Relive your teenage AIM conversations with this chat game

When I look back on my awkward years spanning elementary to high school, one of the things I remember most are the late nights I spent awake chatting with my friends through the glow of the computer screen. I'd turn the volume down so my parents wouldn't hear the recognizable AOL Instant Messenger notification sounds. I can't recall what most of the conversations were about, though I assume none were substantial or revelatory. But I know AIM was a huge part of my formative years.

Emily is Away is an interactive computer game that transports you back to those angsty pre-Facebook days through a simulated AIM conversation with a chatbot named Emily, a.k.a. screen name "emerly35." Game developer and designer Kyle Seeley set the game in the early 2000s with a Windows XP-theme — blue taskbar and green hills desktop wallpaper included. Read more...