This is a game that started as an experiment while travelling on a train from London to Brighton in December of last year. I primarily started it to learn how to use twine, secondly to try spatial depth in twine where each node is an object in space. The question was how to recreate first person exploration mechanics in text form.
Over the course of time it evolved and became a short mystery. I began working on it on spare evenings and reworked it many times however I am still very critical of this game. While the concept for the story emerged fairly early on, it needed much more development to make it truly gripping. I tried various narrative structures to see what would cause the greatest impact. First I had the red stain revealed at any point in the story, depending on where you looked, however the story was then missing the first hook. In Gone Home, the first hook was the note on the door asking you not to go looking for your missing sister. It needed that hook. By putting the stain at the beginning the problem fixed itself. But now I faced the problem of the solution being too predictable.
This needs a lot more iteration and development. But as a day or two's experiment spread over the course of a couple of months, it's an interesting premise and I learned how to use twine!