DSV
DSV is an interactive narrative game made in Twine. DSV is an acronym that stands for Deep-Submergence Vehicle. The game follows four members of a United Nations rescue team using such a vehicle to travel deep into the Philippine Trench to save American submariners who disappeared during a secret mission.
The game was originally drafted in 2022 but officially released in 2023 in conjunction with the Redmond Association of Spokenword's annual meeting. I presented a small preview of this game at the meeting among members of my community. It was very rewarding and the game was highly praised at the event.
Inspiration Materal
DSV was originally conceptualized as an ecological horror story. Rob Nixon's theory of "Slow Violence" is a particular point of inspiration. I wanted the horror of DSV to reside primarily in the abject as a presence the player can never escape as it slowly but surely destroys them.
Other sources of inspiration include Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams where the horrors of atomic bomb testing and its effects–especially its long term effects–are explored. I was also inspired by "Iron Lung," a game by David Szymanki for its setting at the bottom of the sea and "The Alias Sessions," an album by Murcof for the sensation of ever-present and slowly building pressure.
Before I wrote or designed any branches, I researched the real-life science of Deep-Sea exploration, marine biology, and Deep-Submergence Vehicles. I learned there was a model of DSV on the market used by scientists, documentarians, and private explorers called the Limiting Factor. I used this as a starting point when writing the story to ground it in reality; its size, speed, battery life, and other specifications laid the groundwork for how I would create drama in DSV.
When it came to what horrors would await the player in the deep, I turned to marine biology and previous expeditions in the deep-sea. I learned the many layers of the ocean ranging from Sunlight Zone to the Hadal Zone and how the extreme pressures of the deep-sea evolves unique and fascinating flora & fauna.
DSV nodemap
Vital in all games is the idea of "co-authorship" where the player feels the story is as much theirs as it is the game designer's. Many games use systemic design to create dynamically interweaving mechanics that empower the player to solve problems however they choose. But in a game with such a small budget and very few ways for the player to interact, I had to come up with a different solution.
In horror games, designers disempower the player to evoke feelings of helplessness and peril. But too much disempowerment defies player agency; players may disengage from the story as they feel they have no control.
Balancing agency and disempowerment would be the key to eliciting a feeling of co-authorship. So to best design the narrative, I needed to make meaningful choices that still served to disempower the player.
To this end, the story branches very early on between two possible paths based on the seemingly innocuous choice of where they sit onboard the DSV. The dire consequences of this choice are not felt until much later, showing the player that their choices, no matter how small, still affect the story.
To develop DSV I taught myself how to use Twine and its markdown scripting language. Using Twine, I scripted events and variables which would allow the story to branch based on player choices.
In the end, the game was over 20,000 words and featured 5 endings. Presenting a short preview of it for RASP was a blast and I received many enthusiastic requests for a link to the full game afterwords.
Making DSV was a lot of fun and a great chance to learn about ecological philosophy, environmental politics, and deep-sea marine biology while refining my narrative game design skills.
To Play DSV
Check out a short preview in the embedded modal below.
Or, to play the full game, follow this link.