Ascension

Platform: PC
Engine: Twine
Development Time: 2 weeks
Team Size: 1
Developer: Self
My Role(s): Sole Developer
Download Link: Ascension

Ascension is a short interactive story created in Twine that features split paths based on the player’s actions and moral standing within the story. In a literal sense, the story is about a young adult partaking in a coming-of-age ritual that involves gaining the traits of particular animals. Primarily, the game is themed as an allegory for the transgender experience and being able to exist within the body you wish to inhabit.
My Contributions to this project include:

Creation of the initial concept.
All narration and dialogue writing.
Planning and visually mapping the game’s different paths and possible storylines.
Playtesting.

Determining how many split storylines could be created in the allotted development time.
Implementation of all story beats through Twine.
Editing and revisions.

Creating in Twine

A screenshot of one of the narrative events present in Ascension opened in Twine’s editor. Notable is the presence is a branching path. Click to view the full-size image.

Working on this project was my first experience with Twine, and as such is an experience that I believe to be extremely valuable as a Narrative Designer. Learning this Software was extremely useful, and I had to have a very solid grasp of its workings in order to finish this project. I now see it as not only an amazing prototyping tool but also a fun and simple way to make short interactive narrative experiences.

Writing From the Heart

Ascension was a very personal project for me, being an allegory for living as a trans person while being uncomfortable in your body. As a trans woman myself, I wanted to approach this topic with the level of grace and care it deserved, not only due to it being a sensitive and important topic for so many people. I love using narrative design as a way to express my thoughts and feelings on subjects that are important to me.

The biggest way I wanted to do the subject justice was by making the “good” and “bad” endings feel like authentic representations of what it’s like to be trans.

The game’s three endings are all representative of different parts of the trans experience, each represented by an animal. Starting with the bear ending, this ending was made to focus on the discomfort trans women often experience early in transition due to having bodies that have undergone testosterone-induced puberty and feeling like a social outcast. This ending is achieved by choosing your own ascension over that of a dying child, while also selecting passive dialogue choices during the first half of the game. This is meant to represent how important being an active person in your own life is while transitioning, while also representing the importance of helping others in your community.

The wolf ending is achieved by choosing your own ascension over the child’s, but also by making active choices in the game’s first section. As previously mentioned, this is to emphasize the importance of being active in one’s transition. This ending isn’t perfect, however, as it results in the protagonist becoming a social outcast. The protagonist does not become all that much happier as a result of their change but doesn’t feel worse. This is to represent the idea of transitioning but becoming a recluse in the process.

Lastly, the blue jay ending is supposed to represent the best possible outcome of a transition, achieved by helping the child, regardless of your level of passiveness. The ability to guarantee getting the good ending by helping the child is to further the theme of helping your community. By making the ultimate sacrifice, the protagonist is able to get exactly what they wanted, just a bit later. This was intended to be allegorical to waiting for the benefits of gender-affirming care to produce meaningful effects on a trans person’s body and mind.