‘The August Before’ – Puzzles About Packing & Moving On

The August Before follows a young girl moving out of her house and deciding what to pack before she goes off to the next chapter in her life.

There are memories all over the room – notes from friends, books that she’s enjoyed, posters from bands that meant a lot. It’s up to you to decide what goes into the suitcase for the next chapter, and what gets binned.

This game does a great job of telling a story through small tasks. At first, you might start by putting buttons in the pot on your desk and stacking books back on your shelf, but soon you’ll find items that come with a decision. Post-it notes might all end up in the bin, but some things are meaningful, and you will need to decide if you take them with you on your next chapter or if you leave them, and their memories, behind. These decisions don’t feel easy to make as it’s clear there is limited room in your suitcase. So, you will need to pick the best sorts of memories and pack up what is truly meaningful.

The game feels satisfying as the room transforms from something messy to something clean and organised, but as you do that, you are also fed little aspects of the narrative adventure. And there are some bits of puzzles as well – a locked box that you need to figure out, some small clues that show where other items should be placed using a bit of your own detective skills, but none of these puzzles take away from the heartfelt story that you are weaving, showing your past and what you wish to take with you into the future.

I played a small demo of The August Before at Gamescom where I very much liked the flow of the game and the story around it. Though this demo was short, only showing one room, there was a lot of emotion and narrative depth to it.

The August Before is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can add it to your Steam Wishlist.

About The Author

Jupiter Hadley

Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist, writing for Metro UK, Big Boss Battle, AlphaBetaGamer, and many more, all with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, judges many jams and events.