Lost Memories Dot Net puts players in the role of fourteen-year-old Nina, dealing with a teenage love triangle through chatting with her friend, Kayla, as she puts together a blog. Delving deep into the internet of 2004, it explores the particularities of teenage relationships while letting players experience the quirks and sites of a certain era of our online past.
Lost Memories Dot Net, the next work from Nina Freeman, creator of Kimmy (an adorable game of babysitting in the 70’s) and Cibele (a look at the personal connections we make in online games), is looking to draw players into that idle, almost vulnerable state we come into when we’re half-distracted by a task, yet utterly focused on something that is consuming our lives.
Players will navigate the story of a teenage love triangle through their chats with Kayla, but at the same time, they’ll be surfing a web straight out of the early 2000’s for pictures to put onto a personal blog. They’ll be customizing and cultivating their space on this early web, carefully pruning it until it’s just right – a task that draws a great deal of attention and searching for just the right pics. Yet, they’ll also be exploring this personal story, with both tasks fighting for their focus.
With sites drawing from works from several talented artists, the game looks to capture that particular internet era for players to get lost in, experiencing a very specific kind of feeling as they juggle and get lost in chatting and creating their online identity.
Lost Memories Dot Net is available for free on Itch.io (or at an installation at the Manchester International Festival). For more information on the game and developer Nina Freeman, you can head to the developer’s site, the game’s site, or follow them on YouTube and Twitter.
