Parting Comments on Why Am I Dead

I’ve been talking a lot about Why Am I Dead recently, mainly because I’m pretty sure 90% of my readership is now coming from people who played the game.  Of course, I’ve been doing other stuff this whole time, but before I move on to other things I want to comment on some of the most common comments/questions regarding WAID that I’ve gotten.

1. Are there alternate endings?

Yes and no.  When I was originally making the game I wanted to have at least two different endings.  However, I cut a lot of stuff out, so the original release only had one.  But after I saw this question repeatedly, I frantically whipped up an alternate ending somewhat similar to what I had been planning before.  So, yes, there are currently two endings to the game.

2. The end leaves so much unanswered!  Who’s the (spoiler)?  And what’s the (spoiler)’s (spoiler) all about?

This was partially because I rushed the ending.  But some things were intentionally left up to the player to figure out based on hints scattered through the game.  I’m not a fan of keeping people guessing for its own sake — generally everything that’s brought up has a canonical answer to it, and not some cheap “Ooh we’ll never know!”

3. Why doesn’t the ghost influence people more, especially at the end?

I had always imagined that the ghost merely pushed people in more subtle ways, rather than completely possess them.  In hindsight, I didn’t communicate this to the player well enough.

4. Why don’t you remember why you’re dead?

You have just been turned from a living, breathing grown man into a floating piece of cytoplasm.  You don’t have a brain anymore.  Memory loss, to me, seems kind of inevitable.

5. The game was/is glitchy as hell!

Yeah, it was/is.  Sorry about that.  I think I got most of the major bugs by this point.  However, some portals may be using older versions of my game.

6. It should have been longer, or there should be a longer version of this concept!

Good news!  I very much plan to make a sequel that will be a longer version of this concept.