Today, I am excited to be highlighting a brand-new project which fans of the Jurassic Park franchise may wish to sink their teeth into – Clever Girl. Clever Girl is a fan-made solo journaling game created by Matthew Gravelyn, who felt inspired by the themes which were present within the 1993 Jurassic Park and decided to build upon those themes to create his own unique experience.
Matthew shared that this game is based on a system called ‘Wretched and Alone’, which was originally created by a gentleman called Chris Bissette for his own game, The Wretched. The game has been create as a part of the Wretched Jam on Itch – a fun platform built to highlight indie games from creators around the globe. A small portion of these indie games are home-brewed solo journaling adventures which encourage people to get creative and immerse themselves in universes which they create around them through the notes they make with a pen and paper.
In this particular tale, you take the place of the last remaining human in a failed dinosaur theme park called Dinotopia. The below is a small extract from the game which will give you a taste for the experience you’ll have as you encounter challenging scenarios:
“You are the last surviving person in Dinotopia, a dinosaur theme park ravaged by escaped predators. You don’t know what caused the incident that set the dinosaurs free, but it was catastrophic. A pack of highly intelligent and oddly fixated raptors have your scent and are hunting you. Everyone has either escaped or become prey. You are alone.”
The game involves responding to story prompts, dealing with the failing park around you and trying to escape the vicious pack of Raptors who are hunting you through the park ruins. To play the game you need playing cards, a single 6-sided die, and a tumbling block tower. You can choose to play without the tumbling block tower should you so wish.
There are lots of great scenarios to explore – with some pulling from the technology of the park, whilst others allow you explore the infrastructure of the park around you. Your actions and the activities which your character undertake are entirely decided by the card deck – meaning you will never fully know what you might encounter next.
The game certainly captures the tense ambience of Jurassic Park, and is bound to be popular with fans who are looking for something they can do at home currently.
You can check out the game here, and can also follow Matthew on Twitter by clicking here.
We’d like to say a big thank you to Matthew for sending over a copy of Clever Girl for us to check out – we can’t wait to try the game out for ourselves!
Written by:
Tom Fishenden