the postman

Downloading and playing in fullscreen is highly recommended for stability over playing in-browser.

Please note that due to the nature of the narrative, the screenshots on display here are not indicative of the full experience.

The Postman is an interactive re-telling of Tom Godwin's 1954 short story "The Cold Equations." 

Although Godwin's short story is controversial among science fiction fans, the dilemma (or lack thereof) of the narrative greatly interested me when I first read it many years ago. So, I thought it would be some fun to adapt it into visual novel form as a part of my game-making practice.

A substantial amount of liberties have been taken in re-telling the story's world, characters, and plot structure, but the premise is essentially the same. I hope I can make players feel something similar to what I felt when I read the short story for the first time.

This project was made entirely in my own time over the course of a year, with my own music, art, code, and writing (adapted from Tom Godwin's work, of course.) In total, though, I probably only spent around two months' worth of work on it. I hope you enjoy it despite its rough edges and (likely) countless bugs.

Special thanks to Nathan Hoad for his Dialogue Manager and to my sister Clare for dying to play this since the moment I mentioned it.

funderful