The Back and Forth
A downloadable game
Become a Zinester ($3) or higher on our Patreon before February 12th, 2025 to get this zine for free, plus all of the zines we've released over the last month! You can even get this zine and EVERYTHING we've released over the last month FREE with a one-week trial of our Gamer tier!
About the Game
The Back and Forth is a journal prompting game in which you write about your day: the good, the bad, the mundane, and the exciting. You'll write about whether you did what you planned or pushed those plans aside again for things that took priority. This is your chance to get it all out.
Then you'll take on the role of the intermeddler. Drawing cards to figure out the perspective and nature of their words and following prompts to write notes on the journaling you just did, but from a different perspective. What advice would you give if you had the chance to write commentary in someone else's journal? Would you try to uplift them and encourage them or let them know they need to take the reins of their day if they want to get things accomplished?
Decompress from your day and have a bit of fun talking back to yourself in this journaling adventure for one.
New Digital Version Available!
With a huuuuuuuuuuuge thanks to Andrew (https://tech.lgbt/@nitsuaa), there's now a digital version of The Back and Forth!
Andrew made this for his own use and reached out to us, offering it up for free use for everyone. We checked it out and loved it, and then he made it even better so it's easy to use :D You'll still need something to write on and with, because writing in your favorite word processor (or on some good ol' physical paper!) is best.
This digital version is included in ALL purchases of the game at no extra cost. No install is required, it runs right in your browser, and as such it can even be run on mobile (Andrew's included some brief instructions for how to do that).
Once again, a huge thanks to Andrew for his generous offer. Check out his Mastodon link there to say thanks! 🥳
The Hyper 1 HOUR Game Jam
This game was started for the Hyper 1 HOUR Game Jam! TOPIC: Back And Forth! Though, I didn't end up finishing it in an hour, it was inspired by this jam.
Note: This is a hack of On Poetic Tides: A Poetry-Prompting Adventure (by ✨Beth)
Other Writing Prompt Games
You can check out all of our journaling and writing prompt games here, as well as other hacks of On Poetic Tides below:
Find Out More
Learn more about The Back and Forth on our Patreon. Or come chat about it on our Discord server!
All of our posts are free aside from some exclusive polls. We share news, updates, behind-the-scenes design stuff, and more. Plus, each of our releases is either free for a limited time or has community copies; if you become a free member of our Patreon, you’ll get an email when we release something, and if you’re quick enough you can get everything free!
Paid members help fund our creations and can get all of them as they come out, answer polls to help shape our future creations, and even get games and zines printed and mailed to you monthly in North America.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copies
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
Community copies are full versions of the game you can claim. They're in limited quantities, and they're first come, first served.
Nearly 200 copies came from our "The Back and Forth - Now Digital" sale and another 30 came from our Mail Club Patrons, who each provided 5 copies.
Thanks Zedd 4 Rocker, Teddy, Nybluejeans, Dora Duvall, Kayla Warren, and Rochelle B
Development log
- Now Digital!Apr 10, 2024
Comments
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What a lovely way to get distance from your own perspective and mindset. This game offers space to embody one of the voices you probably have rolling around in your head, maybe understand it better, maybe come to peace with it, maybe put some distance between it and you. Maybe it's a way to learn to be kinder to yourself, too. Thanks, Beth and Angel, for this little gift of a game!
Thank you so much for your lovely words, we greatly appreciate hearing our games are played and people found them helpful. This made our day!
~Angel
Love that new avatar!
Yay thanks for saying so! I made this Picrew foreverrrrrrrrrrrr ago, in the very early days of my transition. I guess the idea is that you can use the different Picrew avatar makers to kinda embody how you wish you would look, and I aimed for a balance of realistic (if I had hair and wore makeup lol) and pretty. And when that one had an option for cards as an accessory, I was like YES, this is it!
- ✨Beth