Dear Earth,

Dear Earth, is a small interactive fiction game poem made in roughly eight hours in Bitsy for the September 2026 Maker's Massive 8-hour jam in Cape Town. The jam is an in-person event that's held once a month on a Saturday so I haven't attended it yet but the theme was announced early this time, a few days ahead of the jam, so I decided to work on an entry from home.

The theme of the jam was "Dear ______," with a constraint to make a game poem, preferably in a tiny game engine.

I have never made a game in eight hours before (I was particularly thrilled earlier this year that I finally managed to make a game in 48 hours!) so this was a challenge I set for myself to see if I could make something extremely small by constraining the game as much as possible and avoiding any scope creep. I tried my best not to think about the theme and what I might make ahead of time, although a few ideas did drift in my thoughts a little bit and one of them became the basis for this game. I also wasn't completely clock watching so I estimate that it took me roughly eight hours. Maybe nine.

It's also a little janky but I consider it finished.

My game poem was partially inspired by Little Legs by Cephalopodunk.

Controls: Press the arrow keys to move, advance the dialogue boxes, and move the game forward if nothing seems to be happening.

Credits:

• Mandy J Watson (@mandyjwatson on Bluesky):
  Game design, narrative and writing, programming, and art
• Title Card Font:
  Munro by Ten By Twenty (SIL Open Font Licence Version 1.1)

Software Used:

• Bitsy, Dan's Tools (RGB To HEX/HEX To RGB), GIMP, and Notepad.

 

The Poem's Text (click to reveal)

Dear Earth,

I may have limited oxygen
but from here it's you who seems so fragile.

We should be sorry
for what we have done to you

but we are not.

You look so bright
in the sky
tonight.

All I can do is apologise for myself
and take your photo
to show to everyone
when I return.

When I return to you.
When I return...

home.