Big Story, Tiny Engine: Hacking Bitsy to Tell Rich, Puzzle-Driven Stories

At the NarraScope 2024 conference, I gave a talk with my co-designer Elana Bogdan titled “Big Story, Tiny Engine: Hacking Bitsy to Tell Rich, Puzzle-Driven Stories..” Here is the talk description:

We will explore the possibilities (and limitations) of Bitsy development in this postmortem of Banned Together. What insights did we gain on collaborative narrative design within a queer game making ethos? How did we connect themes of trans love, college activism, and library justice with game design inspired by Myst, Outer Wilds, and the “metroidbrainia” genre? When is a tiny game engine perfect for telling an ambitious story?

Find the slide deck from our talk below.