Life Cycle of an Egg

Artist Statement:

In this Twine game, I explore the theme of reality and illusion through the life cycle of a chicken. The titles I used are “Egg,” “Embryo,” “Hatching,” and “Growth”, which correspond to the stages in the egg’s development, but there is a deliberate gap between these stages and the narrative content. 

“Egg” represents a comfortable yet false reality. The boy and the people in the city believe that their world is complete and that there is nothing beyond the dome but emptiness. This stage may seem to represent the beginning of life, but it actually describes the boy's ignorance and conformity to the status quo as he is trapped in the world he lives in.

“Embryo” reflects the boy’s intellectual growth and the budding of his doubts, he begins to notice strange things around him. The “Embryo” stage here is not about physical development but about the awakening of the boy’s thoughts.

“Hatching” represents the first collapse of the illusion. The boy breaks through what he thought was an indestructible world and sees a new sky for the first time. He believes that he has gained freedom.

“Growth” marks the beginning of a new world: the boy thinks he has escaped the false reality, but he soon discovers new cracks forming in the sky. What he thought was freedom is actually an entrance to another layer of illusion.

The cyclical structure of the story shows that each time the protagonist believes he has escaped a false world, he only finds himself in another shell that appears real. This structure suggests that life is an endless series of awakenings, where every moment of realization leads to a new illusion. It also provokes thought about what is truly realistic.

During playtesting, my peers pointed out that the story lacked sufficient scene descriptions, making it difficult for readers to immerse themselves in the world. Based on this feedback, I added more details to depict the old world and the new world more vividly, highlighting their differences. This made the story’s worlds feel more three-dimensional and allowed players to better experience the protagonist’s emotional shift as he transitions from one world to another.