When I first started this project, I noticed that the last thing people want to talk about is how much it took for just a single phrase. That phrase that will shock someone to the very core, or one that will bring even the strongest people to tears once they find the double meaning. And that phrase is: The game title.

The title "Miles to Go" is a broken phrase that came from a poem that I very much love called "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. When I first read this, I was immediately captivated by the meaning of it. In one word, the poem represents responsibility. The fact that when you are born on this great floating green rock in a vacuum called space, you will eventually have to face challenges or work that needs to be done. 

Maybe in your first years, you start with something simple, like doing your homework, playing games with friends, going to sleep, basically anything an 8-year-old is told to do by their parents. But, as time goes by and we grow up, we eventually find ourselves more and more stressed by the sheer amount of on going work and responsibilities, and that we all have a lot of ambitions to fulfill before eventually and peacefully pass away.

At its surface, Miles to Go is about a man on a journey. Through forgotten places. Through a quiet, broken town. Through the surreal haze of memory, grief, and guilt. But what Elliot is really traveling through is himself, and it’s a long, never-ending road.

Each “mile” is another fragment of him. His mind, his body, his soul. Unraveling as he presses and continues forward.

The journey feels endless, and that’s the point.

He wants to rest. But he can’t.

Not until he makes sense of everything.

Not until he keeps those “promises” and fulfills them once and for all.

Not until he faces the thing at the heart of it all.

I think a lot of players will read the title as hopeful at first. Like: “he’s got a long way to go, but he’ll get there.” And I want that. I want them to believe it.

But over time, I hope the title takes on a heavier meaning.

It’s not just about distance.

It’s about delay.

About how Elliot keeps walking, not because there’s a destination...
…but because stopping would mean facing everything he’s lost.

He keeps walking because sleep is, inevitably, the end of all of us.

And so he wanders.
And so we wander with him.

Because deep inside all of us,

We are all afraid of what is beyond what we call "life".

This title means a lot to me.

Not just because it captures Elliot’s journey, but because it quietly asks something of the player too:
What do we carry with us? What do we run from? What are the promises we still haven’t kept?

Thanks for sticking around to read these little reflections. It means the world.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep.

And miles to go before I sleep.

And miles to go before he sleeps.

- maru