Butterfly Effect

Within the cycle game, I chose the Butterfly Cycle –– ‘egg hatching,’ ‘caterpillar,’ ‘cocoon with pupa,’ ‘leaving cocoon,’ ‘adult butterfly,’ and ‘laying eggs’ –– to express a butterfly effect that ripples between different passages to leave viewers wondering what is the cause of the protagonist’s visions. What is real that the protagonist is experiencing? 

The “butterfly” meaning gap stems from the protagonist’s scoliosis. When I was first brainstorming for the cycle game, after deciding on the Butterfly Cycle, I thought of how a butterfly’s wings stem from the centre of their back. One of my friends had surgery for scoliosis just a few years ago, and this made me wonder –– particularly in severe cases –– if sometimes the surgery would not completely straighten the spine’s curvature. Correlating how butterfly’s wings cannot be repaired after they’re damaged, the human spine cannot rejuvenate itself. Stemming from the unrestorable parallels, I wanted to capture the pain and beauty of a curved spine, implementing a darker undertone.

I chose to develop a cycle that could be completed within four passages, but also have an additional two passages that provide further ‘context’ for the protagonist’s hallucination. If, for instance, the protagonist unmutes the TV the player may conclude that the protagonist is experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations from ingesting LSD. However, if the player also decides to call Dr. Vogler in the bathroom, there may be some questioning of whether the player is a reliable narrator. I thought having a couple passages that were not necessary to pass through in the game would give the player the illusion of ‘choice.’

I attempted to leave little details scattered throughout the passages that convey the protagonist has repeated this cycle many times before –– unable to break free due to various potential factors. I intended for the player to be uncertain whether it is improper medication dosing, the cereal, the illiterate phone number (fading on their wrist), or complete detachment from reality keeping the protagonist forever reliving the cycle.  During play-testing, players told me to implement more descriptive details in my opening passage that conveyed the protagonist had been in ‘this’ moment before, stuck in this cycle for a  very long time. From this feedback, I described the spilt cereal on the floor and some expired food in the refrigerator. I also wanted it to be a bit ambiguous if Saren was actually real, or just a figment of their imagination to cope with the hallucinations and debris littered within the house. I originally had Saren pop-up in a later passage of the cycle game, but a couple play-testers suggested that I only keep him in the third passage to solidify ambiguity.