Jonathan Vogt
Our Eden
Our Eden is a visual novel that reimagines the settling of the New World. Set in a fictionalized 17th-century New England, Our Eden follows the tale of the Edenites, a people in exile from their native Ethland after a bloody civil war. Having sailed across the ocean on a mad prophet's whims, the Edenites seek to establish a new kingdom of their own.
You play a diplomat from Ethland, assigned to restore ties with the rogue colony twenty years after their departure. But as you reach the shores of Eden, what you find is anything but paradise.
Role: Creative Director, Writer
Team Size: 2
Platform: PC
Engine: Unity
How to Play: Click Here for the demo! Download the folder from Google Drive and start the executable. Afterward, please fill out this form and let me know what you think!
The
Inspiration
Our Eden is the culmination of many inspirations colliding into a single passion project.
I was born in the South but raised in New England; the region adopted me. I don't feel like a native, yet it's all I've ever known. I grew up surrounded by New England's cultural nuances, and they always stood in contrast with my Southern upbringing. The region is home to me, and just as there are countless stories set in the West that capture an iconic sense of Americana, I set out to write an immersive experience encapsulating something quintessentially New England–an Americana much older and more sinister than any other, capturing a tumultuous and chaotic period of history.
The writings of Hawthorne and Poe, the art of Andrew Wyeth and Thomas Cole, the Münster Rebellion, the Waco Siege, the Donner Party, my High School history class–these are the things that inspired Our Eden, and it's a project I have no intention of quitting.
The Worldbuilding
First, I had to understand the world this game is set in. I took heavy inspiration from basic history: the Edenites (fictionalized Pilgrims) escaping Ethland (England) for a New World. They land, encounter a native populace, and things get complicated. And the Edenites are still a superstitious, overzealous bunch who believe in a Calvinistic theology.
But I also took some liberties. For example, what if Columbus hadn't found the Americas yet? What if the Pilgrims had attempted the Gunpowder Plot? What if they tried a theological takeover like the Anabaptists did with Münster, Germany? And what if this particular group of Puritans was especially cult-like in their operations?
When beginning this process, I did much research. One video helped immensely: First and foremost, I had to create a map. Once I could visualize the world's geography, I began writing the history of the various peoples, communally and individually.
The Map of Our Eden
The Writing Process
From the beginning, I knew this would be a visual novel. Therefore, the format must account for the branching narrative and the single-line delivery.
Twine was perfect for the job. I could visualize the plot and the branching portions while writing in bullet points, line-by-line. I had challenged myself to write 300 words daily for 2 months; by the end, I had ~14k words written.
You can find a sample of the script to the left.