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Known Unknowns

by Brendan Patrick Hennessy profile

Part of the Bell Park series
Ghost Investigation (High School)
2016

Web Site

(based on 58 ratings)
5 reviews

About the Story

Nadia Nazari has a lot of unknowns to contend with in her Grade 12 year. Like how can she run an entire school newspaper with only one employee? Why has her estranged ex best friend suddenly come back into her life? How is her long-term boyfriend going to react when he finds out she's bisexual? And oh yeah — WHAT'S UP WITH ALL THE FREAKY GHOST RACCOONS HAUNTING HER HIGH SCHOOL??


Game Details


Awards

Nominee, Best Game; Nominee, Best Writing; Nominee, Best Story; Nominee, Best NPCs; Nominee - Olivia Kwon, Best Individual NPC; Nominee - Kaz Kaczmarek, Best Individual NPC; Nominee - Anja Kaczmarek, Best Individual NPC; Nominee - Nadia Nazari, Best Individual PC; Nominee, Best Use of Multimedia - 2017 XYZZY Awards


News

The fourth and final episode of Known Unknowns is now up! In this episode, Nadia realigns her social universe and finally unmasks the ghost summoner.
Reported by Brendan Patrick Hennessy | History | Edit | Delete
The third episode of Known Unknowns is now online! In this episode, Nadia goes on a ghost hunting expedition and dramatically learns a whole bunch of truths.
Reported by Brendan Patrick Hennessy | History | Edit | Delete
The second episode of Known Unknowns is now available to play! In this episode, Nadia goes to a house party to try and reconnect with her estranged ex best friend and ends up having to deal with a whole bunch of drunken nonsense.
Reported by Brendan Patrick Hennessy | History | Edit | Delete
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Editorial Reviews

Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling
Like Birdland, this is Y/A queer romance — but this time the choices are less about self-characterization and more about how you’re going to interact with the side characters. (And, as in Birdland, the core plot remains the same regardless. This is not as far as I can tell a heavily branching story, but the interpretation of individual scenes can vary a good bit.) Known Unknowns is immensely charming and accessible, solidly structured and well paced — and as it’s now available in its complete form, there’s no waiting between episodes.
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Member Reviews

5 star:
(37)
4 star:
(16)
3 star:
(1)
2 star:
(4)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 5
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Most Helpful Member Reviews


10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
a capstone to loose trilogy and a major achievement in interactive fiction, December 13, 2017
by Anya Johanna DeNiro (Minnesota)

(I had IFDB erase a nice long review--thanks!--so this is much abbreviated).

I played all four parts of Known Unknowns in one fell swoop and was to put it frankly blown away by it. I could see how it might seem a bit underwhelming serially but if you haven't had the chance to lose yourself in this richly imagined world, I highly recommend it. Set in the same universe as Bell Park Girl Detective and Birdland, I would say that Known Unknowns is the equal to Birdland, downplaying the supernatural elements to an extend and going deeper into the characterizations.

And the characters are amazing. A game like this lives and dies by the strength of its writing and it's probably not much of a surprise that Known Unknowns is running on all cylinders, with a gut-wrenching range of emotions with a HUGE cast. I'm sure you will find your favorites (shout out to my pal Olivia).

The game expertly switches from dialogue/conversation mode to exploration mode, as the two feed off each other.

Finally, this game is really really queer, and the range of people in this high school trying to figure their own identities out is tender, hilarious, melancholic, and ultimately human. And the choices you are given reflect that high school rollercoaster at every turn.

This game is a treasure and you should play it. It's one of the most affecting works of IF I have ever played, in fact.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
High school ghost investigation with teen romance, September 22, 2019
by MathBrush
Related reviews: about 1 hour

I had this game mixed up with the short Birdland sequel Open Up, and so I never got around to playing this until after the XYZZY Nominations. Then I had to see what it was all about.

Brendan’s writing is what I wish I could write like. Characters are so vivid, and the text takes startling turns of phrase that you can’t help from laughing at. The characters felt alive to me.

Part of that left me with a bad aftertaste in a way that a lesser artist couldn’t do. The events in the game are the kind of thing I was terrified of growing up. My area had a lot of teen pregnancies and deaths from alcohol and drugs that affected people I knew. The idea of going to parties where all the highschoolers are getting drunk, watching each other have sexual experiences, using drugs, and having young men who won’t listen to ‘no’ (like Jayden) wander around seems like a reminder of personal nightmares.

But I don’t believe that’s what the author intended. Games are a Rohrschach test that brings out whatever the reader is thinking. I wouldn’t have had such a strong reaction to the game if Brendan hadn’t written such strong characters.

The rest of the game is wonderful. The use of emoji is like a comedy version of 10pm, and the overall mystery and romance were well done. I liked the use of red options to distinguish paths that were very different from the others. It made choices feel more significant.

I also found the structure really interesting, with conversations like multi lane highways and exploration segments like city streets.

This game’s craft level is very high, and I’ve found myself thinking of it frequently in the last few days as I’ve been working on my own games.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Another strong entry from Hennessy, November 15, 2016
by streever (America)

Hennessy writes with a strong voice and distinct characters, representing a broad spectrum of sexuality and identity, interwoven with contemporary themes and a strong vein of magical realism.

If you played Birdland, you're familiar with Hennessy's oeuvre: unrequited or unrealized young love, the surreal and supernatural, and a free mixing of reality and fantasy.

Anime conventions, hyperbole, self-awareness, and irony run throughout the dialogues and settings, and a memorable scene includes the use of emoji instead of words.

This piece could stand on its own, although the ending would be unsatisfying as the finale. Thankfully it's part one of a planned four part series. I'm interested to see where it goes, and am looking forward to the next installment.

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See All 5 Member Reviews

Known Unknowns on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Known Unknowns appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Individual teen PCs by Kinetic Mouse Car
This list is not for games that are simply about teens. It is for games starring an individual teen PC (you know, 13-19). I made this list because it is interesting to interact with a story through the perspective of teenagers,...

2020 Alternative Top 100 by Denk
(Created 24-Jul-2020) The purpose of this list is not to compete with the IFDB Top 100 but to provide an alternative view, which makes sense for some games. Philosophy: 1. If a game only has 5-star ratings, it is because the game hasn't...

IFDB Top 100 by Pegbiter
An automatically updated list utilizing an IMDb style Bayes estimator to calculate weighted ratings based on all IFDB ratings. Questions and comments can be placed here....

See all lists mentioning this game

Polls

The following polls include votes for Known Unknowns:

For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible NPCs of 2017 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting games released in 2017 which you think might be worth considering for Best NPCs in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination. The category will still be text-entry, and games not mentioned here will...

For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible Best Games of 2017 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting games released in 2017 which you think might be worth considering for Best Game in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination. The category will still be text-entry, and games not mentioned here will...

Games for introducing teens and tweens to interactive fiction by albie
Looking for Twine games (ideally) that are appropriate for 10-16 year olds. Bonus points if it has an interesting/fun story or showcases some of the cool stuff that can be done with this medium. Thanks! :)

See all polls with votes for this game




This is version 10 of this page, edited by Brendan Patrick Hennessy on 28 December 2022 at 5:47pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page