Lost Phone Stories

Lost Phone Stories is a compilation of two narrative-driven games: ‘A Normal Lost Phone’ and ‘Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story’. Presented as a simulation of a found smartphone, players investigate the device to uncover clues, solve puzzles, and piece together the personal stories of its owners. The gameplay involves exploring apps, messages, and photos to reveal compelling, down-to-earth narratives that touch on mature themes.

Lost Phone Stories: A Foundational, Flawed Foray into Digital Voyeurism

In the vast and often predictable landscape of video game narratives, few concepts are as immediately intriguing—or as ethically fraught—as the “found phone” simulator. Lost Phone Stories, a 2018 compilation of two earlier mobile titles, stands as a bold, if imperfect, monument to this subgenre. It is a game that demands to be discussed, dissected, and debated, a title whose admirable ambitions in storytelling are often at odds with its mechanical execution and the very nature of its voyeuristic premise.

Introduction: The Phone in the Dark

We live in an age where our smartphones are digital extensions of our souls, repositories of our deepest secrets, most mundane conversations, and entire social lives. To find one is to hold a stranger’s life in your hands. Lost Phone Stories, developed by Accidental Queens and published by Plug In Digital, seizes upon this modern reality and transforms it into a narrative engine. This compilation bundles A Normal Lost Phone (2017) and Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story (2017), presenting players with two intimate, grounded tales of personal crisis. The thesis here is clear: the game is a compelling, empathy-driven experiment whose power is somewhat diluted by awkward porting to consoles and puzzle design that often frustrates more than it fulfills. It is a landmark of intention, if not always of flawless execution.

Development History & Context: From Pocket to Console

Lost Phone Stories is inherently a product of its original platform. The two constituent games, A Normal Lost Phone and Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story, were developed first for iOS and Android devices by the French studio Accidental Queens. This origin is crucial to understanding the game’s DNA. These were experiences designed for the very device they emulated, creating a potent and seamless meta-narrative—you were literally holding a “phone” and investigating a “phone” on your phone.

The gaming landscape of 2016-2017 was increasingly welcoming to innovative narrative experiences and “walking simulators.” Games like Her Story (2015) pioneered the use of fictional computer interfaces as a storytelling device. Accidental Queens took this concept and applied it to the most ubiquitous computer interface of all: the smartphone. The vision was to create relatable, human-scale stories that explored serious social issues through a lens of intimate interaction.

The 2018 compilation for Nintendo Switch (and other PC platforms) by Plug In Digital was a logical step to bring these acclaimed mobile titles to a broader audience. However, this port introduced a fundamental dissonance. The game’s interface, meticulously crafted for touchscreens, was now being played on a hybrid console, often with joysticks and buttons or using the Switch’s large tablet-like screen in a vertical orientation—a “bulkiest phone imaginable,” as one reviewer noted. This transition from native to ported environment is the central tension that defines the Lost Phone Stories experience on Switch.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: The Lives Within

The heart and soul of Lost Phone Stories lie in its two narratives, which are notably brave in their subject matter for the interactive medium.

• A Normal Lost Phone: This first game tasks the player with uncovering the story of Sam, a young person who has vanished. As you bypass the phone’s lock screen (the first of many ethically questionable actions the game necessitates), you piece together Sam’s life through text messages, emails, photos, and app data. The narrative expertly builds a picture of Sam’s friendships, family tensions, and romantic life, culminating in a revelation that Sam is transgender and has left to live authentically. The story handles this journey with a surprising amount of grace and empathy, focusing on the emotional turmoil and societal pressures rather than sensationalism. It’s a quiet, powerful story of self-actualization.

• Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story: The second story shifts focus to Laura, a woman in a seemingly perfect relationship. Again, through the digital detritus of her life, the player uncovers a much darker reality. The story meticulously documents the insidious signs of an abusive relationship—controlling behavior, isolation from friends and family, and psychological manipulation. The investigation becomes a tense, unsettling experience as you realize the danger Laura is in and the urgent reason behind her disappeared phone. It’s a harrowing and respectful exploration of domestic violence, aiming to build understanding of the victim’s perspective.

Thematically, both games are united by explorations of identity, secrecy, and escape. They use the voyeuristic mechanic not for titillation but to foster a deep sense of empathy. You are not just told about Sam’s struggle or Laura’s fear; you discover it firsthand, reading their private conversations and seeing their world through their own apps. This method makes their plights feel tangible and real. However, this strength is also a source of critique. As the review from Gaming Age pointed out, the format can feel inherently “exploitative or problematic,” reducing deeply sensitive personal tragedies to a series of puzzles to be solved. The games walk a tightrope, and while many feel they succeed, the unease is a deliberate and lingering part of the experience.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: The Interface of Investigation

The core gameplay loop of both titles is identical: explore a simulated smartphone interface to find clues, solve puzzles, and progress the narrative. The “gameplay” is the act of digital sleuthing.

• The Core Loop: You scroll through messages, open apps like a calendar or a dating app, and examine photos for clues. Progress is gated by puzzles, often requiring you to deduce passwords based on information gleaned from the phone’s contents. For example, you might need to find a Wi-Fi password hidden in a text message or use a birthday mentioned in an email to unlock a profile.

• Puzzle Design & Flaws: This is the compilation’s most significant point of contention. Reviews consistently note that the puzzles, particularly in Laura’s Story, can be obtuse and frustrating. The naturalistic approach of filling the phone with red herrings and irrelevant contacts, while realistic, often leads to players getting stuck, unsure of which clue they missed. As eShopperReviews bluntly states, both games “will likely require a walkthrough to get past their puzzles.” This design flaw disrupts narrative immersion, pulling the player out of the story to seek external help.

• The Port Problem: The control scheme highlights the challenge of porting a mobile-centric experience. While the Switch’s touchscreen in handheld mode works adequately, it feels less natural than on a smartphone. Playing in TV mode with a controller is described as functional but clunky, transforming an intimate touch-based investigation into a menu-navigation chore. The game’s soul is inherently tied to its original platform, and the Switch version is, at best, a competent adaptation rather than an ideal one.

World-Building, Art & Sound: The Aesthetics of Authenticity

Lost Phone Stories achieves its impact through a commitment to minimalist authenticity.

• Visual Direction: There is no 3D world to explore. The entire “world” is the UI of the smartphone. The art direction is purely functional and intentionally mundane—it looks exactly like a generic smartphone interface. Icons, message bubbles, and app layouts are instantly familiar. This realism is the game’s greatest visual strength; it perfectly sells the fantasy that you are holding a real lost device. The only visual elements that break this realism are the profile pictures and photos of the characters, which provide the human connection amidst the digital framework.

• Sound Design: The soundscape is equally sparse and effective. The primary sounds are the gentle taps and swipes navigating the OS, notification chimes for new messages, and the subtle, ambient soundtrack that swells during key emotional discoveries. The music is never intrusive but works to underscore the tone of the narrative—somber, hopeful, or tense when appropriate. This minimalist approach ensures the focus remains squarely on the text and the player’s own thoughts.

The atmosphere crafted is one of quiet intimacy and palpable tension. Every new notification builds anticipation, and every unlocked secret feels like a genuine violation of privacy, which is exactly the emotional response the developers intended.

Reception & Legacy: A Niche of Influence

The reception for Lost Phone Stories was mixed, reflecting the divisive nature of its design.

• Critical Response: Critically, the compilation garnered a modest 58% average on MobyGames based on limited reviews. Reviews ranged from positive appreciations of its narrative ambition (Switch Player gave it a 3.5/5, praising its “real and empathetic” stories) to more critical takedowns of its execution. Gaming Age’s review (grading it a C-) argued that its stories weren’t “compelling” enough to sustain the gameplay and that the format handled its sensitive themes without sufficient nuance. The consensus was that its intentions were admirable, but its success was inconsistent.

• Legacy & Influence: Commercially, it remained a niche title. However, its legacy is more profound than its sales figures might suggest. Lost Phone Stories stands as a key text in the emerging genre of “interface horror” and narrative investigation games. It proved that a compelling story could be told entirely through the mundane artifacts of digital life. Its direct influence can be seen in games like Dead Man’s Phone and other titles that use a fictional phone OS as a primary mechanic. More importantly, it demonstrated games’ potential to tackle complex, mature social issues like transgender identity and domestic abuse from a first-person, exploratory perspective, paving the way for more developers to use the medium for empathetic storytelling.

Conclusion: A Flawed but Significant Artifact

Lost Phone Stories is not a game for everyone. It is a slow, thoughtful, and often frustrating experience whose most powerful moments are narrative, not ludic. Its transition to the Nintendo Switch is serviceable but highlights that some experiences are best left on their native platforms.

Yet, to dismiss it based on these flaws would be to overlook its significant achievements. It is a brave, empathetic, and groundbreaking piece of interactive fiction. The stories of Sam and Laura are told with a respect and honesty rarely seen in games, and the mechanic of discovering their lives through their phones is powerfully immersive when it works.

Its final verdict is complex. As a piece of game history, Lost Phone Stories is an essential artifact, a bold experiment that pushed the boundaries of narrative form and thematic content. As a piece of entertainment, it is a flawed gem—best experienced with a walkthrough handy, on a handheld screen, and with an appreciation for its profound ambitions over its imperfect execution. It is a game that deserves to be remembered, studied, and appreciated, not for the perfection of its craft, but for the courage of its conviction.