''c ya laterrrr'' is an autobiographical

hypertext fiction Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links that provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text ...

written by

Dan Hett Dan Hett is a digital artist, writer and games designer from Manchester, UK. He is also a member of the Algorave live coding electronic music and visuals movement, performing under the name Rituals. Career Hett's writing is influenced by the d ...

about his experiences following his brother dying in the

Manchester Arena bombing On 22 May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande. Twenty-three people were killed, including ...

. It won the

New Media Writing Prize The New Media Writing Prize is an annual, juried competition in the United Kingdom awarding prizes to works of innovative digital fiction that uses interactivity, participatory elements and/or multimedia and achieves "good storytelling". Works th ...

in 2020.

Plot and structure

''c ya laterrrr'' is a text-only game or

written in

Twine Twine is a strong thread, light string or cord composed of two or more thinner strands twisted, and then twisted together (plied). The strands are plied in the opposite direction to that of their twist, which adds torsional strength to the cor ...

. The story is written in the second person, following the convention of

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

. While the game has only one endpoint, the player is faced with many choices along the way and "one of the many possible pathways does reflect ett'sactual experience". Unlike many other Twine games, it doesn't feature back/next buttons, forcing the player to stick with the choices they make. Hett has emphasised the importance of these choices in interviews, saying that ''c ya laterrrr'' is "as much about what I didn't do as what I did do". The game begins with the player as a parent in a quiet house, after their children are asleep, who sees social media posts speculating about something happening in the city. When they check their phone the next morning, they have received hundreds of messages overnight from people trying to contact them about their brother, and they learn the event in the city was a bombing at the concent their brother was attending.

Reception

Keza MacDonald, writing in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

, said ''c ya laterrrr'''s "intimacy comes from its interactivity". Gabrielle de la Puente described the writing as "hard and sober and it captured the very strange lucidity that comes with waking grief". The work won the

in 2020 and was part of the "Digital Storytelling" exhibition at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

in 2023. Hett has written two other works about his grief at the loss of his brother, including ''The Loss Levels.'' Publicity around ''c ya laterrrr'' resulted in apologies to Hett from some of the reporters that approached him so soon after the tragedy.

External links

''c y laterrrr'' on Itch.io

References

{{authority control 2010s electronic literature works New media 2010s interactive fiction British literature Works about terrorism Twine games 2017 video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom