People say lives in struggling moments could create epic stories while others believe lives in harmonic moments brew beautiful stories.

Last month I finished a game called “Fran Bow”. It is an indie psychological horror point and clicks adventure game and it tells a story of a ten-year-old girl who witnessed her parents being murdered violently. The game has a great mind-blowing story, and it also brings out an inspiring message. Then once I saw an interview with the Fran Bow developer on the internet somewhere, when the developer Natalia Figueroa was asked about the inspiration behind the story of Fran Bow, she said it’s based on her past struggling moments. Her answer brought me to a question. Do I have to live in a struggling moment in order to create a good story? Or I could do this in a different way? I have grown interested in this question because being a writer is one of my dream jobs and I want to create epic stories. To me, I think creativity could be brew in both struggling moments and harmonic moments.

I want to know more about the inspiration behind the story of Fran Bow, then I started doing research and found out that the developer has been experiencing agonizing events when she was small. She was beaten by her parents, forced to embrace some religion, and she was even enforced to take experimental drugs which were used for mental illness treatment during her childhood. This reminds me the plot of the Fran Bow story. In the story, the girl has mental disorder after witnessing the death of her parents, she was trapped into a mental health institution that specializes in children. The girl was given red pills and once she takes it, she will have a strong horrible illusion. But the girl keeps taking these pills because she wanted to find her black cat. These scenes look similar to what the developer experienced. The developer thinks hiding those pain will only bring her fear and numb, so she decided to create a game and release herself. I believe stories are usually based on true stories, and her creativity was brewed to create such an amazing game.

Then I immediately come up with an example that also have an epic story, but it is brewed in harmonic moments. In the science-fiction cartoon show called “Rick and Morty”, the story is about the mad genius scientist Rick and his dumb grandson Morty are having adventures. The main idea of the story looks similar to the film “Back to the Future” as it was originated from an animated short parody film of “Back to the Future”, but each episode is well designed, and it has a hidden message which is inspiring. It reflects social norms, irony on religions, etc. The cartoon was created by two animators, they are best friends so they can write story plot in a harmonic moment and this brew every great episode. The animators are the huge fan of “Back to the Future” when they were young. So, the two stories’ settings look similar. I believe the stories will reflect the author’s childhood.

The similar point is that the story is always ideal for the writer no matter a story is written in harmonic moments or struggling moments. In “Fran Bow “, the girl cannot face the truth that her parents are dead, so she takes medicine to escape from reality and try to be happy. At the end of Fran Bow the girl finally gets happy with her fantasy creature friends. The author wants the character to be happy because she was not happy with a similar situation. She starts to imagine something unreal, which allows her to escape from reality. In “Rick and Morty”, Rick thinks he is a god. He can destroy a dimension on his own wish, and just move into another dimension after destroying one. The character can also see through the fourth wall, knowing this is a cartoon show. The author wants the character to be omnipotent because the author cannot get full control in reality. What limits them will brew their creativity, making them be able to write an excellent story.

For the different points of the story, I believe it could be the theme of the stories. The authors who had struggling moments tend to write a relatively dark story. For example, studies show that experiencing childhood trauma will lead a person to think negatively, as the person’s brain will be shaped by experience, it affects the person’s thought. So the dark story is often written by people who live in struggling moments, and happy stories are often written by people who live in harmonic moments. To conclude, creativity can be brewed in both struggling moments and harmonic moments. The similar point is that all the authors want the character to be able to do something that the author can’t or they wanted to do. The difference is the story theme. Stories from struggling moments are usually in dark, horror themes, while stories from harmonic moments are usually in a happy theme.

My rate to the game:
Gameplay: 7/10
Story: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Playability: 7/10