Two ghost-like figures stand on either end of a fixed, single screen environment. Between them lie obstructions and traps, trying to keep them separate. Seeing that this is a video game, guess what your job will be from here on out? What seems like a rather simple setup and premise on the surface quickly develops into a very smart little game that takes its inspiration from the now legendary Braid.

In One and One Story, you have to help two young lovers find each other through a series of puzzle-based levels. What makes this game particularly unique is that the gameplay changes with the narrative. In between every few levels, the player is treated to a few short lines of storytelling, simply stating often used relationship tropes. With each statement however, something about the way the game operates changes, and the player has to adapt to these changes in order to progress the plot.

You can see the Braid inspiration, not from that game’s time altering mechanics or watercolor-like art style, but in the way both games gradually introduce these new elements that radically shift the way you play whilst still appearing the same to a casual observer. One and One Story particularly drives this home for the player when you are given the same level you’ve already completed, but asked to do it again with a new set of “rules” that won’t allow you to simply run through it like the last time you were there. Without giving away too much, one simple example of how it all works is when the narrative mentions how the girl would always run to the boy when she’d see him. In the next few levels, whenever you are in her sight, she’ll start running toward you, regardless of any traps that might lie in between the two of you. You now have to adapt to this mechanic or watch her die.

What interested me most about One and One Story was how it switched up the relationship between story and gameplay that has been so static since the dawn of stories in gaming. With perhaps a few exceptions (and none actually come to mind), most games ask you to play the game in order to progress the plot. Beat the level or solve the puzzle and get another plot piece that will drive the story forward; a format that hasn’t evolved much since the intermission scenes from Pac-Man. One and One Story flips this design style upside down by using the story as a tool to drive the game forward. You need to pay attention to the narrative to essentially get your instructions for the next section of the game, though delivered not in the traditional sense of “do A, B, and C to complete this next level,” but through a very simple yet endearing love story.

The music is simple and sublime, working perfectly with the quiet, nighttime setting the game portrays. Elegant graphics depict a small town with delicate snow, old-fashioned street lamps, and stark-black foreground silhouettes representing the platforms. Much like everything else about One and One Story, the presentation is tastefully simple.

Considering the developer for such a remarkably solid game is only 18 years old (if his TIGForums bio is to be believed), and this is his first real (or in his words “good”) game, I can only wonder where he’ll go from here.

One and One Story is an Independent Games Festival Student Showcase finalist. You can play the game at Armor Games, Kongregate, and Newgrounds. You can listen to the soundtrack and buy it at DvGMusic. The developer’s blog is here!