Sleeping Through The Pandemic

This procedural narrative was created in fall 2021 at a time of decreasing days of sunlight in a time of uncertainty during Covid-19 case spikes and isolation. An autobiographical story of life during the pandemic, Sleeping Through The Pandemic was created in a game engine as a top-down 2dimensional narrative alternating between apartment environments and text inter-titles. The story is rendered in 8bit graphics of bedrooms, desks, refrigerators, stoves, toilets, showers, couches, books, computers...the "stuff" surrounding us in everyday life. The story presents a digitally-mediated recreation of my physical environment, interspersed with a personal narrative that complements and contrasts with the quotidian apartment living. Sleeping Through the Pandemic is created and scripted in PuzzleScript, an open source HTML5 game engine for creating linear puzzle games. Constructing a personal narrative is not a typical use case for this game engine, which is designed around creating sliding block-based puzzle games in the tradition of the 1980s japanese puzzle game Sokoban. Rather, it is a 'hack' of the engine, one whose affordances allow for constructing pixel-based environments, sound design, and narrative text. All art was created in 5x5 pixel grids, drawn and laid out with ASCII text. Interaction and movement was scripted in the PuzzleScript Domain Specific Language. To advance in the story, one must go to sleep in each apartment. Controls: X or Space to advance. Arrow keys to move More information