Anthony Notaran – Hivemind #1: Lifeline Listicle
- Lifeline is a choice-based text adventure mobile game about an astronaut named Taylor.
- Centers around a fictional astronaut stranded somewhere in space.
- Players would help make choices for the astronaut.
- Players could accidently (or purposefully) lead Taylor to his death
- The game was designed to take place over three real life days.
- It was the top app on Apples Appstore for a few days on the first week of 2015.
- It beat Minecraft for the top spot on the Appstore.
- It arrived with the first-generation apple watch, this helped gain attraction since it was one of the few games available at the time.
- It was produced by 3 Minute Games and the story was written by Dave Justus
- Last game Dave Justus played before working on Lifeline was Tomb Raider 2, 1977.
- Dave Justus had played and loved text-adventure games as a kid.
- Dave Justus had all the creative ability he wanted with some exceptions; choice points could only be two options, there could only be a select number of words, etc.
- The goal was to interest the players enough to want to see Taylor succeed.
- Through entertaining dialogue, it made the character more interesting. This also made Taylor seem more human and gave players the ability to relate to the character.
- Taylor’s speech made the player feel like Taylor had a motivations and emotions
- Taylor was also constructed to be a “clean slate” (there was not much description of the character’s identity so players could fill in the gaps they way they’d like).
- Gameplay was meant to feel natural.
- There would be intervals where the player could not communicate with Taylor, he could be busy or unresponsive for many reasons. (Ex. if Taylor went to sleep the player must have to wait for him to wakeup).
- The interactive experience led players to feel integral to Taylor’s survival.
- The game was written more as a conversation to make the end product feel like the player was texting an actual human.
- Taylor would also ask the players questions that they could answer by researching it themselves. (Ex. Taylor would ask if certain radiation was poisonous and the user could search online for the answer, these choices could result in life or death consequences for Taylor).