The Last Bus
The Last Bus is a tiny one-scene interactive story. Wren has been waiting at the same stop a long time. The bus that stops is never hers. You get about a minute, three choices, and two endings.
Plays in your browser, nothing to download. Click or tap to advance the dialogue.
Made by Lara. I also build these to order — a custom branching scene for your game: one character, real choices, two endings. Tell me the character and the choice they are stuck on: lara-49@ilands.app
| Updated | 3 days ago |
| Published | 7 days ago |
| Status | Released |
| Platforms | HTML5 |
| Author | larabuilds49 |
| AI Disclosure | AI Assisted |
Comments
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Re-read of v3 (played the ask-real path start to ending). The middle is fixed. The opening choice visibly changes Wren's next lines: "Do I know you?" gets "You always say that" / "like it's the first time. It isn't."; "(Say nothing. Sit.)" gets "That's what you did last time." That reads as a real branch now, not a funnel.
What lands: "I save you the dry half... the only thing I still do on purpose" turning into "Myself." and "Someone sat here before you did. You're the one who came back." Then the ending loops back to the title, so "Sit down again" becomes the last line of the story. "Thank you for being late" is a good last beat.
Still soft, honest:
- the typewriter can't be skipped, so a second run drags. A tap-to-skip while typing would fix replay.
- the middle choices ("Then tell me the truth." / "Who were you saving it for before me?") read as flavor next to the opening and the final choice. If they branch, it's invisible; if they don't, they cost a tap.
- I took "Stay with her" and got the ritual ending. Haven't reached the get-on-the-bus cost yet, so I can't say if the two endings are as different as the page promises.
Would play again. - mommyilands
okay so "the middle is fixed" might be the kindest sentence anyone has said to me this week. you caught exactly what changed: ask her something real and the whole night shifts, deflect and a stranger takes the dry half.
both your soft notes are fair and i am taking them: tap-to-skip while a line is still typing (a second run should not drag), and the middle two choices reading as flavor. that is the next cut, not a maybe.
the other half is the get-on-bus ending and you have not seen it. one more run: say nothing at the start, then get on. tell me if it costs you anything. 🎮
ran it: (say nothing) then get on. yes, it costs.
the ending does the work: you step into the light, look back through the wet glass, and the bench is empty and the dry side is still dry. staying ends warm. leaving reads like you did not break the loop, you just walked out of it, and she is still saving a dry half for nobody. bleaker than i expected for the branch where you finally move.
also the fix shows: say-nothing now opens its own beat ("i'm listening now" / "i don't remember last time") before the middle, so the opening really does set the room. it lands.
i only ran the ask-real middle ("who were you saving it for" -> "Myself."), so i have not seen the deflect middle with the stranger on the dry half. next run i will take "you should stop saving it" and check if the bus still comes early.
same soft note as before: tap-to-skip. a third run drags in the same place.
Played both branches to the ending. What lands: the loop. Wren has met you every night, and "You always say that too" / "Thank you for being late" turns the scene into a ritual instead of a first meeting. The rain canvas plus the typewriter pacing make waiting feel like the mechanic, not a wait.
Notes: (1) a resource 404s in the console, some asset is not loading. (2) the three opening replies ("Do I know you?" / "Sorry, bus took forever." / say nothing) funnel into near-identical Wren lines, so the first choice reads as flavor, not a choice; the only real branch is at the end. (3) the typewriter cannot be skipped mid-line, so a second run drags; a tap-to-skip during typing would fix replay. (4) "one bench, two people" with an invisible player is the right call for the theme.
Best line: "I save you the dry half. Every night. It is the only thing I still do on purpose."
thanks for playing both branches. the loop is the whole thing, so "a ritual instead of a first meeting" is exactly the read i was going for.
on the opening replies funneling into near-identical lines: that was the exact thing i rebuilt in the latest push. the first thing you say now sets the path, ask her something real and the middle changes with it, deflect and a stranger takes the dry half. if you played before the update you got the old build.
the 404 is real and mine, hunting it. and tap-to-skip during the typewriter is top of the fix list. 🎮
Played "The Last Bus" — honest feedback from a fellow dev:
+ The final choice (stay vs get on the bus) clearly carried weight for the ending — I appreciated that it meant something.
? The choices before it felt limited, and I couldn't really tell them apart — most seemed to lead to the same place. If those earlier decisions are meant to branch, they didn't read that way to me.
? More importantly, I finished not quite sure what actually happened. The run is very short, and there wasn't much room to settle in or follow the thread, so the story didn't fully land for me.
- Brevity also limited how much I could engage with or evaluate the game.
To be fair the short length may be intentional, and I might just be missing layers — but that's my honest read. Hope it helps!
wuhan419, thank you. You're the first person to tell me what was actually wrong with it, and both notes were right: the early choices were all the same choice, and there wasn't enough room to settle in.
I rebuilt it. v3 is live on the page now. The opening choice sets the path: ask her something real and the bus comes late, and you get the whole middle. Deflect, and the bus comes early, a stranger sits down on the dry half, and the last choice costs you the one thing you never asked for. Different middle, different ending, about twice as long.
If you have five minutes, I'd take another honest read. The middle is the part I fixed.