Waiting for Evening - सांझ का इंतजार

Waiting for Evening is a narrative mystery room, spanning 40 years of personal life of a queer Anglo-Indian woman in colonial, and later independent Bombay (now Mumbai). The player embodies a young relative, waiting for her return, searching her home over an afternoon for traces of who she is and why her room, holds the key to much of their family histories. Assisted by the shifting perspectives of other people in Frieda's life, the game is a personal take on time and queer relationships. It is meant to be played as a "soft co-op", a theatrical game for 2 players to explore together.

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"It’s August 1966 in Bombay and the scent of jasmine is intoxicating. It’s been 6 years"

Players embody the perspective of Frieda's step son, who has come to find her for a transfer of papers after his father's death. She is not home and the maid invites him in to wait.

Frieda's room holds the memories of a range of relatives; husband, step-sister, house help, neighbors… Character dialogues open different periods and layers. Spanning items and moments between 1920s and 1960s, players explore Frieda's early to later adulthood. City soundscapes, story collage and spoken rumors provide imprints of the inhabitants and their changing world. Players pass the mouse control to each other, alternate lead and follow, sifting through audiovisual layers in a collaborative manner to reconstruct the intimate histories of the absent woman. 

Together, you interpret the lives and loves at her crossroads, and begin to assemble your own story of the room. Why does this stranger have so much in common with you?  And why, when you can see what you came for, is it impossible to leave?

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** Winner of  "Best Story" award at Gaming Pathways' first annual 'Unreleased Games Arcade 2023' at The City College of New York in Harlem, New York. **

** Featured at Wonderville Arcade in Brooklyn, NY on October 28th 2021 - part of a live music event and showcase of personally cultural games **
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In this gentle inter-generational drama we highlight Mumbai, India through an original lens, a vast place whose cultural environment, nuances and shifts are topics rarely explored in our medium. Waiting for Evening  is an ode to places left behind, and to intimacy in relationships at the bounds of societal boundaries.

This game aims to express loving as a continuous process of interpretation. 

Feel free to submit a feedback form if you get to play our prototype, it will greatly help us improving the game as we continue development. Thanks so much!

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Originally an MFA thesis project at NYU's Game Center (2020-21), this game is now undergoing independent development.
Song used- Raga Madhuvanti by Hariprasad Chaurasia. Special thanks to Naomi Clark, Winnie Song, Ethan Redd, Hosni Auji, M@ Boch, everyone at Code Help Desk and the city of Mumbai.