That was a big thing on early Facebook, and people got really innovative when working around that status format.” “That seems like such a crazy thing to do now, because it doesn’t make any sense to set people up with a tense. “I had totally forgotten until seeing old Facebook screenshots that the prompt for a status back then was always ‘so-and-so is,’” recalls Seeley. Other parts are rarely discussed when mythologizing the platform’s initial days, like notes used for chain-letter questionnaires or the gaudy virtual gift prompt that seems bizarre in hindsight, where you could give friends a pixelated thong or bubbling champagne bottle to celebrate their birthday. The iconic traits of early Facebook, like the tell-all format of the original homepage or the never-ending poke wars, are all lovingly re-created. The most crucial part of re-creating Facebook from scratch for Facenook was the attention to the most minor details. Sign up for our Games newsletter and never miss our latest gaming tips, reviews, and features. In 2017 he released Emily Is Away Too, a more in-depth version of the AIM setup that introduced new characters, a wider array of buddy icons, the real-time stress of talking to multiple friends simultaneously, and the thrill of swapping music suggestions through YouToob links, the game's era-specific parody of YouTube. After a few months of reassessing the reactions to his game, however, he felt compelled to up the stakes and deepen the narrative.
Given the success of Emily Is Away, it’s surprising to hear that Seeley never planned sequels. “It was a proof-of-concept thing, and that’s why I wanted it to be free, but I never expected it to take off as quickly as it did.” “At that point, I thought, ‘Oh, I might have something special here,’” says Seeley.
ALL EMILY GAMES SIMULATOR
Nine months earlier, during a getaway weekend with fellow Boston-based game developers to prototype new ideas, Seeley was pleasantly surprised when higher-profile developers behind games like Kind Words and Vacation Simulator were eagerly coming by to see what he was working on. Upon its release, Emily Is Away was met with a flood of praise that caught its 29-year-old creator, Kyle Seeley, off guard.
Despite its short run time, it's a remarkable time capsule for the aesthetics and emotions of AIM’s heyday a decade earlier. Throughout the chats, you choose one of three prewritten dialog responses and manually type on your keyboard, each real-life keystroke simulating a virtual keystroke as well as typos, deleted sentences, and anxiously rewritten jokes in an attempt to play it cool. Originally created as a free-to-play visual novel, Emily Is Away debuted in 2015 as an AOL Instant Messenger simulator where you attempt to foster a relationship with your crush while transitioning from high school to college. If they did, they’re certainly not alone. Ask someone who played it what they think of the indie game Emily Is Away, and they might confess to shedding a tear at the end.
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