Wholesome narrative puzzle game A Storied Life: Tabitha is available now on PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch. A cozy game that tackles the complex emotions that accompany grief, A Storied Life: Tabitha, is developed by independent UK-based developer Lab42 Games.
Published by Secret Mode, the game brings a cozy watercolor aesthetic and unique narrative design to the space, and that’s just from what we saw in the trailer.
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“This has been one of the most fulfilling projects we’ve ever worked on, and we’re so excited to finally get the full game into players’ hands,” said Lab42 Games’ Terry Goodwin and Cherish Goldstraw in the launch press release. “We’ve been bowled over by the positive reception so far, and it’s been a pleasure watching people resonate with our little game. We hope they enjoy the full experience just as much.”
What is A Storied Life: Tabitaha about?
For anyone who has lost a loved one and has taken to remembering them by making their actions your own, the trailer and description of the game are sure to resonate. And if anything, the game’s premise already seems to confront the worries we all carry about losing the stories our grandparents and parents have told us about the lives they’ve led, and even those we forgot to ask about.
The official synopsis provided by Lab42 Games:
A Storied Life: Tabitha takes you to Lavender Laithe, the former home of Tabitha, a recently-deceased loved one. Upon arriving, you discover that Tabitha has an agreement with a publisher to print her memoirs… which have just been damaged due to an unfortunate mishap. It’s up to you to go through the house and piece together Tabitha’s life, filling in the gaps left in her memoir pages using the items you find along the way to guide you.
Return to Tabitha’s home multiple times to rewrite her story and find new facets to her life. Search every nook and cranny for hidden items and intriguing easter eggs. Or recycle everything and take nothing of Tabitha’s life with you. There are many choices to be made, and no right or wrong answers – only the memories you choose to keep.
Watch the Trailer
Lab42 Games also highlighted some key features in the game: Exploring Tabitha’s house, fitting everything you can in a box to pack it up, completing Tabitha’s memoirs, and finding out more about her.
The game will task you to explore the house room by room and decide what you’ll keep, what should be sold, and what can be recycled. It’s a sorting process of any estate that those who have lost people remember, and not always fondly. In the process, players will move furniture and search cupboards and drawers for tucked-away items that may hold more intriguing memories to help you rewrite and complete Tabitha’s story in her memoirs.
The packing mechanic, however, is the one that immediately made me emotional while watching the trailer. There is only one cardboard box for keepsakes per room, and anyone who has had to do this process knows how hard that is. Players will have to make the difficult decision of what to keep and leave out, creating the life that you want to remember for Tabitha. With packing, players will rotate and align items, fold objects, and arrange everything so that nothing gets broken.
Finally, the process of writing is to fill the gaps in Tabitha’s memoirs using the items you’ve chosen to save and uncover the many sides of her. The promise of A Storied Life: Tabitha is for players to experience what it is like to take over a person’s memory. It’s up to you, the player, to decide how Tabitha is remembered. The examples that Lab42 Games give are “caring mother,” “budding botanist,” and “dabbler in the arcane arts.”
Now officially launched, it’s time to put a spotlight on a game that is looking to put players into a sensitive moment in life, while embracing the intimacy of crafting the memories you shape after a person is gone.
A Storied Life: Tabitha is available now on PC and Switch with a 10% launch discount on Steam.
