# Devlog: why Parallel Me lets you type your own reply > At two moments in Parallel Me you can skip the buttons and type what you would really say. Here is how that works: an AI reads the mood of your words, the written script catches anything it misses, and your text is never saved. Published 2026-10-03 by Glowbox ยท https://glowbox.dev/devlog/devlog-typed-replies-parallel-me Most of Parallel Me is played with buttons. You plan your week, draw an event card, pick a reply in the chat app. But twice in a semester the game leaves an input box open under a message and lets you answer in your own words, up to 60 characters. This devlog is about why we did that, and what happens behind the box. [[game:parallel-me]] ## Two moments, chosen on purpose The first comes in week 3. It is 23:47, your phone lights up, and your ex, Chen Yu, has sent two words: are you asleep? The second comes in week 6, a 22:30 video call with your friend Tangguo, who asks straight out whether you are still thinking about him. We picked these because they are the moments where a list of four buttons feels the most wrong. A late-night message from an ex is something people answer in very different ways: a single question mark, an angry line, a careful "what's up", silence. Buttons can only offer a few of those. Typing lets you say the thing you would actually say, and then see how it lands. We kept it to two moments so that it stays special. If every message asked you to type, it would turn into homework. ## Your words become a mood, not a script The AI does not write the story. Each moment has a short list of intents that the story already knows how to handle, for example warm, cold, angry, longing or no reply. When you send a line, the server asks a language model two things: which of those intents your words fit, and what the character would say back in a line or two. The intent decides what happens next. It sets the same route, relationship changes and story flags that the matching button would have set, and those come from the written script, not from the AI. So typing never opens a hidden branch or skips a consequence. It only changes how the conversation feels in the moment, and which route you end up on depends on what you meant. The reply buttons are still there. You can tap one instead, and you get exactly the same routes. ## The written script is always underneath Every route in these moments has a reply written by hand. That reply is the fallback, and the game falls back often, on purpose. On the server, any of these sends the game back to the script: AI switched off, a daily usage limit reached, a slow answer, output that is not valid, an intent that is not on the list, an empty reply, or a reply that fails the safety check. In all of those cases the server simply answers "fallback", and the game carries on. When that happens, the game reads your words with simple local keyword rules, picks the closest intent, and shows the written reply for that route. The phone shows the other person typing for a moment either way, so a fallback does not feel like an error. You may never know which one you got, and that is the point. The story should not depend on a service being up. ## Keeping characters in voice A typed reply is only worth it if Chen Yu still sounds like Chen Yu. A few rules help with that. - The prompts live only on the server. The game sends the moment name, your typed line, your character's name and a short list of facts about your semester so far, things the story has already logged. The model is told who the character is and how each intent should sound for them. - Replies are short. Lines are trimmed to a set length, and only a line or two is kept, like a real chat. - Lines that are only a stage direction in brackets are removed, so the character talks rather than narrates. - A reply that just repeats your own words back is rejected, and so is one that names a real brand. - Some intents carry a line the story needs later, such as an invitation to meet. If the AI forgets it, the written line is added to the end. - Your line is checked by a safety model before anything is used, and the reply is checked again after it is written. If either check fails, the script takes over. There is also a check in the game itself. If what you type suggests you might be in real distress, the game does not treat it as a story choice. It steps out of the story and shows a support message instead. ## Not keeping your words We decided early that we did not want to collect what players type. Your line goes to the server, is used to pick a mood and a reply, and is then dropped. It is not written to our database. What we do record is small: that a typed reply happened, at which moment, which intent it was read as, and whether the AI or the script answered. That tells us whether the feature is working and how often the fallback is needed, without anyone reading what you said to your ex at 23:47. Usage limits are counted per day with a random device ID, and the IP limit uses a hashed key rather than the address itself. ## What we learned The fallback is not a backup plan we hope never to use. It is the base of the feature. Because every route already has a written reply and a fixed outcome, the AI can only make a moment feel more personal; it cannot break the semester. That is what made us comfortable adding it at all. If you play Parallel Me, try typing at 23:47 once, and pressing a button the next time. The ending will depend on what you meant, not on how you said it. _Parallel Me's in-game text is in Chinese._ ## FAQ **Do I have to type anything?** No. Every typed moment also has ordinary reply buttons, and they lead to the same story routes. **Is what I type saved?** No. Your words are used to choose the reply and then dropped. The game only records which kind of reply it was and whether the AI or the script answered. **What happens if the AI is unavailable?** The game reads your words with simple local rules, picks the matching route, and shows the reply written for that route. The story carries on either way. ## Games in this article - [Parallel Me](https://glowbox.dev/game/parallel-me): Live one semester of someone else's college life, ten weeks at a time, through her phone.