It’s a summer morning in 1995.
She’s located the rental’s white plastic clamshell case, but it’s empty.
It was a crumpled up piece of paper on the floor.
The wrinkly sheet turned out to be a flyer advertising try-outs for her school’s synchro and swim team.
“It was stupid to try…” is all she has to say.
Just writing that out gets me kinda teary eyed.
With just one image and a single line, developerDon’t Nodpaints an entire arc.
This plays into how Swann repeatedly shows she sees herself as too chubby and awkward to be worthwhile.
These feelings are unintentionally reinforced by her mother.
’90s Diet Culture Was Brutal
All of this resonates for me.
As a kid, my weight fluctuated.
Don’t Nod captures what it actually looks like to be a teenager.
At the time, I felt fat and gross.
My relationship with my parents is better than Swann’s seems to be.
To borrow a phrase from David Foster Wallace, this is water.
The culture around you is as unremarkable to you as water would be to fish swimming in it.
It may be tough to make it through it, but it isn’t stupid to try.
It’s the only way forward.
Don’t Nod’s ’90s-themed return to adventure games is more than nostalgia bait.
