Camp Pinewood
A text-based nonlinear narrative game
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Camp Pinewood is a non-linear text-based narrative game with a focus on mystery and character relationships. Taking control of a nameless protagonist, the player finds themselves accepting a job as Camp Counselor at the mysterious Camp Pinewood. Located deep within the penumbral forests of northwestern United States, Camp Pinewood is home to both friendly faces and dangerous folklore. Spending time with fellow counselors will get them more comfortable with the player, opening up new dialogue opportunities and even romance options. Some of the savvier members of Camp Pinewood staff even know special spots around the camp that could prove useful in the right circumstances. The camp hides many dark secrets, and the relationships the player builds may be instrumental in surviving the danger that lurks beyond the tree line. Camp Pinewood has multiple different narrative paths and endings, all reactive to the player’s choices throughout the game.
Narrative Design
Much of Camp Pinewood’s story revolves around the characters the player chooses to spend their time with. The four main characters with the most interactivity follow classic horror tropes, with more depth behind their outlook and actions revealed as the player interacts with them further. Each character’s storyline is tied to a specific “camp activity:” every day, the player is given the opportunity to branch away from the linear progression of the story and take part in a number of Camp Counselor activities alongside one other Counselor. The original design placed the player in total control of what activity to attend and which Counselor they wanted to bring along. This was scoped down considerably to a more feasible design, with each Counselor linked to one activity each. Whenever the player takes a shift as a lifeguard, for example, they do so alongside the Counselor Becca, and so every lifeguard shift will develop their relationship with Becca. While much more limited in scale, this scope allowed for tangible character development of each character alongside player exploration of the camp’s locations.
Each day, the player can choose two activities to build rapport with the counselor there.
The player's choices are reflected in relationship meters at the start of each day.
Early sketch of Camp Pinewood's locations.
In the game’s early design, multiple locations within the camp and the surrounding woods were tied to a monster of folklore. The intent was for players to visit these locations and build “relationships” with the spaces, progressing similarly to how character relationships progress. The player’s visitations to these locations would dictate which monster would attack on the final night, with locations and monsters able to overlap to interplay with each other. This obviously proved wildly out of scope, and the horror elements of the game’s story were streamlined into a more reasonably-sized climax. What remained of this initial design were some of the visitable locations and endings that interact with the folklore of these locations.
Camp Pinewood is more than anything an example of extreme overscoping and rapid downsizing. As a young developer, I bit off much more than I could chew with my plans, and had to rapidly alter the scope of the project before the deadline. I consider it a success that the core story, especially the more personal stories of each character, remained intact through the hectic redesign, and while I have grown much as a writer and developer since making Camp Pinewood, it is still a product and a learning experience I am proud of. The game additionally does fairly well on Itch.io, with thousands of monthly downloads!