The Last Meal
You're a death row inmate who has a taste for fine dining and craves freedom, but be careful what you choose. There's only one way out and plenty of ways to die. Click on the text to choose your fate.
*Pairs well with your favorite spooky soundtrack
What I really love about RPGs such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age are how players' choices impact the world and how they interact with it. When I was designing The Last Meal, an interactive horror narrative game I wrote and self-published using Twine, I noticed many similarities between writing for games and screenwriting. For instance, how high stakes create urgency in players' decision-making, the importance of late act payoffs, and how replayability enhances players' overall experience and perspective. I also was impressed by the possibilities gaming offers when it comes to nonlinear storytelling and branching narratives.
The Last Meal not only explores one's basic human needs, desires, and rights but also challenges the audience to exercise empathy for a population we're conditioned to not have sympathy for. To achieve this, I put the player in a death row inmate's shoes, immersing them in cruel, inhumane, and degrading conditions, and asked, "What would you do?”