getinthedamnbox: games, sounds, and other work by Matt B

The Story of the World

“You wake in an unknown place. You don’t know where you are or how you got here.”

Amnesia and danger. In video games, it’s a familiar scene—so familiar that its weirdness has been worn away by repetition. It’s a trope! It happens all the time! Characters get amnesia; it’s just what they do. They get amnesia, explore their world, pick things up, and fight monsters.

But these tropes become a lot less familiar when they’re plopped into the pages of a book, where (in the absence of a player) characters are expected to have motivations that are entirely their own. Why would a character who is lost and scared “go north,” “get food,” or “attack monster”? How does it feel to “search corpse”? What does someone actually do when instructed to “check inventory”?

To plumb these depths, I made a game. I recruited friends to play the game. Then I adapted that experience into a book. And I made that book into a radio drama.

This is the result. I hope you enjoy it.

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*Note: Listening directly from the iTunes Store can cause a problem where some episodes end prematurely. If you’re on a computer, be sure to subscribe and download the episodes before listening. On a mobile device, search for “The Story of the World” in any podcast app.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on The Story of the World. Please write to me using the contact information below.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @getinthedamnbox
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