Not so Easily "Forgotten"

Today I’d like to look back to an indie game some might remember called “Forgotten.” Now, it might be hard to remember it (no pun intended,) since there are currently six games on Gamejolt alone called “Forgotten.” However, we’re not talking about any of those. We’re talking about a game that was released to IndieDB in September of 2010, by a user named “BoneMarrowBro.”

“BoneMarrowBro,” whose real name was David Fitzgerald, released the game in September, but it wasn’t until nearly December that it gained any real attention. It was then that a slew of people began uploading footage of the game online, that people finally found this gem among the lazy, jumpscare-riddled messes that have always been so typical of the free indie horror game genre. Since the game was made before most current highly popular YouTube gaming channels, it’s difficult, or impossible to find footage of it today. However, that will no longer be the case when the remake of “Forgotten” (submitted to Steam Greenlight “Forgotten: Reawoken,”) releases next week. The demo is already making the rounds, and my review of it should be posted very soon.

Now, it’s time to mention the tragic history behind the game’s creator that resulted in the game’s removal from IndieDB, along with the takedown of most videos of the original version. On January 14th, 2011 David Fitzgerald was found dead in his apartment. The details of his death are scarce, but many suspect that Fitzgerald struggled with depression and psychological health problems for most of his life, and even that “Forgotten” itself was an attempt to channel that personal struggle into an interactive output. In the end, only Fitzgerald himself could explain the motivation behind the game, and his parents have remained private about disclosing the details of his passing. However, they were gracious enough recently to allow Fitzgerald’s closest friends to compile the assets found on his computer, in order to produce the remastered and expanded version.

The game itself wasn’t notable for any groundbreaking graphics or features, what made “Forgotten” so significant was the effort put towards creating a subtle atmosphere of horror. The game wasn’t even tagged “horror,” on IndieDB, which is likely why it took so long for the game to be noticed by the mainstream horror community. Fitzgerald claimed the game wasn’t a horror game, and was more of an “interactive narrative.” However, much of the story and even some of the subtle details clearly show the game has a darker atmosphere than the initial looking over the game’s IndieDB description would have led one to believe.

Most of the game takes place inside a fairly typical house, with the player simply going through and trying to find out the story of those who lived in the house before the character. This element of the game is fairly engaging and explores the lives of a couple who you find, as you progress through the game and find various objects and notes, clearly had a moment of breakage that led to their separation. The tone is fairly somber, and the conclusion is fairly plain in the mundane reality that despite your best efforts, not everything works out. This aspect only took about thirty minutes if you didn’t have any trouble with the “find x to open y,” formula the game followed, most of which was just moving through the house and opening drawers and picking up torn-out diary and journal pages, along with notes the couple left each other. Overall, a fairly typical, although well executed narrative-focused exploration game. However, the real element of the game that caught people off guard was the key one could find under the sink in the upstairs bathroom.

It was YouTube user "13DarkTomorrow13," who first found that by taking the screwdriver from the toolbox (usually used to jimmy open the downstairs closet,) and instead taking it to the empty space under the sink in the upstairs bathroom and using it on the empty bottom space (which only becomes interact-able with the screwdriver equipped,) results in removing a board, and revealing a large iron key. However, "13DarkTomorrow13" couldn’t explain where the key went. This sent players into a frenzy of trying to find the mythical keyhole that might take this mysterious key. The key was also unlabeled, unlike all other inventory items in the game, so there were no hints in-game at any possible locations. Of course, multiple people emailed Fitzgerald (at this time still known only as “BoneMarrowBro”) for any hints he could offer to the key's intended use. However, Fitzgerald was adamant in all of his responses that he had no intention of “solving the puzzle for them,” and stonewalled any attempts to pry out any sort of clue. Eventually they got the lead they needed, but not in the way you might imagine.

All of the emails sent by Fitzgerald were signed “David” at the bottom, which eventually led to players making David their profile name while playing. At first, it seemed this just activated a minor easter egg, in which players would occasionally hear the name David whispered, as if coming from behind them. It was soon after this that players found that by finding the key with the profile name “David,” it was possible to open a door that normally couldn’t be opened. Now, this was obviously the first door people tried when the key was discovered, and similarly so after finding the “David” Easter egg. It’s unknown who first discovered it, but eventually players realized that by going fast enough they could get the key before they heard the first whisper, and it was only then that the door could be opened with the key. This is where players found the true nature of “Forgotten.”

The door opened into a black void, but once players stepped inside-- they found themselves in a much different house. It was clearly the same house as far as the layout was concerned, but the appearance was vastly changed. The house became dilapidated and dark. There were new notes to be found, new puzzles to solve, and, most importantly, the story was a new one. People were ecstatic, and the praising reviews flew in. People honestly couldn’t believe that Fitzgerald had hidden an entire other game inside his game. The “Other House,” as it became known, held a story much different than that of "Forgotten." 
"The Other House" told the story of a man who lived alone, and was tormented by whispers of his name late at night. The notes slowly progressed out of the world of personal psychological struggles and moved into rambling, desperate pleas for help. However, the game once again did a good job of subverting the player’s expectations, since at one point the notes begin to become more positive. Eventually, the player finds a journal, which covers how the unnamed resident of the house finds proper psychiatric counsel, and finds a medication with relatively few side effects that helps him cope. After this the front door unlocks, (similarly to the original stage of the game) the player leaves, and the credits roll. The ending and sudden shift in the story was jarring, but for the most part people were at least satisfied that there was another interesting story within an already fairly engaging game.

Now, most people would assume this is where the rabbit hole ends-- and yet, it's somehow only the beginning. Once again, a YouTuber, this time a user by the name "JackManlyQQ," found yet another mysterious key. This time, it required taking the screwdriver and using it on a floorboard under the table in the dining room. This led to finding a key similar to the one found under the sink originally. This time, however, users were once again unsure where the key could possibly be used. They had entered through the locked door on the first floor, but that door disappeared when they entered the “Other House.” No one had found any new doors while exploring in this new environment. The only lead people had was that they could hear a murmuring and whispering while standing in the upstairs bathroom. It was a commenter on IndieDB that finally discovered what needed to be done. Before one got the key, and while they still had the screwdriver, they had to use it on the ceiling of the upstairs bathroom, which revealed an attic door hidden behind the paneling. Then, one could still use the screwdriver to get the key, and then finally open the attic. Once inside, most players expected yet another house within the house, but they found that the door actually led (as someone who hadn’t played the rest of the game might suspect) into an attic.

At this point, it’s important to note that once again, the response from Fitzgerald was significant as well, and played a major role in how people interpreted the game as a whole. Fitzgerald claimed that there was no attic, and that the area people had found wasn’t something he made. He claimed that someone had hijacked the download, and replaced it with whatever held this secret area, even posting that the area was made to “spite” him. Most people quickly realized that this was likely a stunt by Fitzgerald to drum up attention to the game (which frankly worked,) but there were always those who believed him, and even those who invented conspiracies about how the origins and implementation of this attic are somehow tied to the events of his death.

Inside, the player character produced a lighter, and the range of vision was greatly reduced. The door from which players entered was covered in what appeared to be desperate scratches, and the walls were filled with various messages etched into the wood, like: “I AM AFRAID” “I AM WEAK,” and “I LIVE A LIE.” At this point, there was no denying the psychological horror aspect of “Forgotten,” regardless of how Fitzgerald himself felt about the game. It was also here that “Forgotten” moved from subtle horror and mystery, into a dark personal look into the psyche of a desperate man. Before we delve into the final moments of “Forgotten,” I believe it’s important to again mention the man behind it.

Even to this day, it’s impossible to know if what people found in “Forgotten” is based on real elements from David Fitzgerald’s life, or if it simply serves as a kind of example of the personal struggles he dealt with. It could even be feasible that nothing in the game has anything to do with his life, and his death is a completely unrelated event. Fitzgerald’s parents have never commented on the content of the game, and so far their only involvement with it has been giving permission for the release of the remastered version. People can endlessly postulate the connections and parallels between the lives of Fitzgerald and the life of the character in “Forgotten” and even more so the character of the “Other House,” and yet-- the only person who could possibly shed light on the truth behind the art is David Fitzgerald himself. However, at the very least, there are some widely believed theories on the connection between Fitzgerald and “Forgotten.”

Suffice to say, the most common interpretation is that Fitzgerald is both the man from “Forgotten,” and the man in the “Other House,” who in turn are one and the same. The story of “Forgotten” itself is the main story of the game, since they were (supposedly) the most visible events to Fitzgerald's friends and family. The secrecy of the “Other House,” and the deeper, darker struggles held within would then represent psychological struggles that Fitzgerald went through alone. Finally, and the most important element to people’s theories about the game, is the “attic.” Many believe that this segment of the game represented thoughts so buried and hidden, that not even Fitzgerald was fully aware of them (hence his public reaction to it.) It is this shaky, unproven (and frankly, in my opinion, a bit fantastical) interpretation of the game’s story and characters that readers should keep in mind when discussing the final moments of “Forgotten.”

Once players finished looking over the various self-deprecating phrases etched onto the walls, they finally descended further into the darkness of the attic. The first thing players found was, as one might expect, a series of notes. However, unlike the notes found throughout the rest of the game these were clearly not notes or journal entries, but the personal thoughts of the player character. Some were short, small scraps like: “My existence is merely a mistake given room to breathe” and “No one will understand me, regardless of their intentions or efforts.”  Others were longer, and delved more specifically into personal struggles and self-doubts that the character held. I would put excerpts of them into this, but I feel they are too grim for the purposes of this write-up. Even the creators of the remake have removed some of them from the game, due to their belief that they were based on elements from Fitzgerald’s own life, although his parents have neither confirmed, nor denied this. These excerpts were some of the darkest and most personal writings that players had read, and many wrote emails to Fitzgerald in support. Fitzgerald was never reported to have replied to these messages, although this was during the time when he was actively claiming that the attic wasn’t a part of his game. Nevertheless, I will put one of them here in its entirety, as it remains vague enough that it would be impossible to connect it to any personal details of Fitzgerald’s life.

“Everyday I wake up, hoping that this will be the day that I find meaning in my life. At some point though, I started to wonder... What if that’s the only thing giving my life purpose? What if the only reason I wake up, the only reason I begrudgingly live, is because of that search? Ironically, I think the only reason I wake up in the morning, is to find a reason to wake up in the morning. How many more days does it take to get the answer, the real answer, to sink in? I don’t have a purpose. I was so sure that I had one, that I was sealing myself off from the truth.

I will live... I will die... I will be forgotten.”

It was this note (especially the last line, which many believe to be the game's namesake) that made players feel that “Forgotten” was a cry for help from Fitzgerald, and that the attic segment especially was something that was made to put that plea out into the world. If that is true, and his death is truly connected to this cry for help, it shows that even with the support of people around the world, it’s not an easy task to help someone with words alone.

Finally, after players had read through all of the notes, they came to the final scene of the game. Players came to a chair, with a coil of rope sitting next to it. It doesn’t take much of an imagination to predict what happens next. The player interacts with the chair, and proceeds to use the rope to tie a noose, hang if from the rafters, and then stands on the chair. A prompt appears at the bottom of the screen that reads: 
“Nothing will change.” 
Upon pressing the interact key the character places the noose around their neck. Then, another prompt appears, which reads: 
“Be true to yourself.” 
Interacting again results in the character kicking the chair out from under themselves. The game cuts to black in tandem with the sickening sound of the snapping of the character’s neck. The game sits on this blank, black screen with the unsettling sound of the creaking and swaying of the rope. Players must force-close the game to leave this screen, as simply waiting never produces any credits or epilogue.

...

I’d like to end this by saying that I am thankful that the parents of David Fitzgerald have allowed the remake of “Forgotten” to be released. I am also glad that the team behind the remake have elected to release “Forgotten: Reawoken” for free. I feel that it is in everyone’s best interest to experience the game for themselves. I have described it here, but words can only do so much justice to the feeling of “Forgotten” itself. Even players who played the original should try the remake, as it is said to feature new content and areas that Fitzgerald had planned to add, but for whatever reason never did. This includes having the name whispering mechanic work regardless of entered profile name, and notes that were cut from the original version. I would like to thank the “Forgotten: Reawoken” team for sending me the demo when I said I was doing a piece on the game, and I look forward to posting my preview here in the near future.

In the end, regardless if the game was about Fitzgerald or not, the game takes the player through the various problems we encounter in our lives. It shows us that even if we think we understand what someone is struggling with, there are always things we don’t know about them, and even things that they aren’t fully aware of themselves.

My thoughts are with the family and friends of David Fitzgerald, and I hope that they have some kind of peace knowing that he might, ironically enough, be remembered through “Forgotten."