Game Writing SIG Arcjam 2025 — #6 in Theme Interpretation, #22 Overall out of 119 entries.
Format: Short choice-driven visual novel · HTML5
Role: Writing · narrative design · dialogue design · additional art/production
Playable: Play Still Breathing
Still Breathing follows three queer protagonists trying to survive one freezing night while Honey's breathing deteriorates. The player balances pride, safety, relationships and survival as the group moves through a city that keeps pushing them away.
Still Breathing has three protagonists. Dialogue choices are framed around which character takes the lead in the conversation, rather than presenting multiple responses from a single protagonist.
That recontextualizes a familiar dialogue-choice structure: instead of choosing between different tones or intentions directly, the player chooses whose personality, priorities and point of view will shape the response.
Midway through the jam, the artist left the project, leaving no assets. I took on additional art and production work alongside the writing and narrative design.
To ship within the deadline, I cut the planned three-scene structure down to one finished scene while preserving the central “who takes the lead?” dialogue framing.