Using poetry for games has inspired me to seek sources for my own play among literature.

By myself I’m not a fan of lyrics, prefering novels because they aren’t overloaded with metaphors and allegories, still provide enough freedon of interpretation, yet define the main structure (or message) of the author’s point of view. Making my own game related to format of visual novels was also partially influenced by my love to classic Russian literature.

And since I decided to be inspired by the literature based on the theme of generations and movement (aka changes), the best option for me was the novel “Fathers and Children” written by Turgenev. This work well reflects my own, general view of the world, change and psychological relationships between family members.

«Of course, you can’t understand me; we belong to two different generations.» She was terribly offended, but I thought to myself, “The pill must have been a bitter one, but she needed to swallow it.” And now our turn has come; now is it for us to be told by our heirs: “You don’t belong to our generation — swallow the pill.”»

This quote in my presentation has always sounded very poetic – and try to build a whole concept of the game, when such topic within this media quite limitely presented becomes a unique opportunity…

I haven’t worked on a project related to the Bitsy Engine, but at the same time, I didn’t want to give up using poetry in the game.

Patterns and rhythms in the lyrics – a necessary way to set accents. Pauses are necessary to give the reader time to stop and “live in the moment”. Because the game’s narrative can be set into visual and mechanical elements, these patterns can be more clearly expressed, and rhythm hyperbolizes in the form of transitions between scenes and game mechanics, linking them together like a “book cover”.

So, the main idea of game having such rhytm – is making a properly working sequence between game scenes. Player should have agency to partially influence them, and at the same time being an “observant” to gain this poetic-related experience.