This Twine game I made for my Eco-Writing in the Anthropocene course as my final project. You play as Derek Jackson, a family man and long-time resident of the Town of Mossport. After discovering a brochure in his mailbox for a new plastic manufacturing plant being built, Derek has to choose to either take action against this new plant being built or do nothing and watch the plant ruin his hometown.
Project Description
The Eco-Writing in the Anthropocene course that I took while at The College of New Jersey was heavily focused on writings regarding the environmental impact that humans have had on the local ecosystems and world at large. For our final project we had to come up with a story or poem related to the overall themes of the course. I decided that I wanted to make a game for my project, with the reader/player being able to make decisions for the protagonist that would impact the later events.
At this point during my time at The College of New Jersey, I had a lot of experience making games in Twine, so I knew that it wouldn’t be too difficult to make one. Compared to previous Twine games that I made, I knew that this one wouldn’t have as many branching story paths or looping parts just due to the nature of the story I wanted to tell. One way that I wanted to subtly show to the reader/player that they were making bad choices was by changing the background color to a darker shade of blue as the story progressed down a negative path. With each darker shade of blue, it signified that the environment in the town was taking a turn for the worse, with the final shade of blue showing all the light and joy that used to fill the town had disappeared.
A big source of inspiration for the story of the game came from a section in the book Plastic: An Autobiography by Allison Cobb, which we read during the semester. The book follows the author, Allison Cobb, as she goes on a journey looking into the background behind a car part and learning about the history and impact that plastic production has had on towns across the U.S. Some of the towns she visited during the book used to be thriving, but after plastic production facilities arrived, they slowly polluted the towns and drove most of the citizens away. I took this element of the book and decided to expand on it and show the direct impact that it had on the families that lived in these towns. My hope was that those who played the game would learn the negative impacts that these production plants have on people and become more aware of the issues they pose at large.
Mason Bohme Portfolio 