My childhood best friend got married recently. I wasn’t there. Over the years, we grew apart – and while we share grand memories of playing as kids, watching , connecting in and marvelling over the weirdness of on Nintendo DS, we became very different adults.
Her wedding unfolded over Instagram, and flipping through photos, seeing her so happy and so different, I felt sad to have lost in-person touch, and sad to realise how far we’d grown apart. Previewing immediately after this was an exercise in devastation. This upcoming title from Glowfrog Games is a scrapbooking sim that focusses on a young woman scrapbooking her childhood memories, while grappling with the loss of her childhood best friend.
Alongside the scrapbook, she works on a letter to this friend, lamenting that they’ve grown apart – but needing closure for the relationship. The nature and topic of the game caught me so unexpectedly off-guard that I found myself feeling overly emotional about Connie and Beth, and the nature of young friendship. It’s so rare to see it represented in games, and to have such a real connection to a narrative like it.
I strongly suspect speaks to a universal experience that is just rarely spoken about. Young female friendships are often explored in alternative media – YA novels and books for younger kids – but it’s scarcely touched in video game form. The way puts you in Connie’s shoes, experiencing her memories, makes it all the more personal, and all the more relat.