I love writing, designing, and programming – three passions that always come together to form a whole for me. For some time now, I have been sharing my thoughts on life, encounters, and how we interact with each other on my blog. As I wrote, I developed a desire to think bigger, to create worlds that unfold on their own.
At the same time, I am fascinated by the logic of programming – that moment when everything meshes together, code becomes function, and ideas take shape. When this can then be dressed up in an aesthetic, visually coherent interface, the circle is complete for me.
This is how the idea for a new project came about: a story that develops as it is told – born out of an empty space, out of darkness, out of curiosity.
It is titled: A Stranger's Journey.
Contents
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1.
From an idea that wanted to be more than just text
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2.
A game that accompanies you – not keeps you busy
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3.
When writing, thinking, and playing become one
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4.
Color, sound, and feel – the visual heart of ASJ
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5.
Between passion, patience, and progress
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6.
A world grows – line by line
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7.
The website opens the door to the world of ASJ
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8.
When passion takes shape
A journey begins
From an idea that wanted to be more than just text
But where is this journey taking you?
When does it start? Who is accompanying you? How does it feel?
How can you be part of it, and how do you know what to do?
A Stranger's Journey, or ASJ for short, is a mobile gaming app in the text adventure genre.
Stories in everyday life
A game that accompanies you – not keeps you busy
ASJ accompanies you on your smartphone and tells you a story in a slightly different way. Our senses are completely overwhelmed, time is short, and our concentration is often in many places at once.
How can you fit in reading a whole book without missing half of it or skimming over parts?
ASJ gives you the opportunity to experience a story and at the same time takes the decision out of your hands – how much of it you can experience today, how long you can spend on it today.
The story tells of a stranger, or rather your stranger companion, who is in a place he himself does not know, which he can hardly describe, which at the same time fills him with sheer amazement and makes him run for his life.
The app lets you participate in this story and gives you the opportunity to communicate with the stranger in a chat.
You will gradually learn more and more about his story in fragments, and you will quickly realize that the stranger cannot respond to you permanently. This allows ASJ to integrate itself unobtrusively into your everyday life, and after just a few minutes of play, the stranger finds himself in a new place, facing a new experience and a new danger. He has to face this alone for quite some time, and you will have to wait for his next message to find out how he is doing and what has happened.
You will receive a push notification as soon as you have received a new message and your stranger companion is waiting for your help.
Because that is your role in this game: your stranger companion repeatedly finds themselves in places and moments where they have to make a decision about what to do next.
These decisions are so difficult and important that they need your help to make them – here, you control the course of the story, and not every decision leads in the same direction.
Not every decision leads to the same ending – not every decision is good, and not every decision is important.
This story will end differently for everyone.
But how many turns will you discover?
How will this journey end for you?
Find out soon...
From idea to concept
When writing, thinking, and playing become one
ASJ first crossed my mind in the summer of 2018. Without a name, colors, or sound, it was simply the idea and desire to write a story longer than the content of a blog post, to just let it happen and see where it would lead and what kind of text would emerge. It should be more than just a text with a beginning and an end.
It should be experiential, controllable, alternative, interactive.
Slowly, thoughts about the as-yet-unwritten story began to take shape in order to create this experience.
Parts of it should remain hidden – the reader should think, feel, and decide along with the story. For the world that this story can paint, the reader should bring their own canvas and be able to create it for themselves – they should be able to build it themselves and lose themselves in it, spending time in it.
This gave rise to the idea of making the story itself the essential content of the experience and, in order to make it interactive, it was turned into a game concept, whereby the reader became the player.
Always keeping in mind that the essential gameplay would be a chat history in which the player could control the course of the story via text responses, I began writing the first lines of the story in October 2019.
Design and atmosphere
Color, sound, and feel – the visual heart of ASJ
At the turn of the year 2019/2020, between the years as they say, I found a few quiet days and created the foundations of what is now the established corporate design for this project.
The results were a mysterious poster, a teaser trailer, and a fully interactive prototype of the app. The following poster shows the first appearance of ASJ:
For a long time, this was the only tangible and implemented form of ASJ. Except for the color scheme and a few core elements, this work is an integral part of today's project. Finding moments in everyday life that were so calm, so far away from deadline pressure, so relaxed and shielded from any influences that I could immerse myself in this world again to continue writing the story was not so easy. I had to be completely present in this place to let the text flow.
It sounds cliché, but darkness, bright colors, and atmospheric music coming from headphones took me there to continue this story bit by bit.
In August 2020, I was able to complete the first version of the story, and even while writing, many parts changed frequently, and I never thought it would end the way it does – depending on where the player ends up in their game.
The path through development
Between passion, patience, and progress
Only when this version of the story was complete did I begin developing the app. Finally, I was able to pursue one of my greatest passions and bring this extraordinary world to life in lines of code, making it ever more tangible and real.
Finding time to focus on ASJ alongside customer projects was not easy. It's easy to feel pressured to make progress on the project and finish it quickly. These are the moments when you have to be careful not to lose sight of the fact that you are working on the project out of passion, not just for the sake of progress. At some point, you forget that the world is not waiting for this project, this result, and that you have all the time in the world to complete it at some point. Then, just when everything comes together, when you have thought of everything and the idea has become a product, even an experience, that is ready for any occasion, then it is time to show it, talk about it, and find ways to get the attention you want for the project.
In this thought experiment, you often go back and forth, and sometimes you have to remind yourself once again why you started such a project, why you enjoy working on it so much, why you want to talk about it and show it to others.
The status quo
A world grows – line by line
ASJ has now reached a very advanced stage.
The corporate design for A Stranger's Journey has been completed and has evolved compared to the first version, which can be seen here in the picture. Social media accounts have been created and are waiting for content to promote the app as soon as there is a release schedule for it.
Many posters, mockups, and illustrations have been created that provide insight into the world and atmosphere of ASJ.
In the following image, you can see the world of ASJ through my eyes.
What does it look like to you?
The app, the heart and core of this project, is in full development. In terms of numbers, it is probably 60% complete.
The graphics have been fully created, and the entire user interface with all of the app's screens has been built. The complete navigation structure has been programmed and is functional. The chat history messaging system has been programmed.
As of today, the push notification system is still missing, as are texts in a few explanatory places, and the story, which is available as a text file with over 21,000 words, still needs to be divided into many small objects in JSON format. Tests and optimizations for various aspect ratios will then complete the project.
And this completion means publication – the completion means the third app in the App Store and a good feeling about turning this idea into a product, into a brand, which should only be the beginning after its release. There are so many ideas to expand it, to continue telling the story, to expand this world, to ensure that ASJ can be a reliable companion that always has something new to offer.
It is not important to me whether ASJ becomes a monetary success or can even be conceived as such – thinking about projects holistically, developing them in all areas from the idea to publication, helping to design and program them without subjecting them to economic risks, limitations, or regulations – that is what I love to do most, that is how you can live projects, how you can lose yourself in them.
Unfortunately, this is not always feasible or sensible with client projects and large team collaborations.
This drive is what led me to start ASJ, and it's what allows me to spend hour after hour on details that perhaps no one will notice or appreciate later on – and that's exactly what makes it so special...
Interaction that is unobtrusive, does not push itself into the foreground, does not present itself for its own sake, allows the function to fade into the background, and is intuitive and almost invisible – that is good interaction...
A new milestone
The website opens the door to the world of ASJ
These lines mark the start of the home stretch, which is still incredibly long. They are an important milestone that finally brings an important part of the world of ASJ to light today.
This part, previously unmentioned, is one of the biggest entry points into the world of ASJ. Development of the app was paused for this, and this section alone took three months to develop.
It is with great joy and pride that I can now publish the finished website for A Stranger's Journey. The placeholder that has adorned the domain for over a year is finally becoming a fully-fledged website that already gives you a wealth of information about the world of ASJ and lets you feel a bit of its dark atmosphere here and there.
Find out everything you need to know, discover images and illustrations from this mysterious world, and experience the simple and intuitive gameplay directly on the website. Become part of this world yourself and download the wallpapers or take a look at the press kit and discover even more media from the world of ASJ.
Stay up to date and don't miss out on the most important news about A Stranger's Journey by signing up for the newsletter on the website. Every few weeks, you'll receive the latest information from the world of ASJ and get a taste of the atmosphere from time to time. You'll also get exclusive access as a beta tester for the app.
Discover the new A Stranger's Journey website now:
Or take a look at a preview of the website here:
The most important foundations have been laid, several milestones have been reached, and the focus is now fully on completing the app. Stay informed and up to date on all the usual channels.
The journey is about to begin...
Outlook & Gratitude
When passion takes shape
It is a privilege to be able to work on my own ideas. It is a privilege to have so much freedom and to be able to create such projects on my own terms. I carry this appreciation with me every minute I spend developing ASJ, and I am excited to see where this journey will take us and, even more so, to be able to share it with everyone soon.
This is my biggest project to date.
It has taken an incredible amount of time, love, and fun to create.
This is A Stranger's Journey.
