Emily is Away

Printable View

07.06.17, 19:00
anon

Emily is Away

https://kyleseeley23.itch.io/emilyisaway
http://emilyisaway.com/

A simulation of the early 2000s Internet with some romance thrown in, what else could you ask for?
12.06.17, 16:22
anon

http://scoutshonour.com/digital/

Same premise, but set in 1988.
27.07.17, 06:03
anon

I think I've replayed Emily Is Away a dozen times since creating this thread. The sequel is longer and has more content, so I haven't gotten past chapter three yet. I wanted to buy both games on Steam, but don't have a credit card or PayPal.

If there was a third game, set in high school between 2006 and 2010 and featuring MSN Messenger and Facenook, that would be the story of my life :wgrin:
06.08.17, 06:59
anon

I think I may like this game too much.
06.08.17, 13:39
Master Razor

Which game?
06.08.17, 23:32
anon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Master Razor

Which game?

Emily is Away
26.08.17, 21:31
anon

I bought Emily is Away Too on Steam yesterday (well, asked a friend to buy it and gift it to me, then gave him the $5 in cash). It took me three-something hours to finish the game, but it could have been at least five if I hadn't ignored all the Internet-related content like YouToob and Facenook links, to focus entirely on the chat window and story. Multiple endings, unlockable buddy icons and a certain surprise that shows up after finishing the game at least once give it high replay value.

In short, I strongly recommend it. Message me if you need an illegal copy to try before you buy =]
05.09.17, 16:51
anon

I showed Emily is Away to a friend and he played it. After three playthroughs he was criticizing both Emily for being a bitch, and the protagonist (or at least the choices available at certain points) for being so cowardly, perhaps not realizing both are part of the game's message.

He asked if there was a happy ending, and I adviced him to keep playing, but I think I'll tell him today.
12.09.17, 18:18
anon

I'd like to thank these games for exposing me to so many good bands, most of which I hadn't heard about before.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...LqwuQcn35qI3v3
17.09.17, 01:37
anon

I got one of the bad endings today. It was an emotional rollercoaster.
23.09.17, 21:21
anon
Spoiler Emily is Away / Chapter 5:
There is a sort-of conspiracy theory about the game's ending, which says that after chapter four, Emily committed suicide, and the final conversation is all in the protagonist's head. I don't think that's what happened, but when you look at the reasons making some people think so, they do make some sense:

On chapter 4, her buddy info quotes the lyrics from Death Cab for Cutie "You may tire of me / As our December sun is setting / 'cause I'm not who I used to be" and "Love is watching someone die / So who's gonna watch you die?", which should require no explanation.
On chapter 5, all contacts other than Emily are away or offline.
Emily's buddy info includes the Snow Patrol lyrics "It's hard to argue when / You won't stop making sense / But my tongue still misbehaves / And keeps digging my own grave" and "We'll walk from this dark room / For the last time" (emphasis mine) as well as the phrase "the past is just that"; this time the actual songs have a positive, cheerful context, which is completely reversed here.
Similarly, Emma's buddy info on chapter 5 quotes the Muse lyrics "This ship is taking me far away / Far away from the memories / Of people who care if I live or die"; Travis' has "just can't do it anymore, I need to get away" and his away message is "California rest in peace"; Julie quotes Senses Fail ("I'm stuck in a coma / Stuck in a neverending sleep") and says she "really need[s] to take some time and find [her]self" (emphasis mine).
Emily is finishing up college and got back with Brad or Travis because that's what the protagonist thought or expected she would do; similarly, they will delete certain questions (including "could I see you this summer?" and "will we ever be the way we were?") and replace them with mundane ones, because if Emily is dead, it wouldn't be possible to get a yes anyway. Which takes us to the last point.
When you say goodbye and end the conversation, you're the one who goes away instead of Emily, for the first and only time in the game. This would represent the protagonist accepting everything that happened, getting closure, and moving on.
Spoiler Emily is Away Too / Chapters 3 and 4:

If you ditch Evelyn (by choice or circumstance) on the chapter three and give Emily advice on how to deal with her abusive boyfriend, on chapter four she will tell you about an art project due the following day. One of the suggestions you can give her about what to draw is yourself, and if you do, she'll make this ("it's you, do you see the resemblance?"):

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=18282

This got me thinking. Some people have complained that the game is "obviously" designed to be played as a straight male, but I think that the protagonist can simply be you, and thus male or female and straight, gay/lesbian or bisexual depending on your gameplay choices (unless you deliberately role-play as someone else). If you play as a female and up in a relationship with either girl, it turns out they were bi, but no one makes a big deal out of it. I think that's fairly progressive.

Of course, Emily can't know what you look like, so she makes a heavily pixelated drawing of a chat window. That was cute enough to make it my logon screen background.
Spoiler Emily is Away and Emily is Away Too / Things learned from the games:
I think the lesson from the first game is fairly simple: no matter how good your intentions are, or how much you promise you will be there for each other, sometimes friendships can just fall apart. The facts that you can hook up with Emily, or not hook up and also not act on your feelings for her/her feelings for you, are there just to make the game interesting. A game about two friends that talk each time less and less after finishing school until they don't at all (which is what usually happens) wouldn't be too fun.

As for the second game, there is a wider array of lessons, the biggest of which I think are:

be yourself
be genuine, you can't base any kind of relationship on lies
it's important to be there when a friend needs you

Although depending on how you play, they could also be interpreted negatively:

be yourself, it's guaranteed you will get the girl that way
be genuine or make your lies consistent
it's important to be there when a friend needs you, that way she'll end up with you when she breaks up with her boyfriend

Whenever I play as myself, I end up with Emily because I like RPGs, alternative music and action movies, don't drink, and don't want to settle down in my 20s. Your mileage may vary =]
02.10.17, 18:34
anon

I think the first chapter of the first game was originally meant to take place on 2001. Most of the things in the buddy icons and infos (Donnie Darko, Toxicity, The Rock Show, Harry Potter, Don't Panic) came out that year.

Also, this is exactly how I pictured them!

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=18305
17.10.17, 04:09
anon

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=18348
20.10.17, 22:07
anon

I was replaying Emily is Away Too today and...

The first two chapters of the game take place on 2006. The game itself was released on May of this year. I got to chapter two (October 2006) and Evelyn said it was Friday the 13th. I looked at the calendar and noticed last Friday was also a 13th, and upon a closer look, the calendars for 2006 and 2017 are identical! Pretty interesting.
03.11.17, 15:25
slikrapid

Quote:

Originally Posted by anon

I showed Emily is Away to a friend and he played it. After three playthroughs he was criticizing both Emily for being a bitch, and the protagonist (or at least the choices available at certain points) for being so cowardly, perhaps not realizing both are part of the game's message.

so i tried it too, went for a quick walkthrough twice and both ended up in 'separation' hehe, so i get the feeling it is rather set-up to fail, perhaps one needs to be extra careful with the answers

Quote:

There is a sort-of conspiracy theory about the game's ending, which says that after chapter four, Emily committed suicide

didn't seem that way in-game, those status info lyrics were depressive or suicidal, but she didn't show much while chatting

Quote:

Emily is finishing up college and got back with Brad or Travis because that's what the protagonist thought or expected she would do; similarly, they will delete certain questions (including "could I see you this summer?" and "will we ever be the way we were?") and replace them with mundane ones, because if Emily is dead, it wouldn't be possible to get a yes anyway.

it could mean that our character kinda lost interest or got disappointed and there was not much else to talk about - she was also rather disinterested with the answers

Quote:

Of course, Emily can't know what you look like, so she makes a heavily pixelated drawing of a chat window.

maybe she was trying to say that our character is (like) a jumbled indie computer program ;)

other than that, it reminded me of an indie tv show called 'the scene' (2004), where they made heavy use of irc chatting windows to further the story
05.11.17, 23:04
anon

Quote:

Originally Posted by slikrapid

so i tried it too, went for a quick walkthrough twice and both ended up in 'separation' hehe, so i get the feeling it is rather set-up to fail, perhaps one needs to be extra careful with the answers

No, you got it right. You can only choose how to fail. There are three endings, all bad. I ran a strings dump on the game and even decompiled it to see if there was something else - nope. (But I did find some alpha code that is not used in the final version)

In other words...

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=18386

Quote:

didn't seem that way in-game, those status info lyrics were depressive or suicidal, but she didn't show much while chatting

Yeah, I don't think that's what happened either, but it got me thinking.

Quote:

it could mean that our character kinda lost interest or got disappointed and there was not much else to talk about - she was also rather disinterested with the answers

She was disinterested indeed, but I think that if anything, the situation with the protagonist is the full opposite.

Quote:

maybe she was trying to say that our character is (like) a jumbled indie computer program ;)

As she would say, suresuree =P

Quote:

other than that, it reminded me of an indie tv show called 'the scene' (2004), where they made heavy use of irc chatting windows to further the story

The Scene was really good! They took a few artistic liberties - real sceners would never use Gmail, ICQ, or discuss their group activities from a laptop in a public place like Drosan does once - but it's still really worth watching. AIM, the chat client both Emily games are inspired by (and which by the way, will shut down next month) also shows up there. It has a great soundtrack too, all of it copyright-free music =]
16.11.17, 23:19
anon

Lost Memories Dot Net

Sort of like Emily 2, but you play as a 14 year old girl in 2004.
06.07.19, 01:01
anon

https://store.steampowered.com/app/9...ily_is_Away_3/

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=13641