Digital: A Love Story
Encyclopedia
Digital: A Love Story is a 2010 indie video game
developed by Christine Love and released for free in February 2010. The game is a visual novel
, with the player's actions unable to significantly change the course of the plot. Set "five minutes into the future of 1988", it tells the story of the protagonist's online relationship with a girl and their attempts to solve a mystery surrounding the deaths of several artificial intelligence
s. The game is presented entirely through the interface of a 1980s computer with online Bulletin Board System
posts and messages from other characters; the protagonist's own messages are implied but never shown. The game was received positively, with critics especially praising the game's writing and plot, and it was noted in lists of the best indie games of 2010.
, or interactive fiction
game, where the game's story is told primarily through text. The game is presented as if on a computer from the late 1980s running an "Amie" (a reference to Amiga
) operating system
. The player logs into Bulletin Board System
s, or BBSs, where they read and reply to messages from other people. Messages received from other characters in the game are displayed through a different program on the computer screen. Accessing a BBS requires the knowledge of the telephone number for that board, which the player must type in manually. Boards that require a long-distance telephone number to reach require the player to use illegally obtained long-distance calling card
numbers found online. Accessing boards also requires the player to either set up a user account for that board or to know the password necessary to enter the system.
Many of the messages sent by the player and the replies back to those messages have no effect on the game. The messages that the player sends are never explicitly revealed, though their contents can be inferred from replies received from other characters in the game. The player, therefore, is unable to send a "wrong" reply or message, and the game cannot be lost. The player does not have a choice in the direction that the story takes, though the game requires the player to correctly decipher what actions to take before the plot can advance. A single playthrough of the game takes around one hour.
Soon, however, the owner of the Lake City BBS contacts the player with a garbled message that Emilia had tried to send to them. This message implies that the computer crash somehow hurt Emilia, asks the player to contact Paris, and provides a piece of binary code. The player has no context for this message, but after hacking into another BBS, The Gibson, finds a cryptic message reposted from another board saying that there are several artificial intelligence
s (AI) around the world that have been recently killed, naming Emilia as one of them. The player hacks into the source board for this message, and finds a history of artificial intelligence posted there by some AIs.
It states that in the 1970s, during the creation of the ARPANET
system, the government had also created an AI. This AI, Mother, in turn created child AIs, but its first attempt spread out of control and had to be destroyed by a virus that spread after it—later explained by the government as the real-life Creeper and Reaper viruses. Mother's later attempts, which could only exist on one system at a time, were more successful, and these AIs left the ARPANET in favor of the internet when it was developed. Reaper, however, continued to spread and destroyed any AI it found, such as Emilia. The player finds Paris, an AI, who explains that the code in Emilia's message, if compiled, will recreate her. The player compiles Emilia onto their system, and learns that she has developed a way to cause Reaper to destroy itself rather than AIs; however, infecting Reaper with it requires that she be killed again. After a final conversation, the player allows Emilia to sacrifice herself, and the game ends.
Although Emilia is explicitly female, Love purposely ensured that the protagonist's gender is never stated, as she wanted them to be a blank slate that the player would project themselves into, rather than a character that the player would control. She intended this, combined with never showing what the protagonist actually says, to create more immersion in the story. Unofficially, however, Love thought of the relationship as "queer", both in respect to the player's gender and in respect to Emilia as "a confused adolescent falling in love with someone she's not supposed to"; Love has stated that this did not come across as strongly as she intended. Love has said that one of the intended messages of the game was the importance of love and relationships, though not necessarily romantic love; as an example she specifically referenced Emilia valuing saving her "family" due to her love for them over her adolescent love for the player.
of Rock, Paper, Shotgun
said that after playing it he "can't think of a better love story in the western medium" and that the terse and minimalist prose worked well to create clearly defined characters. A reviewer from The Economist
called the story "engaging", saying that it provided a "memorable and thought-provoking experience". In an analysis of the game's story, Emily Short of Gamasutra
called the decision to leave the protagonist blank rather than making a viewpoint character "brilliant", saying that it made the entire game work much better than it otherwise would. A reviewer from The A.V. Club
, grading the game as an "A", called the story "moving". The majority of the criticism for the game was in regards to the interface used to navigate the online world; while The Economist found it quirky and realistic, Gillen felt that it made it easy for the player to miss a key message, leaving the player stuck with no direction as to where to turn.
Gamasutra
named Digital as one of the runners-up in their "Best Indie Games of 2010" list. It was chosen as a "freeware game pick" by Tim W. of IndieGames, Gamasutra
's independent games site, who said that it was "an absorbing experience that no other game from this day and age can offer." IndieGames also named it number two in their "Top Freeware Adventure Games of 2010". PC Gamer
listed it as number seven in their "20 Free PC Games" feature in May 2011, saying that it was "an hour of gorgeously crafted, personality-imbued indie gaming."
Although the game has not inspired any direct follow-ups, Love later made a "spiritual sequel", Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
.
Indie game
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
developed by Christine Love and released for free in February 2010. The game is a visual novel
Visual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
, with the player's actions unable to significantly change the course of the plot. Set "five minutes into the future of 1988", it tells the story of the protagonist's online relationship with a girl and their attempts to solve a mystery surrounding the deaths of several artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
s. The game is presented entirely through the interface of a 1980s computer with online Bulletin Board System
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
posts and messages from other characters; the protagonist's own messages are implied but never shown. The game was received positively, with critics especially praising the game's writing and plot, and it was noted in lists of the best indie games of 2010.
Gameplay
Digital: A Love Story is a visual novelVisual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
, or interactive fiction
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
game, where the game's story is told primarily through text. The game is presented as if on a computer from the late 1980s running an "Amie" (a reference to Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
) operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. The player logs into Bulletin Board System
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s, or BBSs, where they read and reply to messages from other people. Messages received from other characters in the game are displayed through a different program on the computer screen. Accessing a BBS requires the knowledge of the telephone number for that board, which the player must type in manually. Boards that require a long-distance telephone number to reach require the player to use illegally obtained long-distance calling card
Telephone card
A telephone card, calling card or phone card for short, is a small plastic card, sized and shaped like a credit card, used to pay for telephone services. It is not necessary to have the physical card except with a stored-value system; knowledge of the access telephone number to dial and the PIN is...
numbers found online. Accessing boards also requires the player to either set up a user account for that board or to know the password necessary to enter the system.
Many of the messages sent by the player and the replies back to those messages have no effect on the game. The messages that the player sends are never explicitly revealed, though their contents can be inferred from replies received from other characters in the game. The player, therefore, is unable to send a "wrong" reply or message, and the game cannot be lost. The player does not have a choice in the direction that the story takes, though the game requires the player to correctly decipher what actions to take before the plot can advance. A single playthrough of the game takes around one hour.
Plot
The game, set "five minutes into the future of 1988", opens with the protagonist, who is not named or described, having just obtained a computer. When the player checks their messages, they learn the telephone number to Lake City BBS, a local board, and can then log on to there. One of the topics posted to that board is some poetry by a girl named Emilia; when the player responds to her message the two start up a message conversation. While this conversation is ongoing, the player learns of another BBS and of a board whose telephone number is in another area code. They also learn of an illegal method to get access to boards like that, which would otherwise require the purchase of long distance calling cards. The conversation between the player and Emilia, which is inferred to have taken place over a much longer duration of time than has transpired in reality, begins at this point to show Emilia forming an attachment to the player. Soon after Emilia confesses to the player that she loves them, however, the computer that the Lake City BBS is hosted on breaks, leaving the player with no way of communicating with her.Soon, however, the owner of the Lake City BBS contacts the player with a garbled message that Emilia had tried to send to them. This message implies that the computer crash somehow hurt Emilia, asks the player to contact Paris, and provides a piece of binary code. The player has no context for this message, but after hacking into another BBS, The Gibson, finds a cryptic message reposted from another board saying that there are several artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
s (AI) around the world that have been recently killed, naming Emilia as one of them. The player hacks into the source board for this message, and finds a history of artificial intelligence posted there by some AIs.
It states that in the 1970s, during the creation of the ARPANET
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
system, the government had also created an AI. This AI, Mother, in turn created child AIs, but its first attempt spread out of control and had to be destroyed by a virus that spread after it—later explained by the government as the real-life Creeper and Reaper viruses. Mother's later attempts, which could only exist on one system at a time, were more successful, and these AIs left the ARPANET in favor of the internet when it was developed. Reaper, however, continued to spread and destroyed any AI it found, such as Emilia. The player finds Paris, an AI, who explains that the code in Emilia's message, if compiled, will recreate her. The player compiles Emilia onto their system, and learns that she has developed a way to cause Reaper to destroy itself rather than AIs; however, infecting Reaper with it requires that she be killed again. After a final conversation, the player allows Emilia to sacrifice herself, and the game ends.
Development
Digital was created and released by Christine Love in February 2010. Although it was not her first game, it was her first successful one; Love noted in January 2011 that her previous titles were played by "less than a dozen", while Digital had been played by "countless thousands", gotten onto the reading lists of university classes, and became "a defining point in [her] writing career". It was also her largest game to date; prior to its release she thought of herself only as a writer, not as a game developer. She made Digital as a visual novel rather than just prose because she felt that immersing the player into the game would allow the story to resonate with them more than just reading the text. Love chose to set the game in the 1980s rather than more recently because she felt that the computing systems and number of people online then created a sense of isolation, which she felt was more conducive to both the romance and mystery aspects of the story. One of Love's influences on the gameplay was Uplink; she initially intended to reference more of its gameplay mechanics but eventually "streamlined" much of the hacking elements of Digital away.Although Emilia is explicitly female, Love purposely ensured that the protagonist's gender is never stated, as she wanted them to be a blank slate that the player would project themselves into, rather than a character that the player would control. She intended this, combined with never showing what the protagonist actually says, to create more immersion in the story. Unofficially, however, Love thought of the relationship as "queer", both in respect to the player's gender and in respect to Emilia as "a confused adolescent falling in love with someone she's not supposed to"; Love has stated that this did not come across as strongly as she intended. Love has said that one of the intended messages of the game was the importance of love and relationships, though not necessarily romantic love; as an example she specifically referenced Emilia valuing saving her "family" due to her love for them over her adolescent love for the player.
Reception
The writing and story of the game were especially praised by reviewers. Kieron GillenKieron Gillen
Kieron Gillen is a British computer games and music journalist, as well as a comic book author. Gillen has worked for many years as a video game journalist and has, more recently, worked on various comics. He is perhaps best known for his creator-owned comic Phonogram, created with artist Jamie...
of Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Rock, Paper, Shotgun is a UK-based PC gaming blog written by Alec Meer, Jim Rossignol, John Walker, and previously Kieron Gillen and Quintin Smith. Rock, Paper, Shotgun launched in July 2007. In 2010 the website partnered with Eurogamer...
said that after playing it he "can't think of a better love story in the western medium" and that the terse and minimalist prose worked well to create clearly defined characters. A reviewer from The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
called the story "engaging", saying that it provided a "memorable and thought-provoking experience". In an analysis of the game's story, Emily Short of Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
called the decision to leave the protagonist blank rather than making a viewpoint character "brilliant", saying that it made the entire game work much better than it otherwise would. A reviewer from The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
, grading the game as an "A", called the story "moving". The majority of the criticism for the game was in regards to the interface used to navigate the online world; while The Economist found it quirky and realistic, Gillen felt that it made it easy for the player to miss a key message, leaving the player stuck with no direction as to where to turn.
Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
named Digital as one of the runners-up in their "Best Indie Games of 2010" list. It was chosen as a "freeware game pick" by Tim W. of IndieGames, Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
's independent games site, who said that it was "an absorbing experience that no other game from this day and age can offer." IndieGames also named it number two in their "Top Freeware Adventure Games of 2010". PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
listed it as number seven in their "20 Free PC Games" feature in May 2011, saying that it was "an hour of gorgeously crafted, personality-imbued indie gaming."
Although the game has not inspired any direct follow-ups, Love later made a "spiritual sequel", Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story is a 2011 indie video game by Christine Love. Intended as a spiritual sequel to Love's Digital: A Love Story, the game was developed over the course of a month and was released as a free download on April 4, 2011...
.