The Gunktown Gazette

I love narrative games, but was never a fan of visual novels with their branching dialogue trees. I'm particularly tickled by games like Return of the Obra Dinn, The Roottrees are Dead, and The Case of the Golden Idol, where the story is linear and the engagement comes from the mechanics. I wanted to explore other mechanics that can do that.

The idea of the player writing headlines to match newspaper articles is one I've had for a while, and it just happened to line up with Juniper Dev's game jam theme of "Spin to win" (when interpreted sufficiently liberally). 'Spin doctor' is a slang term for someone who manipulates public perception, framing stories in a way that suits them.

The writing is only so-so, if I'm being honest, but I think the mechanics have promise. I was worried writing all the headline options and the feedback system would quickly spiral into a combinatoric nightmare, but it actually came quick and easy to me. As usual, it was the programming that took the longest. The art is very minimal (by virtue of the game jam's time limit), but it's amazing how much immersion a few choice sound effects can bring.