This is the one hundred ninety-seventh entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred ninety-seventh random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is stumbling through a spooky forest, uncomprehending. It’s The Three-Body Problem, by RoAnna Sylver, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Queer Celestial Witches Navigate Scary Woods And Each Other

The only thing better than a queer witch is a queer celestial witch.

Let’s get this out of the way: The Three-Body Problem has nothing to do with the science fiction novel by Liu Cixin, nor its recent adaptation as a TV drama series (quick opinion on the first and only season at the time of writing: it Westernizes the story which erases some of the Chinese cultural perspective that made the books interesting, but it also fixes some of the sexism and close-mindedness that plagued the book trilogy while remaining surprisingly faithful to the science-positive events of the books; recommended!). No, what we have here is a piece of interactive fiction that I believe was constructed in Twine, much like recent Scratching That Itch pick POM SIMULATOR 9000. Like that game, The Three-Body Problem runs in a browser window, and is navigated by clicking on highlighted text to continue the story and occasionally make a choice. As advertised, it’s about queer celestial witches. Two of them, in fact. But then a third person shows up, and… oh, I see what RoAnna Sylver is doing with the title.

The Three-Body Problem is pretty slick for a Twine game. The text is displayed over a beautiful backdrop of a starry sky above silhouetted trees, although a version with a plain background is also offered for accessibility. A sidebar allows players to save their game in multiple different slots, including local saves if desired, as well as navigate back to different points in the story to test out different decisions. The story itself is on the short side, and comes with several content warnings: Non-explicit portrayal of BDSM dynamics, negotiation of consent and boundaries; references to sex and various kink; discussion of past abuse, captivity, and consent violation; mention of murder and human sacrifice; knives.

Perhaps because of its brevity, the story fell a little flat for me. It felt less like a story and more like an explanation of what a healthy BDSM relationship is, to someone who does not understand. This is informative! And perhaps cathartic, to those who have such relationships and tire of explaining them to outsiders. There’s no bigotry or hostile judgment from the outsider here, and he has a good reason to be alarmed and fearful at first. Players who are sick of explaining themselves to others have several chances to simply tell this guy off, too, although that leads to an even shorter tale. I got the sense that RoAnna Sylver intended for players to be patient with him and help open his mind a bit. This path has the most satisfying conclusion.

But even so, it feels underdeveloped. I kept expecting the others to dig into the interloper’s backstory more. He seems to be in trouble, which helps players sympathize with him, yet the other characters never treat his predicament as urgently as seems warranted. I kept waiting for them to ask where he had come from, how long it had been since he left, whether there were others there who still needed help. But these questions never came. Instead, it’s all about the newcomer’s reaction to our protagonist’s situation (the story is told in the second person) and his surprisingly quick acceptance of it.

I’m trying not to be unfair to The Three-Body Problem here. I can see what RoAnna Sylver is going for: the unexpected guest’s backstory is a metaphor for an unhealthy relationship, so he assumes that the protagonist is in the same harrowing situation. Through the course of the story, his eyes are opened to what healthy relationships can be. But the backdrop of witches and celestial magic didn’t quite match this arc for me. It also puts all of the character development on the new stranger, rather than the protagonist or their partner. Their trials and growth as a couple have already happened, occasionally referenced but not shown to the player. Their relationship is perfect, now. And so there’s nothing left to do but explain its perfection to someone else.

The Three-Body Problem works as an example of relationship dynamics, and I definitely learned a lot about BDSM from it. And I can only imagine how much of the BDSM experience involves explaining to others how it works, countering their assumptions and biases. So I can’t really fault The Three-Body Problem for focusing on that, providing not just an excellent explanation but also an example of how one should receive it. Perhaps it’s greedy to ask for the story to be more, to flesh out its characters and world a little and give them room to flourish. I did wish for that, but even without it, the story is interesting, and it won’t take long to read through either. If you’re intrigued, and missed it in the bundle, The Three-Body Problem is sold for a minimum price of $5.

That’s 197 down, and only 1544 to go!