“Swann’s Song”, our newest interactive short story, is finally out on Steam and itch.io. A boy and an old man sit in front of a pond, waiting for a swan’s song. Meanwhile, they talk about growing up, life expectations, and regret. You can read our launch post for some more context, but I’m still going over a lot of the same things in this space.

Where does the story come from?

I’ve been thinking about this story for a long, long time. As it says over there, this project, as a concrete and detailed artistic project, was conceived around July 2023 (more or less), but it has existed as an abstract thought for way longer than that. It has mostly been conceived at restless nights, not being able to sleep because my mind lingers over fear of death. In a very philosophical sense, I think a lot about how it feels to no longer exist. It was around the Covid-19 Pandemic that I got a lot into stoic philosophy. It helped me calm some of my anguish. I no longer remember if it was in Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life” or in Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” where it said something along the lines that once you’re dead, you’re no longer able to feel anything, so why bother fearing what death feels like? I think it has more to do with my projects and ambitions. I still feel I have a long way to go. I still want to do so many things. That’s why I fear death. Just some months ago I wrote the lyrics for a song called “Ayer me imaginé muriendo” (“Yesterday I Imagined Myself Dying”) which I recorded with my band, “Paranoia”, which stems from the same preoccupations.

That feeling was paired up with many other things. The first one was another series of images that flooded my mind each time I listened to Claude Debussy’s “Arabesque no. 1”, a piece I really enjoy. I always got a sense it would fit pretty well in a “final piece of art”. It’s always evoked in me a sense of finality and beauty around death. At first I pictured some kind of ballet game. I eventually discarded that, or at least, it goes to The Gallery of Unfulfilled Dreams for now. I eventually realized it was kind of dramatic and unnecessary to wait to get older to make a game with Debussy's song. I just said "Yeah, why not make it now?". That's when everything else started to fall into line.

The concept of writing around the idea of a “swan’s song” may have awakened inside my mind after getting obsessed with David Bowie after his death. “Blackstar”, his 26th and final album, is generally regarded as one of art’s most prominent contemporary examples of this. In case you’re not aware of what a “swan’s song” is (though it’s also explained inside the game), it’s the idea of a final gesture or final piece of art by an artist or figure. Another key influence for this narrative is a short story by Borges called “El otro” (“The Other”) that’s about someone who meets themselves when they were younger. This is basically the spirit of the story, though not necessarily the connotation of it. The key element comes in the form of the singing swan, or the ‘innocence’ of waiting for its song. Everything else revolves around this idea. Why is the old man there? Why is the boy there? How does this interaction changes both of them? The way the story is told, I’ve come to realize, is very theatre-like. There aren’t a lot of actions in the game. Every key moment happens through dialogue. It’s almost a monologue, or at least it felt that way writing the script. I'm always inspired by "Kentucky Route Zero" and its approach to dialogue options, where you don't actually change the story, but get to have a choose in the way the character behaves, and through that, you "act" inside the story. How does it affect you? How do you match your thoughts with the character? This is an approach I've been working with from a long time ago. It's almost on every game you'll find in our webpage, though it mostly reminded me of why I tried to do in "A todas mis memorias futuras" ("To All Of My Future Memories"). That's also another text-based game without multiple endings, where the point is making the player think about how they approach the situations presented in it. 

I'm not going to lie. I'm always scared in presenting these types of experiences, since they differ a lot from what is expected from "interactive narrative", but at the end of the day, I've always thought about this experience as an interactive short story, so that's why it's presented with that tagline.  A key motivator for finishing the game was “Far From Noise”, a project that —I think— is very similar. It's also very text-based, it revolves around two characters, and it's sold on Steam! I really enjoyed that one, so everytime I have my doubts about this project, I think on "Far From Noise".

“Swann’s Song” is a mood I’m constantly at. It's been very cathartic getting to write about many things that are constantly in my head. The first draft of the script had like 1,200 lines (written in YarnSpinner, which I highly recommend), and the final version of it has around 2,000 lines. Even now, I think I wasn't able to fully capture many of the themes that inspired me to write this in the first place. I wanted to write about the feeling of wanting to grow up as a child, and then actually becoming an adult and wanting to have enjoyed your childhood more. I also wanted to capture a feeling I always had a child of really disliking all that  adult talk that I would regret not enjoying my childhood more, and then becoming that adult telling that same thing to children. I wanted to write about the world's end, nature, the passage of time, how we perceive things as children versus adults, and a whole more things. It's about the fear of death, but also, about accepting death. 

One of the biggest challenges with this game was how to write dialogues for a 12-year-old. I really hate it, because it always felt to me as if I would never forget being 12 years old, now I'm 25 and I had to constantly think if certain dialogues would "fit" a child that age. Also, I tried my best to make the old man sound like an old man. I'm not that old yet, though my constant conversations with my grandparents inspired a lot of his lines.

What I found pretty enjoyable about these characters was that they both represent me at different stages and at different times of the day as well. That's why it needed to be interactive and that's why there needed to be dialogue options. All of the dialogue options are "true" inside my head most of the time, and the best way I have to express these feelings is through this medium. I'm also a short story writer, and I just couldn't picture "Swann's Song" as traditional literature.

Where does the art come from?

The intention was always to work with an impressionist style. I never had a doubt about that. It’s a combination of Debussy being called an impressionist composer, as well as having a very fond place in my heart for that movement in general. I think impressionism really captures that feeling about the beauty of the fleeting moments in life. The first person I wanted to work with was Federico Castillo, a close friend of mine who’s been a painter since —I think— he was born. However, back in 2023 he was pretty busy with another project (a stop-motion feature film that’s releasing very soon!), and he was also working with me on another —currently unannounced but constantly-hinted-at—game. So I tried pitching the game to two other illustrators, who, again, due to bad timing, weren’t available. Eventually, Federico kinda freed up, so we went back to working on “Swann’s Song”. This isn’t the first time we’ve worked together in a game. The first time was around high school when we developed an interactive map for a history class (it’s probably lost media now), and, of course, he illustrated “Epithymía”, a proto-Interactive Dreams game. So we kinda know by now how to complement each other pretty well. There were some other proposals for the game at different stages of the production, but I think the end result is what it needed to be, and honestly, I think it looks amazing.

I asked Federico to write something for this post, so I’ll just let him speak now:

“

While many are choosing to include more AI generated content within the confines of their creative projects, having a team vouching for traditional media and “old-school” methods of production feels like a splash of fresh water. 

Being able to hand paint the assets of a game was a refreshing experience. It made the workflow similar to that of an animated short film: A round of sketching and concept art followed by long and intense painting sessions that aimed to capture the ideas Luis and I had discussed in various meetings, and the words that had been set on the script months ago.

Every detail was hand painted and had to dry for an average of three to four days, which made the animation process quite slow. That's why we opted for a series of looped animations. Every movement, every stroke is very specific and designed to help the story and save time during the production process. It 's a joy. It demands discipline and organization, like a film, like a painting.

”

How does this project fit in Interactive Dreams’ plan?

The production for “Swann’s Song” was very different from “A Dream About Parking Lots”, the previous one. In reality, production for both of them overlapped at many stages. While Federico was working on the illustrations, we were at full production on the other one. This always felt like a side-project in the sense that the rest of the newly-formed team didn't have much to do in this project, but it's alright, since thanks to everybody else, we were able to finally finish this. We really hope you find it interesting and appreciate the intent behind the game.

This game is the second in a series of projects we aim to release throughout 2025. “A Dream About Parking Lots” is still doing rounds. It was recently shortlisted at the “Opening Up” category of the New Media Writing Prize, and it’s currently submitted at multiple other events and showcases. Let’s hope it gets selected! “Swann’s Song” will also be submitted where, we think, it could fit.

The rest are coming soon, though they’ll have alternate launch schemes. We’re still experimenting and testing the waters. We’ll keep you posted on everything else!

You can follow us on Instagram or Bsky for more.

We always love to read other people’s thoughts.

— Luis León, director at Interactive Dreams