Between the Lines Demo

You still remember what you didn’t say.

In this nostalgic "text" adventure, use that good ol’ T9 phone to text your way through the drama, excitement, and awkwardness of school days. Choose your replies piece by piece, and unfold your own story.

Relive those sun-drenched teenage summers, back before social media took over. Friendships grow, feelings get complicated, and secrets surface—if you let them. Are you reading too much between the lines? Are you hiding something between the lines?

You saved every message. The ones you held back still echo the loudest. Years later, will you reconnect with those old friends? Will they still see you the same way? Will you?

Features

• A love letter to the T9 phone era: a slower, simpler time we used to take for granted, with ambient sounds, weather effects, and the familiar rhythm of typing on a tiny keypad—back when every message took effort.

• Text with classmates and slowly unravel a relationship that feels close, but never quite clear. A message late at night, a word that feels loaded, a silence that says too much, a reply that takes too long to draft. Maybe it’s just friendship. Maybe it’s not. You don’t really talk about it—and maybe that’s the whole point.

• Choose each reply piece by piece, and watch as your decisions quietly shape the story.

• Every path is valid—no right answers, no fake choices, no fail states. Take your time and play at your own rhythm in this relaxed experience. All scripts and dialogues are handcrafted.

• And don’t forget—you have knowledge of the “future.” Want to drop hints to your friends? See if they laugh it off, get curious, or start thinking you might know more than you’re letting on.

• An intuitive input system—browse the choices and craft your response smoothly with keyboard and/or mouse.

• One playthrough takes just a few hours. New playthroughs are fresh with new topics, minimal repetition, and multiple endings shaped not by any single choice, but by everything that’s been building up all along—the things you said, didn’t say, or never even noticed.

• Maybe you’ll uncover a few secrets. Maybe you won’t. Maybe you'll be questioning everything by the end. Or maybe what’s waiting isn’t a secret at all, but something you’ve known from the start—and quietly chosen to ignore. Don’t stress though—nothing here is canon, and there’s no official ending. Play the story the way it makes sense to you.

• There are easter eggs, too. Will you spot them?

Wishlist now, and get ready for that little signal—somewhere deep in your memory—to buzz back.

Demo vs. Full Game

• Timeline: The demo captures a glimpse of 2006, right after you first get your mobile phone, and drops you into a handful of early chat snapshots. The full game covers a much longer span, moving through 2010 and 2014 before finally reaching the present day.

• Topics and replayability: In the demo, the pool of topics is relatively fixed, though each topic can still branch into hundreds of different directions depending on your choices. The full game features a larger, dynamic topic system where topics are linked differently each time, and multiple runs are meant to feel noticeably different.

• Characters: You can chat with two characters in the demo. The full game will introduce a few more connections.

• Interface: The demo’s in-game phone offers four visual themes. The full game will add more and eventually unlock a modern interface with dozens of color themes to chat in the present day.

• Audio: The demo relies on sound effects and ambient sounds. The full game will add background music.

About Localization

Please note that this is a solo-developed game. While I'm comfortable with English, fully localizing a narrative-heavy game is a lot of work. As such, I’ve chosen to focus on the Chinese version first. English localization may be considered after release—depending on player interest, sales performance, and available resources.