Massive SPOILER ALERT!

I strongly recommend you play the game through to completion before reading any of this. After reading it you may even want to play it again :)

In A NUTSHELL

Your name is Charlotte Taylor. You're a female. You suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder, now more commonly know as Dis-associative Identity Disorder (DID). In the game you are actually at your doctor's office undergoing a hypnotherapy session. Your doctor is trying to help you reduce the number of alters (personalities) that you host. You've already gotten rid of one. Ultimately you fail.

The Full Monty

Boy or Girl

If you don't keep you wits about you, you may think that you are male. The names used for the characters are deliberately unisex and the man on the phone (let's call him Charles) never refers to gender i.e. he never says he/she/him/her but he's quite pally. You seem to be his mate, his buddy rather than a romantic interest and of course our innate gender bias can't help but suggest that that means you must be a male friend. But, you are not. Your name is Charlotte Taylor. You are female.

  • CLUE: Your name with first initial is written on the appointment card found on the centre console of the car.
  • CLUE: A book "Just a Phone Call Away" near the deer shows a woman using a smartphone. The author is you, Charlotte Taylor.
  • CLUE: Your full name is carved on the tree by the waterfall. It's on the far side of the tree.
  • CLUE: When Charles tells you about the nature of the app on your phone he says "Little Jemima" i.e. he deliberately uses a female name. That's because you are female.
  • CLUE: Doctor's voice when you finish the game refers to you as Charlotte.

DID she or DIDn't she

You suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder, now more commonly know as Dis-associative Identity Disorder (DID).

  • CLUE: Song on radio at start is called "The truth about me and you" and it talks about losing someone, this is the Charlotte alter losing the Taylor alter.
  • CLUE: On the appointment card we see the Doctor's name is Multaj Sangas, this is Esperanto for "Many Alters" (Alters being the term for the discrete personalities in DID)
  • CLUE: On the appointment card the address of the Doctors office is 321 Charles Close, 321 indicates the descending number of alters, i.e. the goal.
  • CLUE: On the appointment card the date is 3/2 also indicating the reduction in alters to date.
  • CLUE: On the top of the hill there are 3 sculptures, one of them is almost completely buried. This is a metaphor for the alters or personalities. Taylor is gone, Charlotte and Charles remain.
  • CLUE: Two of the the books near the deer talk about MPD/DID.

Hypnotism

In the game you are actually at your doctor's office undergoing a hypnotherapy session.

  • CLUE: Doctor's voice on the menu screen is greeting you and preparing you for the session.
  • CLUE: Doctor's voice when you click Start counts to five, counting is a classic hypnotism technique.
  • CLUE: The park is called Yew Tree Park but there are no Yew trees in the park, no yew in the park...get it?
  • CLUE: Appointment card in the car has a time of 10:42, your phone throughout the game also always says 10:42. The unchanging nature of the phone time is also intended to make you feel a little uneasy as if something isn't quite right.
  • CLUE: Appointment card in the car, look closely the email address is multaj.sangas@hypnomed.org.uk
  • CLUE: Near the deer you can hear a 60bpm mechanical metronome clicking. If you listen long enough you'll even hear it being wound up. Metronomes are often used to induce or maintain the hypnotic state.
  • CLUE: If you follow the direction of the metronome clicks you'll find some books. One of these is entitled "Disassociative Identity Disorder, Fact or Fiction?" and is written by Dr Multaj Sangas.
  • CLUE: At the start of the first, long bridge the sign says "Max 3 persons". At the start of the second, short bridge the sign says "Max 1 person". This indicates the input and output of the therapy i.e. 3 go in, 1 comes out.
  • CLUE: In the cave at the end of the long bridge some of the wall looks like a padded cell. Not normal!
  • CLUE: It's very unlikely that you would survive the jump from the waterfall and even if you did you would at least have some broken bones. VERY unlikely that you could jump up and run back to the car park. This suggests something is wrong with the world
  • CLUE: The figure in the car at the end is a man, this may not be obvious but zoom in and you'll see. So the options are a) it's Charles b) it's the Doctor c) it's you. Whichever, this again is not normal. I'm sorry to say that I never wrote the story beyond this point, but if I had I think the guy in the car would be Charles. But the truth is even I don't know for sure. I'd love to hear your theories :)
  • CLUE: Doctor's voice at the end of the game counts back from five to one and tells you not to worry, you'll try again another time.

What's with the Deer?

Your action here does not actually affect the story. Kill it or don't, it's up to you. The deer exists only to set you up to be just a little understanding of Charles. In his mind he killed Taylor because he thought of Taylor as a lame animal and in the process he has done you a favour too. After all he has gotten rid of one of your alters. Though this does raise an interesting question, who is the primary personality? See below in the Backstory section for more about this.

John Ruskin quote?

I wanted a way to start you thinking about fate i.e. the age old question of do we or don't we. Because you're about to find out some stuff and I thought it would be fun for you to think about that stuff in the context of fate...or not :)

Those jokes were terrible!

Sorry about that. When I first started writing AWITP I had recently been to see some stand up comedy. The comedian told the joke about the dog making a bolt for the door and I remember literally guffawing. It wasn't a normal laughter sound that I made, it was a kind of choking, explosive sound and it was completely unbidden. I just found it funny. So when I started writing AWITP I quickly realised that the whole thing might end up being a bit dark, morbid and frankly boring. So I decided to splatter it with a few jokes that hopefully are relevant and funny.

"Dog making a bolt for the door."

Nothing clever here I'm afraid, like I said I just found it funny. I guess on reflection maybe Charlotte wants to make a run for it, maybe she doesn't really want to be here. But that's just an afterthought..so doesn't count :)

"Acorn = Oak Tree"

How would you briefly describe an acorn? ….well, in a nutshell it's an oak tree. Well you're in a forest so it's relevant, but also it gives you a hint that the same content can be packaged in different ways and that's fine. Being a small, quiet, shy person (Taylor) is fine, but being a multi-faceted (multi-branching?) character i.e. MPD/DID is also fine and can, in a way, be wonderful.

"Prison circles"

I actually deleted this joke from the game. Charles originally told it to you as you were walking along the long bridge but it was itself too long winded and kind of upset the timing a bit. It also wasn't that funny or relevant, so it was dumped in the virtual trash can. I've put it below for your viewing pleasure.

Two young blokes go to court after being arrested for smoking some wacky baccy. The judge says, "You seem like nice young men, and I'd like to give you a second chance, so instead of incarceration I want you to go out this weekend and try to convince others of the evils of drug use. I'll see you back in court Monday." On Monday, the judge asks the first guy, "How did you do over the weekend?" "Well, your honour, I persuaded 7 people to give up drugs forever." "Seven people? That's wonderful. How did you do it? " "I used a diagram, your honour. I drew two circles like this: One big one and one small one. Then I pointed to the big circle and said this is your brain before drugs and then pointed to the small circle and said this is your brain after drugs." "That's admirable," says the judge. Then he turns to the second guy. "And how did you do?" "Well, your honour, I persuaded 59 people to give up drugs forever." "Wow!" says the judge. "59 people! How did you manage to do that?" "Well, I used a similar diagram," the guy says. "I drew two circles like this: one small and one big. Then I pointed to the little circle and said, 'This is your asshole before prison... '"

"Sherlock and Watson's tent"

Charles tells a joke at the waterfall involving Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. This is me trying to tell you the player not to overthink the situation. There is no puzzle here, just jump. This is also a slight nod to Arthur Conan Doyle and his hero. The Reichenbach Falls is the location of the final fight between Sherlock and Moriarty as told in the short story "The Final Problem". Where both Holmes and Moriarty fall to their deaths.

"3 dead men and a cliff"

As if you needed it, this was another subtle suggestion that you jump!


Backstory

Here's an interesting question. Who is the primary personality? Charlotte? Charles (man on the phone) or Taylor? I think it certainly feels like Charlotte is. But, in the original backstory that I wrote Charlotte was in fact the third personality to manifest. Taylor was the first, then Charles came into being as a result of some childhood trauma. He always speaks to Taylor via her phone. Using a phone seemed a neat way for her to reason and make sense of a voice in her head. Mobile phones are always with us and always on. Charlotte appeared when Taylor attended university. Taylor was a kind but quiet, shy, somewhat introvert person. Charlotte manifested as a much more outgoing, curious but unsatisfied person. Taylor had always been rather shy and found it hard to make any friends. While at university she grew and changed. Her outlook, values, opinions and behaviour all expanded. She became more sociable and realised people actually liked her company. She made friends. Real friends. The old her (Taylor) was still there but it was augmented by a new personality, Charlotte. Together the new person was awesome, interesting, fun, intelligent, creative etc. Charles didn't like this. Taylor didn't need him so much anymore. In the end Charles helps the Doctor to get rid of Taylor. Bereft of Taylor Charlotte becomes depressed and suicidal. Charles sees an opening to become the primary personality. If only he can get rid of Charlotte.