Destination Lampedusa

— A Story Told Through Your Phone

The story is an interactive text+mms dialogue via cell phone between the player and a refugee on a risky boat journey from Libya to Italy. It is based on survivors' accounts. Player choices and real-time data drive events and determines the ultimate outcome. We chose to have the narrative unfold almost entirely through player-refugee communication over a mobile phone because this approach creates a sense of helplessness and suspense when the connection is lost, while the intermittent texts gradually build an empathetic and intimate bond with Armani. Ambient sounds (waves, voices) heard over the phone and fuzzy, off-kilter pictures sent from Armani's cell phone add a sense of urgency.