Games You Might Have Missed: A Normal Lost Phone
A Normal Lost Phone was developed by Accidental Queens, a studio created by three women in France, and released on January 26th, 2017. It’s available on iOS, Android, and Steam for $2.99, but I’d highly recommend playing on a phone as it adds the the immersion of the game’s setting.
In your day-to-day travels, you find a random phone. It’s now up to you to figure out who it belongs to by searching through the data within it. This is where the main gameplay mechanic appears. Accessing different parts of the phone requires you to solve logic puzzles based on information given to you in the parts you already have access to. For example, there’s a text message that says the password to the town’s free wifi is its zip code, so you have to figure out where you would be able to find that information without access to the internet. Each puzzle solved allows you to dig deeper into who this person is and why their phone went missing.
By using a device that is so common in our day to day lives, the game becomes relatable almost immediately. Going through Sam, the game’s protagonist’s interactions with friends, acquaintances, and family builds out their character even though we never actually see them outside of a few photos in the phone’s gallery. Anxious texts from Sam’s dad are a reminder of the fear anyone would feel when a loved one goes missing, and adds a sense of urgency to finding out what really happened. Moments like this exist throughout the game, pushing you towards the conclusion and fleshing out characters you only meet through their brief appearances on Sam’s screen.
Without getting into spoilers, A Normal Lost Phone is about LGBTQ issues. It doesn’t dig tremendously deep into them, but it touches on some key fears that queer folks can face. While I think Sam’s story is ultimately more complicated than a 30 minute-1 hour game can adequately cover, it’s still an enjoyable experience and has representation that’s at least friendly, if not all that complex.
