If Found...

If Found... is a visual novel developed by Dreamfeel and published by Annapurna Interactive in May 2020 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and iOS and October 2020 for the Nintendo Switch.[1] The science fiction chapters of the story follow Doctor Cassiopeia as she journeys towards Planet X, only to discover a black hole that is rapidly expanding and will soon destroy the Earth.The journal chapters follow Kasio, a transgender woman who has just completed her master's degree at a university in Dublin and is returning to her hometown in Achill Island during December 1993.Kasio has a strained relationship with her older brother Fergal and her mother Brid, which she attributes both to the stress on the family after her father's death some years prior as well as her own inability to conform to the social norms of the islanders.After the band's first show, Kasio and Shans take drugs and alcohol and watch the stars through a hole in the abandoned house's roof.[4] McGee and lead writer Eve Golden Woods describe the development process for If Found..., once the design was decided on, as taking two years, with a team of "four or five core people" plus additional help working on it.The interleaved science fiction story was intended to add an element of magical realism, as well as express the emotional feeling of a personal world falling apart with as a more direct metaphor.[6] McGee stated in an interview that her primary goal for the game was to get players to relate to the feelings of the story, and to recognize that expressing love for people is more important than fully understanding them.[18] Critics were largely positive towards the game, focusing primarily on the way the writing and artwork, combined with the act of erasing, formed an emotional connection with the player.[1][13] CJ Andriessen of Destructoid said that the mechanic had a "profound effect" on them, forcing them to acknowledge that not only could they not change Kasio's past, they also had to erase the good with the bad.[12] The Eurogamer Italy review found the game overall to be a little short and the science fiction story to be unnecessary, though Pocket Gamer said that the erasing felt like Kasio's past being swallowed by the black hole, connecting the two parts.