Lost in Play: Don’t Stop Believin’

Dear Will,

Growing up can suck. Suddenly, you go from being responsible for next to nothing to being responsible for absolutely everything. The magic about the world…just gone. No time to play anymore with a 40-hour-a-week job and who knows what else. 

The devs at Happy Juice Games know that struggle, too. When I found Lost in Play, I was struggling to connect with you, to play with you, and see the world how you see it. Memories of myself playing as Tails in a game of Sonic during recess were long gone, and the girl who would fill up notebooks with her own Star Wars stories was even more gone. It’s been hard to play tabletop RPGs with friends anymore because I have such a hard time getting my brain out of the “I’m an adult” grind and into the fantasy worlds of the campaigns.

The world hasn’t been magical for me for a while, and I’m afraid I’m already showing you it’s not.

Everything about Lost in Play is about recapturing that magical way of seeing the world. It’s about Toto and Gal, a brother and sister, each in their own stage of growing up, but they go on a wicked adventure to return home and to each other. The brother, Toto, is older and more into gaming and hiding away in his hoodie, while the sister, Gal, is younger and isn’t ready to lose her partner in crime on many adventures.

The game starts simple enough, as you enlist the family dog and cat to help you scare your brother into ditching his game to play with you. The sky is the limit after that, as you get lost in their imaginations. There are weird chickens, frogs, monsters, and some puzzles that drove me crazy, but the 2-to-4-hour play time was well worth it.

There’s no dialog in Lost in Play; the characters only speak in gibberish. But that’s okay, because who didn’t grow up wishing they could invent their own language or make a code that pesky parents couldn’t read? (And yes, Will, feel free to throw this in my face if I ever get mad at you for doing just that.) You also sat next to me the whole time I played, giggling like you understood EXACTLY what everyone was saying.

The idea at the heart of the game, these siblings letting their imaginations run wild and finding joy in being together again and playing together in fantastical adventures, was beyond wholesome.

It was precisely the type of game I needed. Watching you run around with your toys after I finished the game, I could have sworn your smile was a bit bigger and brighter, or maybe that’s because I realized I was acting like Toto and the world wasn’t going to end if I took off my adult coat and just be in the moment. That’s my lesson from Lost in Play; to be in the moment.

So, Will, as you’re playing make-believe with an attachment for our vacuum singing a mash-up of “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” thank you for making me see the wonder of play and the wonder of imagination all over again. I hope you never have to deal with losing it as I did.

If you get one thing from your childhood, Will, I hope it’s this. Get lost while you play. Don’t be afraid to lose yourself in your imagination. Don’t be scared to go to all the worlds and meet all the types of people and animals you want.

I love you, kiddo.

Mom

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