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This was a nice game omg!
😭 I felt uncomfortable reading that other group chat, because I’ve been on that other end, seeing what people really think of you. That brought back some old memories of internet ‘friends’ doing this, but I felt a little relieved when everyone in that group chat all realized their mistakes and became more empathetic, and I liked that Kai was the one to defend the player character. Adam definitely reminded me of someone from my recent past who I thought was empathetic but I gave them the benefit of the doubt because in reality their coldness was just a result of their own mental issues (wasn’t AuDHD but a mental issue regardless).
In my opinion, it is a good thing that a game made me feel this.
Secondly, HOOOOOOOOWWWW did you do all of this in TWINE? One of my dreams is to make an impressive twine game, and I love phone games like this. How did you do all of this with HTML? It’s so smooth. The little wiggle animation. The stats, the interface! I wish I was proficient in HTML to make my email game look like an actual website. I know you don’t have to answer with all the libraries and codes you used but I am interested in the How. I also love the addition of achievements, didn’t know that was possible in Twine!
Lastly, I am glad your protagonist and the side characters all have ADHD. It makes me wonder how did they all find each other. It did feel a little overwhelming that they all had it, but again that’s a good thing. I have that too, so it’s really nice to see it up front and center in a Twine/cellphone game.
This reminded me of Sara is Missing and Simulacra, which are phone games I enjoyed too!
I will also leave my comment on the game page itself so you can have more reviews!
Ahhh, thank you so much! And thank you for sharing how you personally related to the game. Even though I'm AuDHD myself, I was most nervous about how it would land with folks from the community, so I'm really glad it felt authentic.
I know folks like us can also deal with rejection sensitivity (so glad to finally have language for it), which is why one of the meds I'm on targets exactly that. It's made a huge difference in my confidence and in speaking my mind without apologizing for taking up space. I knew I needed at least one character to get defensive, and Adam felt like the best fit based on how I wrote his personality in my GDD. He eventually comes around, though (again, that pesky rejection sensitivity).
It's sprinkled in but not explicit: they all met at UCLA, and now they're in their late 20s/early 30s, still in LA, and found out later in life that they're ADHD. I've noticed that, just like in my queer circles, folks like us tend to be magnets for each other. Conversations just feel better in a way that's hard to explain, like being able to juggle four topics at once, lol, where neurotypical folks might find that confusing or get flustered. We're also less likely to mask around each other, intentionally or not. That's how it went with my friend group too: I found out first, then they started going "OH," and it snowballed from there in the best way. I've started telling people, "Congratulations. If we're friends, you're likely queer and/or neurodivergent." 🤣
SO, Twine! It's a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and you can add your own CSS and JavaScript right in. There are tons of great free macros and widgets out there that can really elevate your storytelling. If you use Twine with SugarCube, it unlocks powerful features like audio. I'm currently pushing the boundaries with it, and even I'm surprised by what you can do with passages. I kept getting stuck thinking I could only make branching games, but it's honestly incredible what's possible.
Thanks again 💜
The User Interface looks amazing.
I couldn't get myself to finish the game after I gor the quickest ending.
I felt overwhelmed by all the text on screen and the reading I had to do, not much of text adventure person. Casual in that regard.
Thanks for giving it a try and for your kind words about the interface! Totally understand it's not for everyone, and I thank you for giving me that feedback. It lets me know maybe I can chill it a bit on the messages that keep popping up by cutting a few texts. :)
I had created a complex back-end system that was a mix of time elapsed, how many actions someone has taken, and a buffer between the texts so they weren't coming in all at once. But I could see it's still a lot, so thank you again!
Yeah, thanks for being so receptive to my critiques.
I think if you make it so the player watches the text pop up and has to engage in some way when it's there turn to text, that would make it more immersive and interactive. Please excuse me, you definitely did amazing with setting up all the mechanics and visuals, but I felt very much like a passive observer, which can work, but I wanted to be in some way interactive with the events and maybe even feel a like a catalyst to things.
If you make it so you lead the player through the dialogue, so it's not so much at once. I'll play it again. And leave a review.
That makes sense, thank you for explaining! I think I misread your first comment as being about the notifications, when it's really about how much there is to read at once and wanting a turn of your own.
The passive part is on purpose. I took reading someone's mail as the main point of the jam, so I wrote it that way. The first question of the game is what you do with someone's phone when they trust you with it, and sending texts as Kai felt like a step too far for me. The second question is whether care still feels genuine when it's scheduled. So the choices are about where you look and when you stop, not what you say. But I hear you that it can feel like watching from the outside.
The pacing note is really useful though. I wanted it to feel like a real phone, where the messages are already there when you open it. I kept the one-on-one texts as brief as I could without them feeling like filler. The group chats are where I spent the most time. They're longer on purpose, because both of them help you put the whole story together. And even though you're supposed to be heading to dinner, there's no hard cutoff. Time moves forward in the story, but nothing stops you from taking as long as you like.
No pressure at all to replay, and thanks again for giving it a go. :)
As someone with ADHD and who recently planned bi-weekly brunches because friendship in your 30s (specifically male friendship) takes intent and initiative, this story really spoke to me. You nailed the difficulty of planning and the necessity of systems, both of which can result in a feeling of being ungenuine. Friendship takes work, and when that work is unevenly distributed, relationships fade. Your story had well-constructed characters that told a story we can all relate to.
General group chats are my nightmare. One-on-one conversations or group chats with a specific topic are focused and meaningful, which makes them less scary to engage with. I think you captured that with the group chat about planning to message the player being active and having engagement, and the Every Chat was emotionally impactful.
Feedback on the dialogue:
The programming and UI is insanely well done. Did you program and write everything all within the 48 hours of the jam?
Thank you for this. Genuinely one of the most thoughtful pieces of feedback I've gotten on anything!
A lot of it is written from my own experience as an AuDHD person (I turned 39 a few weeks ago, so the "friendship in your 30s takes intent" part hit close). The systems-versus-genuineness tension you named is exactly the thing I was circling: the template is the only way the check-in happens, and the template is also why it can feel awkward. Fortunately, I only have one group chat and it isn't active daily, or my anxiety would spike even though I love them dearly. 😅 Your bi-weekly brunches are what Kelley is trying to do, and I'm glad the game read that way to you. And folks saw that even with calendar reminders, folks can read "so-in-so's birthday" and then forget it five seconds later; I've done too many times myself, which proves the systems we may build don't solve for everything, and the guilt and fear around hurting our relationships is too real.
Dialogue: you're right on both counts. Other texts already come in with the player's name on them. It's easy to cut or replace, and it's only painfully obvious to me now that you've said it, so thank you. And the autism line as a setup rather than a reveal, with the payoff living in the 405 chat for people who read it, is a better structure than what I have. That one's going on the list of things to mull over for future updates, too.
On the programming and UI, thank you! The phone was designed for another game I've been working on since August called The Majestic (it's in the game credits, but I know not everyone reads those), which won't be out until 2027. In that one, the player mostly uses the phone to track a mystery and text their girlfriend or a few people helping them, and the main UI is the physical rooms and a small town map that took two weeks of my life to draw. It felt fair/okay under the rules because that game isn't out yet, I hadn't programmed the phone yet, and I had to modify it to this game anyway. Most of the jam went to that: the settings gear, the signal bars that randomly move between 2 and 4, the black phone for the player versus Kai's blue one so it's clear they're different, the message drop-down alerts design + action, the unlock button, the "no" wiggle, finding the sounds, creating the marketing stuff. Then prose, drawing, and running out of time while in a panic, which is why the memes are still placeholders and the background is the only photo. Screenshots below so you can see what it looks like for the other game, if you're curious.
Thanks again for playing this closely!!! It means a lot. 😃
super smooth game, and an interesting take on the friend dynamic. really cool stuff
Thank you so much for playing, and for leaving feedback! With the jam clock running I was honestly worried I wouldn't get something out that felt good enough, especially the writing, so "super smooth" is a relief to read.
The friend dynamic is the part closest to home. A lot of it comes from my own experiences being AuDHD, and what it's like when the people who love you are trying to figure out how to check in without making it a whole thing (plus what I need to do so I don't "forget" my own lovely friends exist). Glad that came through. Thanks again. 💜
Hi all! Thank you to everyone who's played Borrowing Kai's Phone so far. Watching how people poked around Kai's phone (and where they got stuck, and what they tapped way too many times) taught me a lot, and I've already pushed an update based on it. A few things are clearer, a few things are new, and there's a little something for the completionists among you.
Nothing here should change the game you already played, so no need to replay unless you want to. If you're curious about the full list, it's all in the devlog on the game page.
Thanks again for playing and testing. It means a lot!