So, following up experiments in solo RPG design, this is one inspired by Tamagotchis. Not in the sense of their inevitable neglect and torment, and however many of them seemed to introduce our younger selves to the concept of death. No, perhaps instead, the goal is how to highlight everyday moments as an act of care.

This little project is meant to put an analog little friend in your purse, backpack, or what have you, and when you remember its there, you record something special about the place, the time, the activity, the people around you, and mark the place of the 'haunting' with a token. When you run out of tokens, the ghost departs, and you are left with a record of its last hurrah in this life.

This comes from a way in which I, and we, wonder how games let parts of us partition and separate, and totemic objects like those in this game, or anywhere we offer personalization and humanization, that the little ghost or friend or pet is an extension of ourselves. It is a piece of our soul or childhood or something else we can somehow push out of our own heads and then hold meaningfully. There is something in ourselves, naturally, that is addicted to the caring and nurturing and, ultimately, the suffering of another thing, even if that thing is nothing at all.

After finishing this and giving it a whirl, I found myself hiding little touches and evidence of my little friend for about three days, then forgot about them, only for them to reappear a month later in another city when I looked in the right part of my bag. This odd pang of sadness that I forgot, but also, a bit of excitement. The last day for my friend was in this far off place, so I still think they haunt about there, and then I wonder, in a way, what I have done to myself in this process. The game has created meaning in nothingness, and through its rules somehow disguised what is arbitrary in this universe with fate and memory. Fascinating, I think.