various small bugs and glitches.