Side Quest
Side Quest is a text based video game that I made entirely on my own. I wrote the original story and world, coded the narrative branches in Twine, created art, and oversaw the entire production process.
Summary: The Player stumbles across a quiet village and quickly learns it’s been plagued by an unearthly disease. After meeting some of the locals, the Player traces the source of the disease to a nearby forest where they meet Otium, a seemingly innocent and young boy who just wants to play. After a brief encounter, the player learns Otium is the God of Play and Leisure and is the one responsible for cursing the village with the disease. His reason: there once was a time where the children of the village would come out into the forest and play. They would sing, dance, and laugh and it made him strong, but as the children grew up they forgot about him. Now all they do is work.
The Player is given a choice: Side with Otium, destroy all of the humans who wronged him and be rewarded with immense power, or protect the people of the village–the player’s home, and defeat the Child God.
This game’s message is exceptionally important to me. I made this game just after having been laid off and was struggling mentally because I associated so much of my self-worth with work, productivity, and achievements. During this period I was able to recognize how important life is outside of work and how as humans, we often forget to just happily exist. I hope you enjoy.
The setting in which I imagined the Player finds Otium.
There are three possible endings to Side Quest and two different classes to choose from. I also added an area to input a name so the Player would feel personally addressed.
Below is the logic tree from the game. Each square represents a choice the player is given that lead to different outcomes.