In the Fall of 2021, I was, like Tim, in a wilderness of my own. Aside from being in a rock band, I’d been spinning my wheels trying to become a novelist (!). I’d published a handful of short stories and then written a science fiction book that I couldn’t get published. I wanted to focus on writing fiction and telling stories, but could not find a meaningful avenue for it. I had discovered Twine, which led me to itch.io which led me to the grossly entertaining Sleeping with the NME, which led me to Echo Beach. I played Echo Beach, got the bad ending, and had a bunch of Tim’s songs stuck in my head.
I joined Tim’s Discord and soon after was working on a group project, a Knives Out style murder mystery called Jericho, which we never finished. Halfway into making that game, Tim pulled me out of class and asked me to collaborate on this other idea he had.
Our first meeting was on November 21, 2021. My notes from that meeting read:
Elliot Smith vs. Celine Dion at the Academy Awards.
Narrative detective game -- they fall in love at the awards told through diary entries.
Two people talking about making a movie, they must put the story together from a set of notebooks. Must match when the entry was written to the date.
War of authenticity in the '90s.
Making it my own
I felt confident that I could write something like this, though I had never actually written anything that didn’t deliver all the information in a straight line (i.e. literary fiction). Let me tell you when we started working on Riley & Rochelle I knew very little about game design. In fact, I knew nothing. And Riley & Rochelle came together with zero documentation: it was a true indie rock affair. This is going to sound totally insane but it wasn’t until I got my hands on a PC in February 2022, and played an early build that I experienced a huge OH I GET IT moment.
I could tell there was a lot going on on Tim’s side of things. This game was being formulated and programmed by Tim at an epic pace, while I did my best to understand what was going on. Tim was exceptionally patient with me, answered all my questions and tolerated all my terrible jokes. I didn’t really have tons of time to dedicate to the project and I wasn’t even sure how seriously I should take the whole thing anyway. But I’m glad I stuck it out because I think Tim and I made something pretty special.
Even though we had been working on this for months, and I had written and re-written tons of behind-the-scenes documentation (story bible, synopsis, character profiles, etc) it wasn't until it came time to edit all the clues, diary entries and endings that the story really took its ultimate shape. Because of how the entries and clues were designed, we had the opportunity to go back and reflect on all the pieces, from start to finish, and add a certain heaviness to the story. We finally saw complete portraits of Riley and Rochelle emerge. They had become characters that would demand the players' empathy and understanding.
Our process wasn't perfect but we made it work. And I'm pretty excited for people to play through and discover the story Tim and I have created.