Cozy narrative game A Storied Life: Tabitha has been one of our most anticipated games since it was announced at Gamescom last August. With the news that the game will hit Nintendo Switch in April, I thought it was the perfect time to talk to the team at Lab42 about the game. I had the opportunity to talk to Lab42's Studio Director, Terry Goodwin, and Game Writer, Cherish Goldstraw.
I asked them about themes, inspirations, and any challenges they faced with the A Storied Life: Tabitha Nintendo Switch port. I particularly wanted to hear from Goldstraw about what it was like to create a narrative in a game with hardly any characters, and also learn how Goodwin and their team approached the design of such an emotionally heavy game. Check out what they had to say.
Pocket Tactics: I'm curious to know: did you start with the intention to make a game like Unpacking and a Little to the Left, or did the story come first? How did you decide that the gameplay fit well as a medium for this kind of storytelling?
Cherish Goldstraw: The story came first. The original concept was much more linear; a young person sorting through their grandmother's belongings and finding hidden depths to her life, raising questions they never thought to ask. I originally pictured it more like a 2D front-on point-and-click, merged with those painterly-style hidden object desktop games that were big in the 2000s. But when I was pitching the idea to Terry, they said, "It's a good concept… but that's an interactive novel. What makes it a game?" So we spent the next couple of hours ping-ponging gameplay mechanics that would facilitate the story, not distract from it.
The packing box came first, naturally. You can only keep as much as you can fit in the box and that makes a neat spatial puzzle. Rummaging through the room, opening drawers, moving chairs, etc. That all made sense, too. The concept that really brought it together and felt unique was the memoir; I was afraid that focusing too heavily on gameplay mechanics would lose the soul of what the story was about, but using Tabitha's own words to give context to the items we found felt like she was a person trying to communicate with us. It put her back at the centre of the gameplay, not relegated to a narrative framing device. At first, it was a diary the player was reading, but that felt too invasive; a memoir gave us consent, Tabitha is encouraging us to learn more about her.
I think that's a very intriguing way to put it. What inspired the concept behind using the items to change the narrative of the book on Tabitha's life?
CG: The concept of items changing the narrative came from real-life experiences that I think most people can relate to. I'd lost two family members over the past year, and both times had the feeling that we were all mourning someone slightly different, and that even our shared memories were coloured by the context of our differing relationships. No matter how close I was to my gregarious 'mother hen' aunt, I would never meet her as my mum's cackling teenage best friend. The mementos we kept to remember those people were the things that evoked the strongest memories; ceramic chickens and Christmas tree baubles became precious heirlooms.
Terry Goodwin: The game took shape very organically. We were fans of A Little to the Left - Lab42 even worked on taking that game to console - but we didn't set out to come up with a concept that could lead to a similar type of game. We recognised the parallels once we'd talked it through at a high level, though, which helped us feel very secure that our publisher would quickly see what we were trying to do.
The concept behind the game is very touching. What do you think players will get out of it, emotionally or otherwise?
CG: I feel it's important to recognise that this game isn't for everyone. Some people will find the subject matter uncomfortable, or feel it's inappropriate to explore via video games, and Tabitha is simply not for them. But for people who appreciate games as a storytelling medium, they're the ones who I hope will pick it up. I hope they enjoy getting to know Tabitha and the many sides of her; I hope they love her when she is kind, blush when she's crude, are enchanted by her when she's charming, and forgive her when she's cruel.
We always say this game isn't about death, it's a celebration of life. This isn't a sad experience; we don't want to pick at people's scars and tell them to cry. We want people to relax into the game and enjoy the world we've built for Tabitha. We sometimes find our players coming out of this game eager to tell us stories about their own loved ones, because something in it has triggered a memory or reminded them of these people. That's just the best feeling! I wish I could share that with everyone.
I've played and loved the demo, but found it hard to pick what to keep and what to throw away. What advice would you give players when deciding whether to keep or recycle items in Tabitha's house?
CG: There is no "correct" item to keep or recycle; just as there is no correct understanding of a person. All of the versions of Tabitha are true to someone, and it will take you multiple play throughs to meet them all.
However, if you want to tell a cohesive story, I would recommend you look for the patterns. Conveniently, Tabitha's belongings will drop hints to you, telling you which facet of her personality they can help you uncover; it might be a recurring colour scheme, a motif or something more subtle, if you really want to dig into her deepest secrets.
TG: Since the first demo, we've not just been developing content for the game, we've been refining the player experience by finding ways to give hints of which items might go together thematically, or which might go together to tell a more coherent story. We think it's important not to take away a satisfying sense of experimentation and discovery, but watching people play and stream the demo, it became clear just how methodical a lot of our players are - they really do carefully consider what to keep and what to discard.
But I would suggest that people try not to think of things which are broken or damaged as being inherently undesirable to keep. Some of the deepest experiences of our lives can be tied to accidents, some of our richest moments of character building can be linked to mementos that might be hard for us to look at. Some of the facets of Tabitha that have stuck with me the most have revolved around those sorts of themes.
I assume it's not only her belongings that tell a story: what was the process like for designing Tabitha's house? Was your art team inspired by anything in particular?
CG: We knew we needed a house with lots of rooms, but didn't want Tabitha to be some wealthy toff, so we took inspiration from home; we set the game up north and rural, specifically on the Yorkshire moors. We spent hours driving around that area, photographing house after house, making notes on the size and shape of houses, the type of brick, the colour of the roof tiles.
In many ways, the house is a character of its own; an old building that's been converted, chopped and changed about, and added onto over the many years it's been in the family. We've told that story through the design of the rooms; the off-centre windows, the too-small guest room, the way you can see the old exterior wall on the inside of the conservatory. You'll hear it in the sound design, too! Anyone who's ever stayed in an old house on the moorland knows that windy wuthering.
TG: We thought about it really very deeply. I think some people on the team thought I was pushing us a bit too far with having the house make logical sense! You can see on the in-game floor plans that doors and windows are all where they should be, the shapes of rooms make sense with rooms above or below them. I felt the constraints that realism placed on us would challenge us to not take shortcuts, it would force us to make a house that feels like a home.
Each room in the house had a specific sort of feeling we wanted to evoke to reinforce the themes of the corresponding chapter; this extends to the time of day, and the weather. We went so far as to rigidly stick to things like the angle of the sun at that given time of day with those weather conditions; and if it takes place at night, we obviously need to use artificial light, which has a strong impact on the way a room looks and feels. This goes all the way through to the music that plays in a room, and the sound effects and ambience of the rural landscape outside its windows.
When you get to your first late evening chapter, and you see the dim edges of the hallway, you hear the relative stillness of the night outside, and the confrontation and drama of the Erik Satie music reverberating through the quiet house, it really goes to show how different each room can feel. Really, every department of the team came together to reinforce the themes of the narrative that Cherish had written.
It's really interesting to hear the thought behind something that players may take for granted. How did it feel to make a game where the narrative exposition is entirely done through objects and not characters? Did this affect design choices with the items?
CG: It was a fun concept to work with, essentially we had to consider what a particular object implies about its owner, rather than what it explicitly shows. It's a balance of communicating to the player through hints and shared knowledge, but also piquing their curiosity; it makes sense that Tabitha would have a framed family photo and a pensioner's bus pass… but why would she have poisonous mushrooms? A damaged ashtray stolen from a bar? The only way to find out more is to pack the item.
TG: The game does have a lineup of interesting characters with parts to play in Tabitha's life, which we surface to players as they find things and write their stories, but finding the right balance around believability in deducing a character's involvement from the items was very challenging. We get quite cheeky with it sometimes, but that was one area of the game where I would encourage Cherish to write what was best for the story rather than always having to be realistic. It's okay if the phrases from an item reference the local Vicar, even if realistically, there's nothing that directly suggests that link. We assume an implied level of familiarity between the player character and the lives of people in the story, even if the player themselves doesn't know those connections.
Absolutely. Sorting through a deceased loved one's personal items after they've died is a really tough experience. How do you think your game, and other examples like Unpacking, have managed to turn such a task into a fulfilling gameplay experience?
CG: Emotionally, I think it's one of those experiences that starts out tough, but once you get going, it becomes equal parts satisfying and intriguing; it's one last act of service for someone you loved, but it's also a window into their life.
From a gameplay point of view, this is a cluttered house, and some of the rooms are quite messy, so you get the satisfaction of seeing your room tidy. We've also put a lot of time and effort into making sure that the act of tidying is fun and tactile.
TG: There are many types of players that are able to get different things out of the game. Some people slowly analyse all the items and pick just a few that resonate with them. Others prioritise fitting as many items as possible into the box, securely - they find that really satisfying. Some people immediately recycle certain types of items! I'm a tidier by nature, so seeing the rooms go from cluttered to fairly empty always feels satisfying - but usually a little sad, too.
Then, when you get to the memoirs, some people find it very important to tell a story that reflects some part of themselves or their life - maybe they want Tabitha to be in a certain occupation because their own family member also had that job. Other people only want to tell a happy story of love and friendship and family. Some people really don't want to expose any of Tabitha's secrets.
I think by building gameplay systems that allow for a diverse set of player profiles to engage with them while staying true to the core concept of the game people can use it as escapism, just a bit of fun or experiencing an intriguing story, or maybe even a bit of introspective therapy.
I love a bit of introspective therapy, and can't wait to get stuck in. You recently revealed that the game is coming to Nintendo Switch, which I'll be playing on. Were there any challenges when porting the game over?
TG: We knew we wanted to support the Switch from the very beginning, so it had been considered every step of the way. Our studio is very used to coming to a title either very late in development, or even after it's already finished, only then introducing Switch to the picture - which can be really hard! So, when we get to make our own games, we relish the chance to plan it properly.
Having said that, the biggest challenge around Switch is the physical screen size of the Switch Lite, and then the relatively limited resolution options of the Switch in a more general sense. All of our game assets are built at 8K so they can look fantastic in 4K on the PC, but then it needs to work just as well at a far lower resolution on Switch and be comfortably readable on the Switch Lite screen. I've spent so much time playing the game in a 5.5inch window to keep the quality of that experience high that whenever I see it on a large screen in 4K it feels amazingly luxurious.
Is there a particular section you're looking forward to seeing fan reaction to?
CG: We've hidden a couple of twists here and there… I'm excited for people to hunt them out. One of them is perhaps a little creepy, but it holds a very special place in my heart and I hope someone out there loves it as much as I do!
TG: Those little twists and secrets are going to be fun to see get discovered. But really, there's a few things I'm looking forward to!
When you think about sorting out the stuff across a whole house, there's probably one room in particular which represents a unique challenge. Internally, we've always thought that if our game has a final boss, it's that room. I'm really looking forward to seeing the streams when people get there, and what I imagine is going to be a slow realisation of "Oh… Oh no!"
More generally, I'm eager to hear people's opinions on the soundtrack. Our composer, Jacob Trepess, has done such an amazing job with the brief for the music in the game. Like the meticulously hand-drawn art, the music had to be full of texture and imperfections; it had to feel human. The game's really been elevated substantially by his contributions. I listen to it every single day. At points in the game we play with the expectation we set around the music, which pays off in beautiful ways.
I love a game with a great soundtrack, so I'm looking forward to hearing it! With regards to the writing, some of the summaries at the end get pretty silly. Can you talk about why you wanted to include some more lighthearted moments?
CG: I've never met an older woman who didn't have a medley of hilarious, and sometimes shocking, accounts she loved to share. Ask anyone who's ever worked in elderly care - these folks have stories! I wanted to pay homage to that feeling, when the kindly old lady you've been talking to drops a tale from her "adventurous girlhood" that absolutely curls your toes!
TG: At the same time as wanting to allow those sorts of stories to be told, just generally it was a core part of the game to allow players to really say whatever they want with the huge amount of options in any given room. Right from the start Cherish's pitch was that if a player writes something funny or silly they should feel like it was them being funny, not just the game.
We spent a lot of time discussing this between us as a team across Lab42 and Secret Mode, how silly or risqué we wanted to let people be, and we decided on a line that lets people get pretty silly if they want - because that foundation of freedom is what enables and supports players in telling the most uniquely personal and emotional stories they might care to. Some people chortle with glee when writing the memoirs; others get highly introspective in puzzling out the strongest emotional tales they can find.
There are so many people out there who've been affected by loss in all kinds of ways, and I'd love to see this become an anthological series, covering others who have left legacies behind. Are there any plans for DLC or a sequel?
TG: Tabitha is particularly personal to Cherish and myself, from the geographical setting in the north of England to the layout of the house to a lot of the themes and stories you can find inside it. I'd love to be able to tell other deeply personal stories of our team and collaborators, set in other cultures or parts of the world.
I think there's also more stories to tell about some of the characters in A Storied Life: Tabitha. You're not only telling Ms Kettlewell's story, you're deciding the roles various other people played in her life; friend, rival, lover, enemy. There's a lot more we could explore there.
Sounds exciting, and thank you very much for your time and insights!
A Storied Life: Tabitha comes to Nintendo Switch on April 14, 2026, and will also be released on PC and console.