Hi! I wrote a little bit about what it was like to write for Down Memory Lane and how the characters developed into what they are today.

I wanted to include the dev team in this devlog too, so I asked for some quotes on their favorite leads as well.

This is very much a ‘train of thought’ kind of devlog, so apologies if it’s a bit messy.

Be aware that the below writing has HUGE spoilers!

I started writing DML with the idea of a found family happy times road trip.

Jane, Charlie, and Lake were going to bond a lot, Louis was going to be around for longer, and so on. Basically a makeshift little family travelling together (and Vonny. Vonny is part of the family too.)

Chapter 3 was going to be the ‘conflict’ chapter where the cracks in the family would show - Lake was going to intentionally mess with Vonny’s tires in a moment of rage, Jane would fight with Charlie, and Louis would run away. It was going to end with Charlie saving someone, almost fall off a cliff, and be rescued by Jane.

Buuut I ended up focusing much more on Charlie and Lottie’s messed up relationship, and Jane turned out to be much more of a lone wolf than I initially envisioned. She and Charlie do not get along for most of the story, it would make no sense for them to be ‘found family’, not with the baggage these two have.

(And chapter 3 - instead of just tire problems, I KILLED VONNY.)

Vonny is fucking dead. It’s a car crash that represents how the Jane/Charlie dynamic is also crashing, it can’t keep going like this, this isn’t right. Lake is the outsider who looks at that and goes ‘you guys are messed up’, man.’

And the seemingly ‘small’ choices the player makes? They build up, little by little. Jane never had the choice to choose for herself, she was never heard.

“Jane’s emotional distance early in the story sincerely reminds me of how I was as a kid, and seeing her grow and open up is incredibly heartwarming to me” - Roxy (Playtester)

Charlie can either show her that she DOES have autonomy and the right to choose, even if she agrees with Charlie in the end… or Charlie can repeat what Jane’s parents were doing, leading to the bad ending.

By showing Jane what normalcy is, by giving her a home in Vonny, Charlie changed Jane, and Jane changed Charlie, by pointing out the cracks in her and Lottie’s seemingly ‘perfect’ relationship, which slowly reached Charlie and had her question if Lottie really is all that amazing.

These two are not best friends, they are not the common image of what a ‘sisterly’ bond is, but by meeting each other that one night, they changed for the best (or worst, in the bad ending.)

(Jane’s) initial coldness and distancing is something I can relate to since I’ve had a phase of my life where I did it as a means of protection, but reading her part of the story taught me that there are well-intended people out there who, if you allow yourself to be a bit vulnerable, you can establish and develop really good relationships. - Viv (QA)

I find this dynamic to be much more interesting than the one I originally had in mind.

I’m aware the story is a little slow until Chapter 3. But it had to be like that.

Charlie and Jane needed to meet Peaches, Horace, Louis and Lake for the game’s ending to work, the emotions and the tension had to build up properly for that scene where Jane screams for Charlie to go back to normal to be impactful.

They needed to go on adventures with Vonny for his loss to mean something, for Jane to see the van as her home. Jane needed to be called out by Lake. Charlie needed to question her choice regarding Louis.

And they needed to bond over good memories. I went back after my first draft and added a good chunk of the eating together and bantering scenes you see now, to further Jane and Charlie’s unique relationship. Two people who came into each other’s lifes’ just in time.

“She’s my Ryan Gosling” - Roxy (Playtester) about Jane

Meanwhile, the CharliexLottie dynamic ended up turning the game into ‘Hydrangea on Wheels.’ Not that it’s a bad thing, and Lottie was always supposed to be manipulative and not the perfect girlfriend Charlie thinks she was, but I wonder how many more times I’ll write such a character; manipulative, deceitful, innocent on the outside but twisted on the inside, but doesn’t realize the harm she’s doing.

(Perhaps until the related wounds have healed in my own heart.)

(Might be never.)

(Life goes on. That’s the ending of the game.)

Originally, grown-up Lottie was going to show up by the end, and she and Charlie would talk it all out. I prefer this new version. It’s difficult to come to your abuser and lay it all down for them, all the hurt and the trauma they’ve caused. Charlie is not ready for that, she needs much, much more time being herself rather than Lottie’s hero before she can (if she wants to) confront the woman herself.

I’m really happy with how Charlie’s character turned out. To be honest, for a long while, I didn’t know what to do with her outside of her past with Lottie and her want to help Jane. There’s got to be something more to her. She can’t just be selfless and helpful to every stray kid she meets. What’s her deal?

It quickly became clear to me that, in a meta manner, Charlie existed to save others and have others tell their story to her, with little space for her to tell her own. With Jane being such an un-curious and prickly scene partner, she barely had chances to explain who she is.

Charlie’s my favorite. With Charlie, I really related to her story of feeling needed and helping out others in order to ignore the times I’ve been left behind or hurt, even if it’s at the cost of my well-being. - Kristi (Playtester)

I put myself down, thinking ‘everyone is going to dislike or not care about Charlie. All she has going for her is being a savior, and I can’t figure out what else to do with her. I’m a terrible writer.’

Then it clicked.

That’s it. That’s her deal.

I don’t know who Charlie is outside of her relationship to Lottie and Jane, because she doesn’t know either!

It all came together after that realization. I was able to develop and understand Charlie’s journey, her trauma, and how she should be in the game’s start, middle, and end.

I needed to break her.

Why? Because Charlie needs to break before she can heal.

The creepy scene with hallucination!Lottie after she hears Jane and Lake laughing together is one of my absolute favorites because of this. It breaks down Charlie in every single way, tears her character down to the minimum, questions her every single action.

Only after that she can…. go Down Memory Lane.

That’s what happens in that final scene where she questions who she is, and all those flashbacks appear. That’s what the title is about - going down your memories to remember who you are.

I like how she always tries to help everyone and be the ray of sunshine in everyone’s life. I feel like everyone needs a Charlie in their life, that friend who is always there to help and who will go above and beyond to support them. I would love to be Charlie’s friend, and I really liked how her character arc was. I believe Charlie will come out better from this experience than she expected. - Breezy (Scripter/Coder)

And so the two leads say goodbye, going their own separate ways as they try to continue living on while remembering who they are and what is important to them.

They keep the memories of those they met close to them. Perhaps they won’t all meet each other again, but the impact they’ve had on them will never be forgotten.

Thank you to the DML team for helping me develop the game as I envisioned it and developing the vision into what it is today with me. I’m extremely happy with what we created together.

I’m pretty proud of this game, and hope you enjoyed playing it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Thanks for reading and for playing Down Memory Lane. This game is a treasure and I wouldn’t change what me and the team went through together for anything, even in the times when things weren’t so peaceful.

At the end of the day, I wrote a story about human connection, and while on that road, I almost made amazing connections with talented folks.

So maybe the real road trip was the friends we made all along, huh?

“Vonny is my favorite lead. Vonny is the true hero of this story.” - Raxef (Producer)