STORY RESEARCH · CANVAS OF THE PAST
I had worked out the museum setting and the shadow puzzles, but I still did not know what the player would find in the memories. I had also written down “a painful truth or a comforting lie” as the ending. That was too vague. I needed a reason for the artist to hide something, and a reason for the player to want to leave it hidden.
I looked into Monet and Camille’s story as a starting point for Before We Say Good bye. This post explains where the idea came from and how I want to use it in the game. The separate story post now includes the bird’s role and both endings.
1. Starting from the prototype
My starting point was Repair uncovers memory, one of the pillars I wrote about in Week 3. The showcase feedback also made me think about choosing objects that mattered to the artist. I already had house, candle and bird targets in the prototype. I wanted to give them a place in the story instead of treating them as three unrelated shapes.
The GRIS analysis gave me a useful reference for how changes in a game world can express emotion. For my own game, I want a repaired room to feel familiar before the next memory changes how the player sees it.
I decided to keep the slower exploration from my later notes. The older mind map still has a collapsing-world idea, but a countdown might make players rush past the memories. The visitor can return to the gallery in either ending; the choice affects who remains inside the painting.
2. Why I chose Monet
I considered two stories: Monet losing his wife Camille, and Munch remembering his sister Sophie. MUNCH’s page on The Sick Child describes its connection to Sophie’s illness and death, as well as Munch’s repeated scraping and reworking of the image. I thought this could fit the peeling surfaces in my painted world.
In the end, I chose Monet. My prototype already asks the player to look closely at light and shadows, so his work gave me more to connect to that action.
I started with Woman with a Parasol—Madame Monet and Her Son (1875). The National Gallery of Art identifies the figures as Camille and their son Jean. This gave me a reference for the first memory of Claire: a moment from family life, before the player learns about her death.
For the second memory, I looked at Camille sur son lit de mort (1879), held by the Musée d’Orsay. Monet painted Camille after her death. This gave me a specific event to build the second room around.
The detail that stayed with me was in the Städel Museum’s exhibition material. It discusses Monet’s recollection of noticing the changing colours of Camille’s face after she died. This is a later account related by Georges Clemenceau, rather than a diary from the day itself.
I began to imagine a painted figure who can remember the colours of someone’s clothes or face, but struggles to remember her voice. He worries that he is losing the person while trying to preserve her image. That fear is something I am inventing for the game. It gave me a reason for him to avoid the last portrait, even though looking at it might help him understand what he has been hiding.
3. Connecting the research to the puzzles
In Week 5, I questioned whether I needed pigment puzzles as well as shadows. For now, I would rather see how much I can do with the objects and mechanic I already have.
| Reference or existing idea | What I want to do with it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The family scene in the 1875 painting | Begin with a home and a memory of Claire returning from outside. | The player needs to know something about her life before being asked to respond to her death. |
| The 1879 portrait | Use the candle puzzle to reveal the final portrait. | The candle can connect the act of revealing an image with the last time the artist kept watch beside her. |
| The later account of noticing colour | Give the painted artist a fear that he remembers colours more clearly than her voice. | This gives him a personal reason to avoid looking. His fear is part of the fiction. |
| The house and candle targets | Keep two main puzzle rooms, with a memory after each. | This lets me test a short story using work already in the prototype. |
| The bird target | Use a final bird-shadow alignment in the second room to reveal who has been preserving this world. | What if the bird to have a reason to keep the artist there. Letting him leave would mean accepting its own loss. |
| Changing perspective | Give the two rooms a similar window and wall layout, but different furniture and memories. | The player recognises the space, then has to reconsider what happened there. |
The bird idea
The memories belong to the small bird the artist kept. It lived with him and his lover and witnessed their life together, from their everyday routines to her illness and death. After the artist dies, the bird cannot let go of the home they shared. Its attachment takes hold in the painting and creates this world, including a version of its owner who seems to be alive again.
In the revised story, the player first assumes these are the artist’s memories. The view from the window, the feeding dish and the three taps on the ledge hint that someone else was there. The bird’s role is revealed before the final choice. I still need to test whether those clues are noticeable without giving everything away.
The bird was there for their conversations, their habits and the artist’s grief after losing his lover. These memories come from a life it shared with them. This also gives the ending two connected losses: the painted artist is waiting for his lover, while the bird is trying to keep its owner with it.
The house restores a memory of their life together. The candle reveals the last portrait of Claire. In the story draft, solving the candle puzzle lights the flame and starts the memory. It goes out as the memory moves on to the artist living without her. This keeps the puzzle’s completion separate from the loss shown in the memory.
I would keep the first puzzle to one adjustment, then add another piece or a limited rotation in the second room. Silhouettes, familiar objects and subtitles should carry the important clues, so players do not have to rely on colour alone.
4. Where the history ends
Monet and Camille’s relationship, her death in 1879 and the two paintings are the historical starting points. I have named the artist’s lover Claire in the fictional story. Camille remains the name of the real person discussed in the research. The bird, its attachment to the painting, the rooms and the endings are my additions.
In the story, the bird stays with the artist after Claire dies, then loses him as well. The painting preserves a version of him after his death.
5. The final choice
I want the last choice to use the light because the player has already spent both rooms learning how to move it. By then, the bird’s role needs to be clear. I would reveal it just before the choice, so the player understands that letting the artist leave also affects the bird.
In “Let morning come”, the bird lets go of the world it has been holding together. The painted artist can leave, and the bird no longer has to repeat the same memories to keep him there. The memories can remain in the picture without the figures being trapped inside them.
In “A little longer”, the artist and bird stay in the reconstructed home. They can be together, but the same day keeps repeating. The player returns to reality in both versions.
The artist has already died before this world is created. Letting him leave means ending the repeated scene inside the painting; it does not cause his death.
I do not want the second ending to feel like a punishment for choosing to stay. I can understand why someone would want to keep that moment, even knowing it cannot change. The player should know what each choice means before committing to it.
6. What I still need to work out
I would start with the house puzzle and its memory, then add the candle room. Simple silhouettes and subtitles should be enough for a first test. The bird reveal needs to be part of that test too, because it now changes who the memories belong to and why the world exists.
- After the first memory, can the player explain who is missing and why the painted artist wants her to return?
- After the second memory, do they understand Claire’s death and why the portrait was hidden?
- Does the bird reveal make sense of the earlier clues, or does it feel added at the last minute?
- Do the earlier scenes make it clear, in hindsight, that the bird was present throughout their life together?
- Before choosing, can the player explain what each ending means for both the artist and the bird?
- Do the house and candle targets make sense, and can players tell when a shadow is complete?
- Is it clear that repairing the painting cannot reverse either person’s death?
I have revised the story so the bird appears in both memories, first as part of their shared home and later as the artist’s companion after his lover dies. I still need to test whether those clues prepare the player for the reveal.
7. Sources
- National Gallery of Art. Woman with a Parasol—Madame Monet and Her Son, Claude Monet, 1875. Reference for the family scene in the first memory.
- Musée d’Orsay. Camille sur son lit de mort, Claude Monet, 1879, inventory RF 1963 3. Reference for the second memory.
- Städel Museum. Monet and the Birth of Impressionism, 2015 exhibition material. See “Struck with Sorrow” and source note 5 for the account related by Georges Clemenceau.
- Petra Pettersen, MUNCH. “The Sick Child”. An alternative I considered for its connection between memory and reworking a painting.
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