Jim Nelson. 6th place, IFComp 2022.
What a remarkable story. It stays with me. I loved this without reservation.
I’ve got nothing usefully critical to add here, so you can stop now, really. And if you haven’t played According to Cain, please do stop now and go play it. It’s worth your time. I ran across one small bug.
What remains is to try and understand the craft of an artist much more skilled than I am. One reason I love it is because it feels well-constructed and complete, both narratively and mechanically. In this case I’m not sure that does it justice, though.
I went digging for other lenses on this piece and discovered that I can point to a bunch of the classic dramatic conflicts in this one story.
Cain vs Abel is the classic, and this story does include the fateful murder.
Cain vs Technology. We meet Cain as an accomplished inventor and craftsperson whose works are often instrumental in his grief. Cain’s sluice gate is blocked by Abel to water his flocks; Cain crafts the knife used for Abel’s favored sacrifice; Cain’s still leads to Abel’s drunken affair.
The grain I labored to raise from the earth—nourishment for our family—fried down and transmuted into revelry and fleshy pleasures.
Cain vs Society shows up as Cain resists his parents’ command to wed his sister.
I plead with her. The sheep and swine do not breed brother with sister. “Eve is in charge of family matters,” is all Father will say.
Cain vs God. Cain questions the creator directly on the nature of the world he has inherited.
“The Creator has taken my offering to the heavens, and rejected your paltry nuts and honey,” Abel announces.
Cain hurries between the two shrines, first with puzzlement, then with anger. He confronts the stoic vermillion face. “How can this be?” he yells at the wall. “The world was created in goodness! Is it not governed by the reward of good works?”
Cain vs Nature. As part of his curse, the very ground turns against Cain. In an elegant bit of writing near the end we see him struggle with this through Abel’s eyes.
From this dark place, I watch my brother work a new field. He throws himself into the task with great vigor. The rewards for his hard labor are thorns like knives and inedible thistles.
Still, he is resourceful. He hacks at the vines with an axe. He extracts the oil running in their veins. With it he oils his walking stick and the hinge of his precious lockbox. But he fails to harvest a crop, and so he must leave and wander further.
Cain vs Self. Finally, Cain is his own worst enemy. For all the suffering he endures in this story, it’s his own vengeance (no matter how justified) that causes his deepest sorrow. This passage from the very start of the game gave me chills, and it turns out to be the theme that bookends the story so well.
“The first murder in all of history. As punishment, the Creator cursed Cain to wander the Earth to the end of his days. Cain was marked to prove he introduced murder into our world. The mark served to protect Cain from others taking vengeance upon him.”
“Why do that? Why protect such evil?”
The Provost emitted a gravelly murmur. “Vengeance was the Creator’s.”
Of course, that “analysis” falls far short of describing this story - it’s just one more way for me to appreciate it. For me it’s got the resonance of Prism and the control and assurance of Trouble in Sector 471. Definitely going on my recommend list.