Before I Forget

Before I Forget is an exploration game developed and published by 3-Fold Games. It was originally released in 2020 as a Humble Original on personal computers and was ported to consoles a year later. It depicts the effects of Alzheimer's disease on a woman who is trying to recall her life. Gameplay Players guide Sunita Appleby, a scientist who has early-onset Alzheimer's disease, through her house. As she interacts with now-unfamiliar objects about her house, some of her memories return. It is played from a first-person perspective. The game features some puzzle-like elements, such as recalling where mementos have been left and asking players to guide Appleby to the bathroom when she perceives her house as a shifting maze. Development 3-Fold Games consists of writer Chella Ramanan and programmer-artist Claire Morwood. Ramanan lives in Sweden, and Morwood in Scotland. Ramanan and Morwood met at a British game jam and conceived of Before I Forget there. Ramanan had previously been considering a story about memories and felt that a video game would be the best medium to explore memories firsthand. The theme of the game jam was borders, and they saw mental health and Alzheimer's disease as an interesting metaphorical take on the subject. Neither developer has personal experience with Alzheimer's disease and always meant the game to be a character study. The two had not planned on following through with further development, but feedback at the game jam and an audience award convinced them to continue. As interest grew in their project, they became anxious to depict the disease correctly. 3-Fold had a chance meeting with a healthcare worker who corrected details about Alzheimer's disease. This led them to work with Gaming The Mind, a mental health charity, who helped 3-Fold design the game's puzzles and internal dialogue to be more authentic expressions of Alzheimer's disease. They also implemented suggestions from early playtesters, who related personal anecdotes. The game was designed to depict anxiety rather than horror. Ramanan chose the palette to reflect this. The audio and visuals reflect the protagonist's current mental state. The division between greyscale and color visuals, representing confusion and clarity, existed from the earliest versions.