I Cheated On You 2.0

Around five years ago, I sat down at my laptop and hammered out a short Twine game, pouring out everything I was feeling at the time. It was an apology. It was a way to make everyone else feel as shitty as I was. It was revenge. It was a lot of things.

It was not supposed to gain any attention.

A couple of weeks later I saw a lengthy Twitter thread by John Brindle highlighting the many ways my game played with traditional game mechanics. It appeared on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and was praised for flipping the script on player interactivity. It was mentioned briefly on Podtoid.

Over the years I've idly namesearched it on Twitter and Google and found more articles about it, always positive. I've received some negative comments, largely aimed at me being a crappy person, which are entirely valid.

In 2017 it was the subject of an essay in a book called Critical Hits: An Indie Gaming Anthology. At the end of the year, John Brindle mentioned it in an article published on Waypoint.

I'm immensely proud of I Cheated On You, but it's also a very painful experience for me. I regret making it in some ways, but the way it's been picked up by others has been quite heartening, so I've never shyed away from accepting praise for it. In some ways that makes me even worse.

After shifting it over to itch.io earlier in 2018, I realised it was broken in several ways. I lost the original files back before Twine 2 was even a thing, so never got round to fixing it.

Today seemed like the right time, I guess.

This version has been rebuilt in Twine 2, with some tweaks to the narrative to improve its pacing and add in some new stylistic choices to make certain elements clearer. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't played the game, but those who remember it vividly will notice the small tweaks.

Thanks to everyone who's continued to say nice things about I Cheated On You over the years. Sorry to everyone I upset or angered.