Keeping in Touch: Lesbian Dating During a Global Pandemic is a story about queer dating through computers. How do we keep in touch when physically distant? How does technology shape and influence our romantic connections (especially during a period when no other form of contact is safe or permitted)?

A relationship begins and develops online over the course of a year, across different digital platforms. Follow the two main characters as they write to each other and share photos of books, pressed flowers, horoscopes and songs. Based on a true pandemic love story and including historical records of letters between queer women.

Pining! Longing! And a lot of emails.

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To Play: On the title page, click on the word BEGIN embroidered at the bottom of the page. You advance through the game by clicking on hyperlinked text, the envelope icon or the right-pointing arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen. Certain passages will give you the option of choosing a book, a location or a flower/poem. Dotted text will reveal some extra information when you hover on it with your cursor. The narrative can be saved and restarted at any time by using the buttons on the sidebar (where a back button is also available). A song plays on the very last page, so don't forget to turn the volume up!

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Keeping in Touch was made using Twine and adapting some of HiEv's excellent Sample Code on SugarCube.

Commissioned by Control Shift for their Feeling Machines Weekender, Thursday 30 March to Sunday 2 April 2023.

The song on the last page is by Storm Greenwood. You can find her on Spotify, Apple Music or Bandcamp.

A full list of the books mentioned in the narrative is available here.

Keeping in Touch: Lesbian Dating During a Global Pandemic screenshots