Project Overview

Game Introduction

Polaroid of Yesterday is a first-person narrative puzzle game for PC. The story follows a photographer suffering from trauma-induced dissociative amnesia. One morning, he wakes with no memory of what happened, only to discover that his girlfriend has suddenly disappeared and that the life he once knew now feels completely unfamiliar.

Players explore the world from a first-person perspective and use a Polaroid camera to photograph people and objects throughout the city. When the camera captures certain subjects, it triggers a lost memory—perhaps a brief line of dialogue, a fragmented scene, or an entire buried event.

However, deeper memories do not surface easily. For certain key photos, players must complete memory-centered interactive sequences, personally taking part in the reconstruction of memory fragments and gradually reasoning their way toward the full picture of the story.

Within a city where reality and memory overlap, photography is no longer merely a means of documentation. It becomes a way to reconstruct perception and get closer to the truth. As the images gradually come together, a mystery surrounding death begins to emerge.

Original Design Intention: A Street Photography Simulator

This project began with my long-standing interest in street photography and visual storytelling.

As a photographer, I have always wanted to create a “street photography simulator” that allows players to observe, capture, and interpret fleeting moments within an urban space. In this game, players walk through the streets of New York City while holding a classic Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, making the act of photography itself the core experience of the game. Unlike traditional street photography, however, the images here are no longer simply records of reality. Instead, they participate in the construction of the protagonist’s memory and understanding.

Core Loop

Explore -> Photograph -> Complete a minigame -> Unlock a memory -> Return to exploration

Players move in first person using WASD; hold the right mouse button to enter the camera viewfinder; use the scroll wheel to adjust focus; left-click to take a photo; and hold TAB to open the virtual photo album, Memento, where all captured photos can be viewed.

Story Overview

Paul suffers from trauma-induced dissociative amnesia, which causes him to lose memories related to traumatic events. During college, his girlfriend Stephanie gave him a Polaroid SX-70, and they discovered that photography seemed to help Paul recover lost memories. However, Stephanie’s close friend Christina has always believed that Paul’s psychological state makes continuing the relationship a bad choice.

After a gathering at a bar, Paul gets drunk and has a confrontation with Christina. After returning home, Stephanie tries to have a serious conversation with him about his condition, but their argument gradually spirals out of control. In a moment of agitation, Paul pushes Stephanie. She falls, hits her head, and dies by accident. In panic, he hides her body in the bathtub and takes a Polaroid photo to remind his future amnesiac self of what happened.

When he wakes up, Paul has forgotten everything. He finds that Stephanie is missing and begins searching for clues with Christina. But when Christina discovers the photo in his home and confronts him, Paul loses control again, resulting in Christina’s accidental death as well.

Unable to face reality, Paul turns to alcohol to numb himself and gradually shifts all blame onto Christina. Before losing consciousness completely, he convinces himself that Stephanie’s disappearance has something to do with Christina and tells this “truth” to the bartender.

The next morning, Paul wakes up in the hospital with no memory.

The game begins.

Core Theme: Is Narrative Subjective?

The entire game revolves around one central question: Is narrative subjective?

Here, narrative includes not only the game’s pre-existing plot events, represented through memory videos, but also every choice the player makes while controlling the protagonist—walking, taking photographs, and interacting with the minigames—as well as everything the protagonist experiences throughout the process.

Creative Motivation

As a photographer, I understand deeply that a photograph without context often possesses enormous interpretive potential.

In my college photography class, we would hold weekly critiques where photographs were pinned up for discussion. Aside from the images themselves, little additional information was usually provided: where the photo was taken, how it was made, and how it related to other works in the same set all had to be interpreted by classmates and professors. For this reason, the same group of photographs was often assigned different narratives by different viewers. Even when the general direction of interpretation was similar, the details were rarely identical.

The Kuleshov Effect in cinema illustrates a similar idea. In the demonstration, viewers first see the face of an elderly man, then a different intervening image, and finally return to a shot of the old man smiling. When the intervening image is a baby, the smile appears kind and gentle. When the intervening image is changed to a woman in a bikini, the same smile takes on a completely different meaning.

The exact same image can be assigned entirely different emotions and meanings simply because its surrounding context changes. The same is true of photography. The meaning of an image does not exist entirely within the frame itself. It is produced through the joint construction of the viewer and the surrounding context.

This is also the question the game attempts to explore: when information is incomplete, players must take photos, collect clues, and build connections between fragments in order to actively construct their own narrative.

Game Mechanics: The Construction of Subjective Narrative

In the game, I use the game environment, the core loop — including the photography mechanic and minigames — and the story design to give players a strong sense of agency. This creates the illusion that “narrative is subjective.”

Scene Design: Providing a Platform for Active Narration

The player controls Paul, who spawns in the city scene. After completing his exploration of the urban environment, he moves to the apartment scene. In the city, the main buildings are concentrated along a single street: a corner bar, a gas station, the alley beside the bar, various storefronts, and a park.

Paul: “This is Manhattan, New York. Heavy fog and endless rain cover everything. From my perspective, the city is weighed down by darkness, so dark it feels boundless. This city is strange. Most places have no light at all. The streetlights and building lights only turn on at certain moments. I don’t know—maybe they are guiding me.

Moonlight passes through the clouds and fog, and the Empire State Building fades in and out of view in the distance. It is the tallest building in the city.

My head hurts. Maybe because of the pain, the edges of my vision are blurred, and the dizziness makes me drowsy. But I know I can’t sleep. I am here for a reason. I need to find Stephanie.”

Walking Through the City with a Camera in Hand

Free movement within the scene is one of the game’s key features. The environment is dense with information, and different players may choose different routes or focus on different details. As a result, each player receives different information, which directly shapes both the photos they take and the narrative they construct.

Although the lighting in each stage appears to define a local area of activity, the game does not use invisible walls or prevent players from wandering aimlessly. This design recreates the experience of street photography: moving without a fixed purpose, stopping and starting, and constantly exploring.

Core Gameplay: Letting Players Choose Their Own Narrative

Memento is the in-game virtual photo album used to store all of the Polaroid photos taken by the player. In the game, the photos the player takes are entirely determined by their own exploration and choices. Each pack of Polaroid film contains 8 shots, and the player receives two packs in total, giving them 16 chances to take photos. These 16 sheets of film allow enough room for trial and error while also creating a constant sense of urgency. Every photograph should feel like the result of thought and deliberate choice. Every press of the shutter is a sampling of memory.

Photography determines narrative. The player’s subjective control over the narrative does not come from choosing branching plotlines, but from selecting a collection of sampled evidence and memories—that is, Memento. Different sets of sampled evidence lead to different versions of the story that can be inferred or believed. The narrative is not something the game writes for the player. It is something the player collects, orders, and interprets for themselves. From a certain perspective, Memento is the narrative itself.

Categories of Photos

The photos players take can be divided into the following categories based on their subjects:

1. Main-story photos: Photos of key people, objects, or locations that unlock minigames and crucial memories, trigger changes in the scene, and move the game forward. These photos form the skeleton of the game’s basic narrative.

2. Supplementary photos: Photos whose subjects trigger character narration and provide additional information. These photos add detail to the narrative or introduce new possibilities.

3. Emotional/atmospheric photos: Photos whose subjects do not provide additional information, but whose images reinforce the narrative tone and shape how the story is told: fear, indifference, exhaustion, and so on. The game does not punish “wrong” photographs because there are no truly “wrong” photos in the first place.

Scene Examples

Next, I will use two scenes from the game as examples to demonstrate how photos are set up in the game.

Scene: The Bar

Main-story photo:

• The bartender. The bartender stands at the entrance of the bar. Above his head is a giant Mazda Miata sculpture. The car’s iconic pop-up headlights flash intermittently, casting light onto him. Photographing the bartender triggers a conversation, allowing the player to learn that Paul got drunk here last night and that Christina is key to the problem. Afterward, the player enters a memory puzzle minigame. Completing it unlocks a memory video in which Paul hears Stephanie and Christina whispering in the bar about going to the alley to discuss something related to him.

Supplementary photo:

• The bar exterior. The bar is located on a street corner, where the line of streetlights along the road comes to an end. Its most striking feature is a giant Mazda Miata sculpture mounted upside down on the building. The bar also features neon text, rooftop signage, and graffiti. Photographing the bar exterior triggers a self-monologue.

Possible emotional photo:

• The gas station exterior. Some photographers are particularly drawn to photographing gas stations.

Scene: The Alley

Main-story photo:

• Christina’s black hairpin. In the alley, dozens of lines of internal-monologue text float in different positions, varying from large to small. The alley is filled with all kinds of objects. In one corner, on top of a stack of cardboard boxes, lies a black dragon-shaped hairpin. After the player photographs it, the monologue tells them that it belongs to Christina. After completing the following spot-the-difference game, the player receives a memory video revealing that Paul slapped Christina in the alley.

Supplementary photo:

• A mural of Knicks player Trae Young. In reality, Trae Young originally played for the Atlanta Hawks, and after eliminating the New York Knicks in the 2021 playoffs, he became a public enemy in New York. In this world, however, Trae Young has become a Knicks player—a representative and hero of New York. Photographing the mural triggers a monologue revealing that Paul is a fan of Knicks Trae Young.

Possible emotional photos:

• A miniature Statue of Liberty sculpture. In this world, it is New York’s only Statue of Liberty.

• A pigeon on a trash can.

Players Construct Narrative Through Minigames

When the player captures a core photo, the game not only triggers narration but also sends the player into a minigame. Completing the minigame unlocks additional memories. There are four minigames, appearing in this order: memory puzzle, spot-the-difference, memory card-matching, and timeline reconstruction.

The first layer of meaning behind these minigames is that they simulate the protagonist’s effort to retrieve memories from deep within his mind. As someone with trauma-induced dissociative amnesia, the protagonist’s memories have not disappeared completely; instead, they are sealed away in a deeper place. Each minigame is connected to its corresponding memory. Completing a minigame means following the clue provided by the photo and going deeper to recover that memory.

Example: Timeline reconstruction. After photographing the bloodstain on the corner of the living-room cabinet, the player enters the final minigame, which also serves as the ultimate test. In the cutscene, Paul walks to the table, takes out a notebook and pen, and lists many events that may be true or false, with countless guesses already forming in his mind. The player must help Paul choose what he believes to be the truth from these events and arrange them in order. This minigame has a correct answer: selecting the right sequence leads directly into the ending reveal. However, if the player still fails to fully reconstruct the timeline after three attempts, the game continues anyway.

(For details, see Appendix: Memory Minigames.)

If free exploration and photography allow players to sample the narrative subjectively, then the final timeline reconstruction minigame becomes a process of subjective organization. The player’s act of selecting and ordering events in the notebook also becomes an opportunity to deconstruct the entire story. The memory events unlocked through photography and the temporal fragments listed in the protagonist’s notebook are mixed with both truth and falsehood: some events happened, while others did not.

Although the story’s timeline has a correct answer, the narrative is still shaped by the player here. If the player fails to complete the sequence within three attempts, that is acceptable, because the resulting version of events still forms a narrative the protagonist can believe. The story continues. When he returns to reality, opens the bathroom door, and sees two bodies—one belonging to his girlfriend Stephanie, the other to Stephanie’s close friend Christina—the narrative he worked so hard to construct collapses completely in that moment.

Backstory: The Protagonist Constructs His Own Narrative

In addition to the narrative freedom provided by the game mechanics, the game’s backstory also aligns with the idea of narrative subjectivity. The protagonist, Paul, consciously or unconsciously constructs new narrative possibilities for himself.

Memento

One inspiration for this work comes from Christopher Nolan's film Memento, which is also where the in-game virtual photo album gets its name.

In the film, Leonard, a protagonist with short-term memory loss, takes instant Polaroid photos of the people, places, and objects he encounters, then writes judgments he considers important on them, such as “Don’t believe his lies.” When he wakes up after a period of time, or when his memory is “reset,” he relies on these photos and notes to decide his next move. This system appears internally consistent, but it is not truly reliable. Leonard deliberately modifies, deletes, and even fabricates information, causing himself to remain trapped within a narrative of his own construction. He is not simply deceived by memory; he actively chooses to believe a particular version of reality.

Trauma-Induced Dissociative Amnesia?

Structurally, this game borrows from and extends that logic: the individual, somewhere between intention and accident, constructs his own narrative and tragedy.

The protagonist, Paul, suffers from trauma-induced dissociative amnesia. Psychological trauma or stressful events can cause him to lose the ability to recall key events and their surrounding contexts: who he met, where he went, and what he did. The condition itself functions as a defense mechanism, a form of subconscious avoidance. The traumatic memory has not disappeared; it only needs to be reawakened.

However, the story is not that simple. During an argument, Paul accidentally kills his girlfriend, Stephanie. In the interval before he loses his memory, he deliberately creates evidence that points suspicion toward Christina, Stephanie’s friend, laying out a “believable” narrative path for his future self.

When the game begins, Paul wakes up in the hospital in an amnesiac state. Guided by existing clues, the player begins exploring, awakening fragments of memory through photography and gradually constructing an explanatory framework. Only at the end, when all the images have been reassembled, does the player discover two bodies in the bathroom of Paul’s own home. The existing narrative is then completely overturned.

Audiovisual Design: The Presentation of Objective Fact

As a medium with a high degree of freedom, games allow for narrative subjectivity. However, in this game, I also want players to realize that facts remain objective.

A Highly Guided Virtual City

The main world of the game uses a monochrome, high-contrast 3D modeled environment. The city is empty and lacks signs of life. Although the player can move freely, this freedom is built within a highly “constructed” space.

Within the same city, there are both “highlighted clues”—such as internal-monologue text, guiding lights, and audio cues that direct the player toward important locations—and “subtle clues”, including hidden environmental details and small visual touches.

Whenever the player takes a key main-story photo, the scene changes and guides them toward the next clue area. From the opening car to the bar, the alley, the park, the subway station, the home, and finally the bathroom, the entire process is carefully arranged.

The game uses four types of guidance:

1. High-contrast lighting

The game uses spotlights to create strong visual contrast within the environment, guiding players to photograph specific subjects.

1. Text-based attention guidance

Similar to high-contrast lighting, the floating text in the scene also guides the player’s attention. It functions both as the player’s internal monologue and as a way to provide supplementary information. This form of textual guidance is especially evident in the alley scene, which contains seven pieces of text in different colors and sizes. Some are more obvious, while others are more hidden. While continuously building atmosphere, these texts also create an exploratory path from large to small. The final target object to be photographed is located beside a small piece of text whose color closely resembles the environment.

1. Path guidance

This type of guidance mainly takes two forms. The first is a sequence of streetlights that appear one by one along the road. The endpoint of the lights indicates the place the player needs to reach.

The second form is gradually replaced text. When the player’s character touches the first piece of text, it disappears, and a second piece of text appears ahead. This design not only guides the player’s direction but also supplements the narrative through the continuous appearance of text.

1. Audio guidance

Within a certain range, the player can hear music performed by a guitarist. By judging the direction and intensity of the sound, the player can locate its source and find the guitarist.

This is not a real city. It is a deliberately constructed theatrical stage.

Real Memory Footage

In contrast to the game environment, memory is presented through live-action footage.

The memory sequences use a 21:9 aspect ratio and a 24 fps frame rate, with real actors, real spaces, and film-like color grading. Compared to the abstraction and distortion of the main world, this presentation, closer to the conventions of film production, gives the memories a stronger sense of physical reality. The characters’ breathing, the hallway lighting, and the subtle camera shake all emphasize that these events truly happened.

More importantly, these memories do not change according to the player’s choices. The player can freely decide the order in which they take photos, miss clues, and choose to believe a certain version of the story. But every memory video itself remains fixed. They are not created by the player; they are preexisting facts waiting to be rediscovered, like the projection of a film that already exists.

As a result, the game creates a reversal: the player can control only the constructed virtual world, while the elements beyond their control are, in fact, closer to truth and reality.

Meta-Game Ending

At the end of the game, Paul looks at the two bodies in the bathtub and takes one final photo. The camera then cuts to the final scene: the male protagonist sits in front of a television, where Polaroid of Yesterday is playing. On the screen, Paul has just woken up in the hospital and is exploring the city with a camera in hand...

When the role is displaced, Paul reaches a godlike perspective. He becomes an observer, watching every step he has taken, every photograph he has captured, and every attempt he has made in the minigames. He has no controller in his hands, and this game is not under his control. He can only sit on the sofa—Gaetano Pesce’s famous UP chair, also known as “La Mamma.” The chair resembles a giant womb, enveloping him and offering an almost instinctive sense of safety. Beside him is another camera, continuously recording the scene.

In this moment, Paul truly become a spectator. He watches himself on the screen wandering through the city, taking photos, reasoning, and piecing together memories. He watches the version of himself who keeps trying to find an explanation for the past, walking step by step toward an ending that has always already existed. It turns out that all of this is part of a film.

Everything the player has done before—exploring, photographing, ordering events, and reasoning—seems like a process of “searching for the truth.” But at the ending, the game reveals one thing: the truth was never changed. The only thing constantly being revised was the narrative.

He simply sits there, watching.

Conclusion

As the player explores and photographs the city, each press of the shutter becomes a choice made on behalf of the protagonist: what deserves to be remembered. Each gradually developing photo unlocks a memory. The memory itself does not change because of the player’s choices, but the player’s understanding, ordering, and belief in it continuously rewrite what they think “happened.”

At the same time, the protagonist also uses his condition to actively manipulate forgetting. Not every blank space comes from memory loss. Some blanks come from a selectively preserved narrative.

The progression of the game is a double construction: the player uses photos to assemble the truth, while the protagonist uses forgetting to manufacture a truth. By the end, the player shifts from “narrator” to “spectator,” witnessing both the process by which narrative is constructed and the fact that it ultimately cannot conceal the truth.

Narrative is subjective; facts are objective.

Appendix

Full Story

The male protagonist, Paul, suffers from trauma-induced dissociative amnesia, which means that traumatic events in his life cause him to lose related short-term memories. Paul met his girlfriend Stephanie in college. Although Paul is prone to anger, and although his condition often requires extraordinary patience from those around him, Stephanie has always supported him. She also bought him a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera. From that point on, they discovered that Polaroid photography seemed to help Paul recall lost memories - memories that had never truly disappeared. Although Stephanie remains patient with Paul, her close friend Christina does not feel the same way. She believes Paul’s psychological state makes him unfit to continue dating Stephanie.

During a bar gathering between the three of them, Paul gets drunk and begins speaking incoherently again. Christina calls Stephanie into the alley behind the bar and once again expresses her distrust of Paul. However, Paul unexpectedly overhears this conversation. Driven by drunkenness, he loses control, attacks Christina, and even knocks the hairpin from her head onto the ground.

Stephanie had never realized that Paul could show such strong aggression toward the people around her. After parting ways with Christina, she brings Paul home, hoping to have a serious conversation about his condition. But the argument gradually becomes intense. Paul loses control again and shoves Stephanie. What he does not expect is that her head strikes the sharp corner of a cabinet. Blood pours out immediately, and she stops breathing on the spot.

Paul is terrified by what has happened and has no idea what to do. He knows that he will soon forget this memory, but he is not ready to face the truth. In the end, he drags Stephanie’s body into the bathtub, takes a Polaroid photo, and places it on the cabinet to remind his future self. Then he collapses onto the sofa and soon falls asleep.

When he wakes up, he forgets everything, just as expected, but he also forgets the existence of the photo. Realizing that Stephanie is gone and completely unreachable, he quickly contacts Christina, hoping she can help search for her. Although Christina is dissatisfied with Paul, she agrees out of concern for Stephanie.

After searching all day, they still find nothing. When they return to Paul’s home, Christina accidentally discovers the photo. What she sees in it instantly fills her with fear. She holds the photo and confronts Paul, but Paul still has not remembered anything. He even mistakenly believes that Christina is responsible for everything. Losing control emotionally, he pushes Christina to the ground as well.

As if fate is repeating itself, Christina also hits the sharp corner of the cabinet and loses consciousness. In that very moment, Paul suddenly remembers everything. He places Christina in the bathtub as well, but he has no idea how to face what has happened.

Afterward, he goes to the bar and tries to numb himself with alcohol. Drink after drink, his consciousness becomes increasingly clouded. To escape reality, he gradually blames everything on Christina. He knows that he will eventually forget all of it.

In the final moment before he blacks out completely, he subconsciously settles on one conclusion: Stephanie’s disappearance is connected to Christina. He hurriedly tells this conclusion to the bartender, then loses consciousness.

The next morning, Paul wakes up in the hospital with no memory.

The game begins.

Level Design

Tutorial

In the initial prototype, after the opening story introduction, the player spawned at a viewpoint resembling the opposite side of the Hudson River, overlooking the entire city skyline. Here, the player learned how to use the Polaroid camera and took a photograph of the city skyline as the first picture in the game.

During development, this tutorial level was replaced with a BMW Z4 parked beside a city street (also my first car). As the entire city is darkened, a single spotlight illuminates the car, accompanied by an instructional prompt beside it. Together, they encourage the player to photograph the only clearly visible object in the scene. After successfully taking the picture, the game displays a narration box in which the protagonist reflects:

"Polaroids bring back things I thought I'd forgotten... even distant memories. I just need to find the right clues and capture them."

This tutorial introduces the game's core mechanic: photographing key objects to trigger interactions and advance the narrative.

Afterward, the spotlight on the BMW fades out, and the streetlights lining both sides of the road illuminate one after another, lighting up the surrounding buildings. As the player moves forward, additional streetlights continue to turn on in sequence, guiding them toward the bar at the end of the street.

Bar

Following the streetlights, the player eventually arrives at the bar. The bar's most memorable visual feature is a classic Mazda Miata suspended upside down above the entrance. Its iconic pop-up headlights cast two beams of light downward, flickering intermittently from years of neglect, illuminating the bartender below. Together, the car's distinctive silhouette and dramatic lighting create a strong visual focal point, encouraging the player to photograph the building.

Photographing the exterior unlocks an additional line of internal monologue from the protagonist. He reveals that he enjoys this place while also acknowledging that alcohol can trigger his episodes of amnesia. This photograph also serves another purpose: it familiarizes the player with the building's appearance, as it will soon become the subject of the upcoming memory puzzle minigame.

The bartender standing outside serves as the main story photograph for this area. Lighting acts as the primary visual cue, and the bartender is the only visible character in the scene besides Paul. Photographing him triggers a conversation in which the bartender recounts the events of the previous night before the player enters the Memory Puzzle minigame.

As described earlier, the Memory Puzzle is built around reconstructing the exterior of the bar. Once the puzzle is completed, a memory sequence plays. In the memory, Paul accidentally overhears a conversation between Christina and Stephanie inside the bar and realizes that Christina is deeply dissatisfied with him. To avoid Paul, the two decide to continue their conversation in a nearby alley. The final piece of information revealed in the memory—the alley—also provides a clear objective for the player's next destination.

Alley

After returning to the main world, the lights around the bar and the streetlights go dark, and the bartender has disappeared. At this point, a beam of light shines between two buildings on the left side of the street, pointing toward the alley mentioned in the previous memory. Following the light into the alley, the player notices words of varying sizes floating throughout the space. These words represent projections of Paul's consciousness while also foreshadowing the area's most important story object.

As the player moves deeper into the alley, the floating words become progressively smaller and more specific, suggesting that they are getting closer to the key clue. Although the size and arrangement of the words follow no fixed pattern, the player gradually eliminates other possibilities until discovering a black dragon-shaped hairpin beside a pile of garbage. The nearby text reveals that it belongs to Christina, identifying it as the key to unraveling the mystery. Photographing the hairpin transports the player into the Spot-the-Difference minigame.

The Spot-the-Difference minigame revisits the alley scene but introduces several objects that were not originally present. The player must rely on their memory of exploring the environment to identify every change. Once all differences have been found, the minigame is complete.

The unlocked memory shows Paul following Christina and Stephanie into the alley. He overhears Christina warning Stephanie about him, loses his temper, and slaps Christina, causing her hairpin to fall to the ground. If Stephanie's disappearance is truly connected to Christina, Paul begins to believe this confrontation may have provided a motive. The memory then comes to an end.

Park

After returning to the main world, the lights in the alley fade out while the streetlights illuminate once again, this time leading in a different direction. In addition to the lighting, enormous words gradually appear in the middle of the street. As the player walks forward, the words assemble into a new clue: Christina's hairpin was a gift from Adam, a member of the band. Adam might be performing somewhere nearby...

A new objective is established: find Adam. As the player continues forward, the faint sound of a guitar can be heard in the distance. Following the music leads to Adam, who is performing in the center of the park. Photographing Adam triggers a conversation in which Paul learns that Adam and Christina spent the previous day searching for Stephanie together, but Stephanie disappeared from contact with Adam the following morning. With even more unanswered questions, Paul enters the Memory Card-Matching Game.

The Memory Card-Matching Game is a classic card-matching challenge built entirely from Polaroid photographs, with a 30-second time limit. Each photograph depicts an object connected to the story. After completing the minigame, the player unlocks another memory.

In the memory, Christina and Paul appear to have been searching for Stephanie for a long time before deciding to return to Paul's apartment. Christina remains deeply frustrated with Paul, and by this point her attitude has become understandable.

Paul also appears to be in an extreme state of psychological distress. The cinematography portrays him as two ghostlike versions of himself occupying the same space. As they walk through the hallway leading back to the apartment, the camera begins to rotate, the image grows increasingly blurred, and the colors gradually become more abstract, suggesting that the player is beginning to glimpse something much darker beneath the surface.

Subway Station

After returning to the main world, Paul's internal monologue tells the player that it is time to return to his apartment by subway, with the station located at the end of the street. Turning around, the player once again encounters the familiar streetlight guidance. As soon as they take a step forward, every streetlight along the road illuminates in sequence over the course of a few seconds, creating a path that leads directly to the subway station.

Upon entering the subway, a transitional cinematic begins. Stephanie enters the frame from the right and walks into a forest. In the following shot, Paul enters from the left, pushes open a door, and steps into the red hallway leading to his apartment.

Apartment

The apartment contains two primary photographs. One is a framed photograph of Stephanie hanging on the wall, closely resembling the imagery shown during the transition from the subway station to the apartment. The other is a bloodstain on the corner of a living room cabinet, although its red color is impossible to distinguish in the game's black-and-white visual style.

Photographing Stephanie's portrait unlocks a memory sequence that formally introduces her character to the player.

The bloodstain serves as the area's primary story clue. Photographing it triggers a brief memory between Paul and Christina. Christina accuses Paul of being responsible for everything that has happened, while Paul reacts with shock and confusion. The player is then taken into the final minigame: Timeline Reconstruction.

In the accompanying cutscene, Paul sits at the table, takes out a notebook and a pen, and begins organizing the many thoughts racing through his mind. Some of the events have been confirmed, others are only suspicions, and some may be nothing more than speculation. The player must help Paul determine what they believe to be the truth and arrange the events into the correct chronological order. Although there is a correct solution, the game will continue after three unsuccessful attempts, ensuring that players can always reach the ending.

Once the minigame is complete, the player returns to the apartment, where the bathroom door automatically opens.

The final scene takes place inside the bathroom. The room is almost empty, except for two women's bodies lying in the bathtub. Photographing either the bathtub or the bodies triggers the final memory sequence. The player once again sees Stephanie walking through the forest before the perspective shifts to reveal Paul himself sitting in front of a television, watching his in-game self explore the city with a Polaroid camera.

The game ends here.

Memory Minigames

The minigames in the game include:

1. Memory puzzle: After photographing the bartender at the corner bar, the player completes a puzzle based on the bar exterior. The player must complete the puzzle using clues such as the bar sign, the giant Miata car sculpture decoration, and the lines of the wall. The level background is an image of a coastline that I photographed, intended to help the player calm down and experience a sense of stillness and memory. After completing the level, the player receives a memory of Stephanie and Christina arguing at the bar about Paul’s condition.

2. Spot-the-difference: After photographing the hairpin in the alley, the alley scene photo is presented to the player again. The difference is that several objects that did not originally belong there have appeared in the image. The player must use their memory of exploring the alley to identify these objects and complete the spot-the-difference game. After completing the level, the player receives the following memory: Paul enters the alley and catches Christina warning Stephanie about him. He becomes extremely dissatisfied, slaps Christina, and Christina’s hairpin falls to the ground.

3. Memory card-matching game: After photographing the guitarist in the park, the player enters a classic memory card-matching game. The player must flip over every matching pair of Polaroid photos within a 30-second time limit. Each photo corresponds to an element related to the story.

4. Timeline reconstruction: After photographing the bloodstain on the corner of the living-room cabinet, the player enters the final minigame, which is also the ultimate test. In the cutscene, Paul walks to the table, takes out a notebook and pen, already holding many guesses in his mind, and lists many events that may be true or false. The player needs to help Paul choose what he believes to be the truth from these events and arrange them in order. This game has a correct answer; choosing the right sequence leads directly into the ending reveal. However, if the player still does not fully sort the timeline correctly after three attempts, the game continues anyway.

Player Feedback

During playtesting, many players felt that the most interesting part of Polaroid of Yesterday is how photography is not just used to find clues, but becomes part of the narrative itself. Every time the player presses the shutter, they are deciding what is worth remembering. With only sixteen sheets of film, each photo carries more weight, pushing players to observe, choose, and judge carefully.

Players also responded to the game's consistent atmosphere. The black-and-white, high-contrast city contrasts strongly with the colorful live-action memories. The city feels like a subjective world reconstructed by Paul and the player, while the memories feel like fixed events that have already happened. Lighting, floating text, sound cues, and gradually illuminated roads all support the feeling of exploring while remembering. In this way, the game's central idea—that narrative is subjective while facts are objective—is expressed through both gameplay and visual design.

Some players found the beginning of the story confusing, especially Christina's role. Since the live-action videos mainly show Stephanie and Paul, while Christina is introduced through dialogue and clues, players are not immediately sure who she is. However, this uncertainty is intentional. Players do not understand the story from an omniscient perspective; like Paul, they piece it together through fragmented photos, sounds, and memories.

Playtesters also noted that although players can choose what to photograph, the key memories and final truth are still fixed, making the game mostly linear. The sense of agency could be stronger. For example, player interpretation and character reactions could take on more narrative weight, so players feel they are reconstructing the events in their own way rather than simply unlocking memories.

There is also room to improve the art direction and interaction design. The UI and tutorial prompts could better match the game's visual style. Some feedback also suggested that the portrayal of mental illness and female characters could be handled with more nuance, so they do not feel like they exist only to serve the plot.

Overall, players felt the project already has a clear artistic voice and a strong narrative-visual direction. Its strongest element is the connection between photography, memory, and truth. The feedback also helped clarify what could be developed further: keeping the fragmented narrative structure while giving players a stronger sense of agency and emotional connection.