Single Press: How much can we learn about someone from A Normal Lost Phone?
By Omar (@siegarettes)
- A Normal Lost Phone
- By Accidental Queens
- PC/Mobile (Web)
Single Press is a series of short writings on small games. It is made possible through the support of our Patreon.
In some ways, technology has become invisible to us. In our tech centric world, where computers and digital devices have become ubiquitous, we’ve stopped thinking about the devices that we operate on an everyday basis. Instead these machines have become interfaces to the world, connections with people, and pockets of personal expression. But when we leave them behind, what kind of personal detritus do we leave with them? What’s in your old family computer, those discarded thumb drives? What’s in the phone that you just lost?
A Normal Lost Phone takes its place alongside games like Cibele or Emily is Away, exploring the place of technology in our lives. The premise is simple: you’ve found someone’s lost smartphone, and by digging into it you can learn who this person is, and what’s happened to them. Begin the game and you’re immediately greeted by new messages. It’s the owner’s dad, and he’s worried. The phone’s owner has gone missing. From here you’ll uncover what’s happened by trawling through the various messages, photos and apps on the phone, learning more about the owner and what’s happened to them.
Cleverly, the phone you’re looking at seems to have been recently acquired as a replacement. It’s a narrative device that limits the amount of information available to you, keeping it within a recent period of time where the information that is there is relevant to the mystery. This device also draws attention to just how much we can learn about someone, and the people around them, from a single device. With a small set of photos and text messages you get a strong idea of who this person is, their interests, and their recent activity. How much could we learn from a phone that someone’s owned for years?
This thought contributes to the undercurrent of voyeurism that runs through the game. The same things that make it a satisfying puzzle to unwrap, deducing passwords from text messages, finding relevant information buried in apps and details of the owner’s personality, contributes to the invasiveness of it. There’s information the owner went to a lot of trouble to hide from the people close to them, and here you are, a stranger, digging it up for your own curiosity. At one point you’ll even be required to impersonate them to progress. It’s a clear violation of privacy. The nature of that information makes it even more volatile as well. As you progress it’s clear this person is in the middle of critical period in their life, and there are questions about their identity that are especially sensitive.
A Normal Lost Phone does handle these sensitive subjects with tact, and these questions form the emotional crux of the story. Again, there’s a dichotomy to that invasiveness, as it also brings a certain intimacy and empathy with the owner’s situation. In much the same way Gone Home uses the everyday details of a time and place to ground it, A Normal Lost Phone does the same with the technology that makes up so much of our lives. Whether you have to go too far to unravel its mystery is up to you, but there’s something undeniably human at the root of it.