A story game for two: how to play one story together
You each choose in secret, the story makes both choices happen, and at the end your secret wishes come out. A different kind of night in, for couples and friends.
Most story games are something you play alone, or something one person runs for everyone else. We wanted one that two people play together, as equals, from their own phones, whether they are on the same sofa or in different cities.
It is called Two of you, and this is how it works and how to get the most out of it.
How it works
You start a story and send the other person a link or a six-letter code. You each play your own character, and the story is written around both of you.
Every scene ends the same way: you each get your own four choices, and you each pick one in secret. Then comes the part people enjoy most: before you see what the other person chose, you guess it, from their four options.
Then the reveal. The next scene is written so that both choices happen. If you both played it bold, the story notices. If one of you reached out while the other did something reckless, the story has to make room for both, and that is usually where it gets funny, or tender, or both.
The secret wishes
At the start, you each make one secret wish for how the story should go: a moment you would love to happen, a thing your character secretly wants. Neither of you sees the other’s wish.
At the end, both wishes are revealed, side by side, along with how often you were in sync and how well you guessed each other. It is a small thing, and it is the part people screenshot.
Your move
A small taste: you are both stuck in a lift at midnight. What do you do?
Pick one to read what happens.
Tips for a good evening
- Pick a mood first. Cosy, funny, romantic, spooky: the mood sets the tone of every scene, and it is the quickest way to agree on what kind of night it is.
- Add something only you two would know. An in-joke, the place you met, a pet’s name. The story weaves it in, and nothing makes a story feel like yours faster.
- Keep it short. Short scenes are the default, and they are the right call: you want the next choice to come quickly.
- Guess honestly. The guessing is where you find out how well you read each other. Do not play the odds; play the person.
- Keep the book. When you finish, the whole story becomes a keepsake book you can read back and print, with both of your choices in it.
Who it is for
Couples, mostly, though it works just as well with a best friend, a sibling far away, or someone you have only just started talking to. It suits long-distance relationships particularly well, because the story keeps going between the two of you through the day, a scene at a time.
Start one
It takes about a minute: pick a mood and an opening, add a wish, send the link. The other person needs only the link to join.
If you would rather try the format alone first, play any of our stories: every scene branches the same way, just with one of you choosing.
Keep reading
Story GamesInteractive stories you can play online, freeChoose-your-own-adventure stories for grown-ups, playable in a browser in five to ten minutes: a mystery, a time-slip, a villain who is hiring, and a stadium full of people.
WritingAI story games: how to get a good story out of oneAn AI story game writes the next scene when you choose. Five things that make the difference between a story that wanders and one you want to finish.
Branching StoriesWhat is interactive fiction? A beginner’s guideFrom a cave in 1976 to the choose-your-own-adventure books to stories on your phone: what interactive fiction is, the kinds there are, and where to start.