If Found... is out now, letting you erase your diary at the end of the world
Crushes, kisses, and memories
I've not yet played If Found... but several folks on my Twitter timeline seem to be digging in and I usually take that as a positive sign. It's an interactive story game that says it's about "going home, coming out, and erasing everything" when a girl named Kasio returns home to Ireland in 1993.
The game appears to unfold as you take an eraser to the sometimes lined and sometimes bright watercolor pages of Kaiso's diary. It's got a lovely hand-drawn style and what sounds like a soothing soundtrack as well.
Dreamfeel say it's also got "awkward crushes, the planet Jupiter, many kisses, a punk concert, confusion, happiness, a cute dog, and a break in." Which, yeah, sounds compelling enough when you remove the context. Also there's a black hole threatening to end the world?
Philippa Warr played a much earlier version at EGX Rezzed back in 2016 when its name was just a bit longer. She already saw promise in it, saying "it properly sucked me in as this delicate, beautifully structured thing, peculiarly tactile thanks to the mixture of sketchy image, zooming and erasing."
There's a very intimate and intimidating quality to an old diary. There's a person you used to be in there and you might not like getting reacquainted with them. Perhaps I should go destroy my own old diaries before I take a torch to Kaiso's.
You can find If Found... over on Steam for £10.29/€ 10.79/$ 12.99.