Ending theory

[Weston]

So I wanted to discuss my interpretation of the endings.

So, I believe Josh has created a quantum computer and uploaded his brain map to a server so he can visit an infinite number of realities after his death. If he chooses to not go through the door, he will allow a Josh from another universe to continue on with the cure and save their family. After doing so, Josh (Jay) then is allowed to continue searching other universes for more Joshes to help.

If Josh walks through the door, he is choosing to stay in his reality, not share knowledge with the other Joshes, and try to reconnect with Mia. But the reality is that it is already too late and he will succumb to his illness before he can right any wrongs.

I know the overall theme is to spend every moment with the people you love while you can. It happens a lot with families when there is a cancer diagnosis. The rest of the family spends every moment trying to fight the inevitable when the person with cancer just wants to spend their final moments with their family.

I would love to hear from you about the endings and overall themes. I know people like to leave it open for interpretation, but it would be great to know your intentions. There isn't much discussion about the ending (this might be the only topic) so I look forward to any response.

Its an amazing game and I can't wait to see what you two come up with next.

[Mrs. Kiddo]

Hi there,

Firstly, thank you so much for playing The Gap!
We’re really happy to see players taking their time to think about the game and its messages.

As you pointed out, we deliberately left the endings open to interpretation to hopefully spark a debate among the players, so we’re delighted to see you started this discussion ❤️

We’re also contributing a brief summary of our intentions/ideas here (SPOILER ALERT: for anyone who hasn't played the game already but intends to, please come back to this AFTER playing the game):

First, we should start with a short backstory on Jay:
In a parallel universe set in the future, a parallel Joshua (not us/protagonist Joshua) starts working on the Charon project (yes, the name was taken from the Greek mythology :)) and becomes one of the leading scientists, specializing in Huntington’s Chorea. However, since the discovery of the cure for HC takes a lot of time, Amber unfortunately passes away in his reality, before he can come up with the cure.
Feeling defeated and hopeless, Joshua decides to transfer his connectome (his mind) onto a quantum computer in hopes that his “digital version” named Jay (phonetically “J”, standing for Joshua) would continue his work and come up with the patched nanobot firmware without the accompanying emotional distress since Jay is not limited by time or Amber’s illness anymore. After the transfer, the future parallel Joshua ends his life in his home study and is found by Blake (mentioned in the article at the beginning of the final level).

For an unknown number of years Jay then works on the nanobot firmware and finally patches it. But since Jay is essentially still (a copy of) Joshua, which includes all the memories and human emotions, he becomes desperate to return to “real life”/body. In his current reality/form, Jay cannot form new memories or have any new experiences, and can only rewind old memories which ultimately becomes unbearable, forcing him to find a host.

The perfect hosts are parallel Joshua’s with nanobots implanted, enabling Jay to basically transfer himself into another Joshua’s body through the nanobots. In doing so he can then essentially save Amber in that reality and get the family back together.

The host-Joshua would also need to be as similar to Jay (that version of Joshua) as possible, that’s why Jay teases you/protagonist-Joshua with the question: “how similar do you think we are? You and me? 99%? 80%? 60?” – he already knows the answer (revealed in the “stay” ending).

At the beginning of the game Jay also sends you a few messages on the main computer, saying “Hey Joshua. Jay here. Let’s start again.” etc. indicating that this is not Joshua & Jay’s first time interacting with each other. Joshua may have been in Jay’s reality before, but due to his memory loss, cannot remember any of it. Being aware of his memory loss, however, he does write a few reminders/warnings with a red spray (“Don’t enter” and “Don’t trust”). Also, as he is about to add "Jay" to the “Don’t trust” message, he conveniently runs out of spray (storytelling purposes, you know).

And now the endings:
Let’s start with the “stay” ending. You already pointed out the main ideas yourself, which indicates that our intended message has been successfully communicated :)
If you stay, you essentially take on the role of Jay. You stay trapped in the quantum computer, but you get all of Joshua’s memories back. Once your identity and sense of self are restored you can contact the next parallel Joshua to act as your host (choose one in the end list). Within the list you can spot the similarity column, showing how similar the host Joshua’s are to you in %. Once you choose your host, you send them the same messages you received from Jay at the beginning of the game, and the cycle is repeated.

In the “leave” ending, Joshua wakes up a few months after the initial reality. Amber has passed away in the meantime, and you have unseen messages and voice messages on your phone. One of the messages is from Mia, and she seems to be crossed with your actions. There are some environmental changes that show your intent to get your life back together (pictures back on the wall, the gun is unloaded etc.), and after you find the last memory, it is clear you’ve been trying your best to reconnect with your daughter, however, are unable due to the recurrent blackouts.
Once you hear the phone ringing in the living room, you go and pick it up, but before you can respond to the call, you are consumed by the blackout once again. It may look like the same happens as in the memory you’ve just experienced; however, this blackout is slightly different – you manage to answer Mia’s call this time. We left a very subtle indicator for this in the form of not having the voice message beep sound prior to her lines: “Dad? You there?”

So, to conclude: the first message we wanted to convey with the Gap is that the time we have with our loved ones is unfortunately limited, so spending our time with them is precious, and the second message is that even when life seems almost unbearable and hopeless, you should reach out to your family and friends instead of giving up and ending it altogether.

Anyhow, hope this was clear and that the messages resonated with you in a positive way :) Also, although we developed the game, we still consider this to just be our interpretation, so we’d love to hear what anyone else has to say.

Thanks again and wish you have a lovely weekend! ✨

[Weston]

Wow. Thank you so much for your detailed response. Having all of this information will make a second play through that much more enjoyable.

Thank you gain for this great game. And for delivering a message of hope even in the darkest of times.

[GamerPrincess]

Just finished the game and it was just... Wow. It made me think a lot, especially as my dad has dementia and while he's not blacking out so to speak, you can tell he's lost in his own mind. So this game and the story really affected me. Thank you for developing a game that really shows a different perspective and also let's you look from the outside and realize how precious every moment with someone is. And I'm not crying while typing this, it's just raining in my eyes 😅

[Mrs. Kiddo]

Hey,
thank you so much for sharing that with us, we really appreciate hearing about how players responded to the game and how it resonates with them on a personal level, eventhough The Gap deals with some rather heavy topics.
We wish you and your dad all the best, and we hope you'll get to share many more precious moments together! ❤️

[koalia]

thanks so much for sharing your explanation/intention of the story. really appreciated the deeper insights and i really enjoyed the game!