Lightning Rod Games’s narrative-driven, paper-folding puzzle game A Fold Apart releases on April 17th! It will appear on Apple Arcade for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV, and Mac. A Fold Apart will likewise be on the Nintendo Switch and for Windows via Steam. Looking at their website, they also seem to have plans for PS4 and Xbox One releases! Think about it, though. What game could be more appropriate during a quarantine than one about long distance relationships?
A Quarantine-Appropriate Story
A Fold Apart focuses on the emotional roller coaster that is maintaining a long-distance relationship. The developers wanted the story to represent both the difficulties and the surreal beauty of staying connected with loved ones from miles away with modern communication technology.
My goal was to tell a touching story about the romantic, sentimental, but fundamentally lonely feelings that my significant other and I experienced while living apart. – Mark Laframboise, Lightning Rod Games Co-Founder
You can choose which of the couple to play as and, as you do, discover their individual stories. They will cope with not just the separation itself, but also everything else endemic to a long-distance romance, namely miscommunication. 
We never would have imagined that we’d be releasing the game in an environment where nearly all of us around the world are physically separated from loved ones and experiencing that loneliness firsthand… Creating “A Fold Apart” was a way for me to navigate those difficult emotions and I hope that the game can help others find some hope and comfort (and, most importantly, fun!) in these challenging times as well. – Mark Laframboise
The Game
As a more direct metaphor, the player must flip and fold pieces of paper in order to bring the couple [physically] closer together in their daily lives.
Fun Fact: A Fold Apart boasts over fifty handcrafted puzzles. Originally, they made these puzzles with actual grid paper! These were tucked away into a binder until they could be adapted to a digital format. That colorful, textured paper aesthetic was something that Lightning Rod Games is confident that they have brought to the game!
Check out the game’s official website here for more information! Lightning Rod’s homepage can likewise be found here! Marooners’ Rock has selected this game during PAX East 2019 and PAX East 2020 writer a Writers Choice Award as well! We’ve been waiting to get even more hands-on time with this game.
