Background

I loved using Twine for my first project, but for some strange reason, my Windows 11 machine was detecting the new Twine version (the Nov 2024 update of Twine) as untrustworthy.

I do not remember if the same thing happened with the Twine version I used, but I wanted to do something different for my new game.

It was for the PULS Game Jam 2025 from Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavaria Radio) and ARD.

The theme that was announced was "Kaputt"...

...and instantly, for some reason, I thought about localStorage in the browser.

I work primarily with web application development (full-stack, if someone is interested, doing both frontend and backend). And usually, it's the web app which updates the localStorage of a browser (usually not the other way around).

The idea for my game came naturally, then: "what if a player-character needed 'help' with remembering and the player needed to go manually into the browser's local storage and change some values?"

I don't think anyone has done that (at least not that I know of), so I thought that it's a novel game mechanic.

I tried it out first with Twine, but as I mentioned before, my Windows machine was giving me a strange error for the desktop version. So I tried my hand with the web-version, but I didn't like it for some reason.

And with these game jams, it's usually a MUST that the game would play locally on a browser (for ease-of-use, I assume).

Start of the Jam

The clock was ticking the background: 2 hours had already passed...only 46 more hours to go (yes, it was a 48 hour game jam).

I was panicking...

Lots of ideas were running through my head... like trains without their drivers..

...on a collision course with each other...!

...and I didn't have a lot of time.

It was Friday.

The weekend...which meant prior plans with friends and family.

Damn it... you have 6 hours, chief, not 42!

Need to improvise! Think, sintech, think!

*lightbulb moment*

I've been using react for a long time. Why not just use that?

Ok, sounds good. but what SHOULD I make?

Given them time, maybe just write a good story... or something that "constitutes" a good story.

Ok ok... nice... that's good

Maybe a noir type detective story... murderer on the loose... you yourself are bleeding.

This could work... but I only have 6 hours...

Then get to it, chief!

One Day Later

People liked the concept...

but...?

It's rated quite low.

hey, you made a game in 6 hours. Be proud.

A lot of people are complaining about "low-contrast".

you used white on grey, that SHOULD be contrast enough!

Yeah, here's what I see:

So what's the problem with the contrast?

I don't know...

wait....

what's this?!?!

what the hell...?! what is this??!

I don't know! I ran my game on another machine (and even on my Android), but it's running fine on my own machine.

ahhh the ol' "works on my machine" problem...

Damn it!

Hey, come on, chief. Just fix and just move on.

Ok, fiinnneeee.....

I used React (and Vite) so that I DIDN'T HAVE to face issues like these.
I though it'd be compatible with ALL devices.

Someone posted a reason here: https://itch.io/post/12458692

That COULD be the issue... but... damn... I released a broken game :(

Well, then maybe it's time to find a proper game engine, chief...

Which one?

Ah... *winks*