There are few things sadder than the end of a close friendship. Whether it happens in a sudden moment of betrayal or after years of gradual separation, the feelings of loss can stay with you for a lifetime.
This is the theme of Pieced Together, a quiet, charming narrative game about best pals Connie and Beth, who meet at school in the 1990s and form an immediate, seemingly inseparable bond. Through the ingenious medium of an interactive scrapbook, we play as Connie, glueing in photos, notes and memories of her friend after years of separation. The game begins with several attempts to write Beth a letter, before we cut-out, stick and sort the story of their lives together.
The scrapbook process is divided into chapters of Connie’s life. She moves to a new area with her mum, and this is marked through photos of a moving van, a good luck card, a label with “Connie’s stuff” written on it that was stuck on a box full of her things. You place these items on the pages, thereby telling the story. Connie has a birthday soon after moving and none of her new classmates accept an invitation to her party except Beth. There are photos of that day, and, later, trips to London, sleepovers, drawings and notes. Eventually, they get through exams and holidays until life becomes more complicated.
Sometimes you have to figure out which memories go where – and the process reveals poignant moments of sisterhood. Connie helps Beth with her schoolwork, Beth helps Connie navigate her emotions and have fun. There are fun little interludes, such as creating a little history of cats, and lots of puzzles where you might have to figure out Connie’s exam timetable or help guide her through the Paris catacombs. But all the while you’re piecing together an illustrated history of a friendship. In time, there are big decisions to be made and you get a bit of a say about how things are handled between the girls. But what the game wants you to know – and what I think we all realise – is that some things in life are inevitable.
What I love about the scrapbook format is the way in which it gently turns the player into a visual collaborator. You put the photos and notes where you want them, turning them to fit, overlapping them if you like. It’s also possible to unlock sticker collections so you can add your own stylistic flourishes to the pages. Sadly, although you can replay chapters after you finish, there doesn’t seem to be a way to revisit your scrapbook, which is a shame as I stuck a lot of stickers in mine – a process that gave me more ownership over the story. I guess I’ll have to play again.
Made by a team of just four, headed by Bafta-winning artist and designer Kate Killick, Pieced Together is a short game – you can finish it in a couple of hours. But in that time, it packs in an enormous amount of detail about childhood and teen life in the 1990s: filling out magazine quizzes, writing anonymous love notes, the freedom of first holidays with friends. It also cleverly shows how, even as we focus more on our peers, our parents remain a gigantic emotional influence. A subplot has Connie awkwardly bonding with her absent father and his new partner, leaning on Beth for support. It is a complex moment told merely through notes and images, and all the more powerful for it.
From Life Is Strange to Undertale to Knights and Bikes, independent games have proved a rich and evocative medium through which to explore the theme of friendship. Pieced Together is another example, a careful, beautiful little game that, in more ways than one, turns nostalgia into art. After finishing it, I was inspired to contact an old pal I haven’t spoken to in ages and wasn’t sure I ever would again. Good games can be like good friendships: they encourage us to see things anew.
