Before I Forget

Before I Forget is a short game with elements of adventure game and walking simulator. The player walks through a flat, observing particular locations from the first person perspective (FPP). Game was produced and published by an independent studio 3-Fold Games, co-created by two people - Claire Morwood and Chella Ramanam. Their goal is to design games in which the main role will be played by characters that in other titles are omitted or marginalized. In this story, the player takes on the role of Sunita, a woman suffering from early onset dementia and struggling to retain all her important memories.

Plot

The main character, Sunita, finds herself in a London flat which she does not initially recognise. The picture is blurred, but there are glasses on the table, which are probably her own. When she puts them on, the room immediately comes into focus. The woman realises that she is in a small antechamber. Under the door, envelopes lie on the mat, one is also on the table, and the corkboard is full of notes with the same information. The protagonist wonders for a moment if she is in the right place, but quickly concludes that Dylan will surely tell her something more. Without waiting any longer, she starts walking around the flat, trying to find the man.

Mechanics

The main goal of the game is to explore the flat and discover more and more information about the protagonist's life. The walls of the rooms, the floors and the decorations and furnishings remain faded, but as soon as the character interacts with one of the available objects, the space around it starts to colour, and the protagonist recalls one of the past events associated with that object. Occasionally there are also short flashbacks. There are also blank pieces of paper scattered around the flat, filled with text when the woman focuses on them. When all the interactive objects are found in the room, it almost fully regains its colours.

As the story develops and the protagonist explores new, previously inaccessible locations, she comes across new information. Further elements revealing the past also appear in previously visited rooms. Sometimes the protagonist also has to solve short and uncomplicated puzzles. At certain points, rooms may change in appearance to match the recovered memory. The rooms may also be rearranged when the protagonist wants to get to a certain place, some doors remain closed and the protagonist gains access to the location only after getting certain clues. Sometimes she also has to wander through seemingly endless corridors, while at other times a black hole materialises in the floor, sealing off the passage to the rest of the flat, which only adds to her confusion and panic.

Technical aspects

The game features simple graphics, developed on the Unity engine. When recovering memories, the rooms take on soft pastel colours. The developers have also introduced elements that hint at Sunita's Indian origins, such as a painting depicting the Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil, prepared by one of the developers in an app available for smartphones. The game also uses an original soundtrack, composed by Dave Tucker.

The game also comes with a free commentary by the developers, which can be played from the loading screen. While exploring Sunita's house, the player is then able to listen to thought-provoking interviews with the people behind the production of Before I Forget.