Today, January 13, 2022, I am thrilled to announce the release of chiaroscuro, an interactive fiction novel game about art—and other things.

Take a tour of the modern-day streets of Rome as Perce, a young painter suffering from a crisis of identity and inspiration. While searching for her muse, she crosses paths with two strange, impossible creatures—one dark, and one light. It’s up to you how she spends her days (and with whom) as she struggles to fill a blank canvas and decide, once and for all, her future as an artist.

“This is an artist’s playground, and as painters of greater renown have done before me, I have come here to play.”

A Short Branching Narrative with Multiple Endings to Unlock

chiaroscuro is more of a low fantasy interactive novella than an interactive novel—the average completion time for a single playthrough is around one to two hours at most. It’s a short IF game meant to be enjoyed in a single sitting.

At the same time, it’s intended to be played more than once. The choices you make as Perce are simple and their environmental effects are often subtle, but they have a significant impact on Perce’s own perception of the world and herself. They will ultimately shape her future—for better or worse.

There are a total of five unique endings to unlock, each representing a distinctly different fate for Perce. Where will your choices lead her?

Explore Rome from the Comfort of Your Home

In her quest for inspiration, Perce searches high and low through the streets of Rome, visiting famous locales such as the Piazza Navona as well as hidden gems like a cat cafè in Ostiense.

“No gilded halls and marble statues for us—all you need to do to see beautiful paintings in Ostiense is to walk down the street.”

Months of research and interviewing visitors as well as local residents helped flesh out the details of our protagonist’s favorite city in the world, breathing life into a setting that readers can truly lose themselves in. Just keep an eye out for those two would-be companions of Perce’s… you never know where those odd creatures might pop up next.

Play ‘chiaroscuro’ for Free Today!

chiaroscuro is a completely free interactive novel game—no secret in-game purchases, no microtransactions, nothing. Once you hit “start,” you can explore every avenue of the narrative to your heart’s content.

chiaroscuro is a text-only game developed in Twine that uses hyperlinks in the same way that ye olde Choose Your Own Adventure Books used page numbers to take you from one choice to the next. It’s easy to navigate, and you can play it in your browser whether you’re on a Mac, a PC, or your phone.

As Perce says, “I may not be a goddess, but I have the power of creation in the palm of my hand. All I need to do is begin.”

chiaroscuro is a free interactive novel game available now for a variety of browsers and operating systems. Click here to download your copy and begin playing today!

If you enjoy the game, please consider leaving a donation via Ko-Fi (below) or on the game’s download page. Every little bit goes a long way towards helping me create more stories for you to enjoy!