Reviews by MathBrush
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An experience like brainstorming, written in Inklewriter, April 21, 2024I used an Internet Archive backup to play this game.
In it, you start with a one-sentence story, and then expand on it. After three or four rounds of expansion, you get a full-fledged story.
There is quite a variety; I found a cheating king who broke his wife's heart, an evil witch who sucked the life force from her husband, and a mysterious assassin who married the king and left her old life behind only to be forced to return to her old habits.
The structure seems to be completely branching, which makes sense as Inklewriter isn't an exceptionally powerful engine. There may be some state tracking, though I'm not sure.
Overall, the stories were each high quality, but this overall feels slight in terms of its interactive structure.
A game out of time--short, with little time but several options, April 21, 2024This is a choice-based game written using a parser. At the time it came out, 2008, choice-based games had a long history already but they had never been popular in the IFComp or r*if usenet communities. The reviews from that time indicate that people found its choice-based nature unappealing.
The game is based on a writing prompt, and that prompt is essential to understanding the game. You begin in a cafe with three people around you called B, C, and D, and an American couple, one with a lisp and one with a stutter.
The speech impediments are part of the prompt; it can be difficult to write impediments in a way that doesn't come of as either condescending or mocking, but I think this pulls it off well.
For a choice-based game, this is actually quite complex. Time progresses no matter what you do, but you can focus on talking to each of the three people with you, or Wait. Each person you're talking to has a variety of options on what you can ask them about. I found that the game could recognize even small parts of the prompt, so if a question started with 'ask whether...', then typing ASK WHETHER was enough to solve it.
I remember trying this in the past and thinking it didn't go much beyond the prompt, so I was surprised this time that there was a major twist in the story. I had to reread to make sure I was understanding right. I'm surprised the other reviews don't mention that.
I genuinely liked this game; I liked the twist, the parser added a little 'crunchiness' to the choice interactivity, and it was well-written. The only thing that seemed 'off' was that choosing to just 'WAIT' ends up with an interaction that doesn't seem to fit the story as written.
A short linear Twine game about wormholes popping up, April 15, 2024This is an example of dynamic fiction, where you have no interactivity (although there is one instance of cycling text) and the entire purpose of the links is to pace the reading.
I’m not really against dynamic fiction. It’s useful in shorter stories to hide the total length of the story and keep you guessing where the end will come. It’s less useful in longer stories, as players get frustrated. Thankfully this is pretty short.
This game is about wormholes opening up and taking away things and people, with the reasons for it slowly revealed. I liked it, and I appreciated the sentiment it was trying to impart.
A game about looking back and looking forward, April 6, 2024I generally like Bez’s work, as my view on creative writing is that it’s a way to share parts of our experiences and feelings with others, and Bez’s work is generally very effective at communicating how they feel.
This is a shorter game, drawing on some of the cozier seeds. It uses a warm color palette and a background sound of (I think) a fire crackling.
It has you sitting and thinking about all the bad things in your life, picking over the negative thoughts with a fine tooth comb. I remember playing it for the first time, feeling like it was going to be a downer game, but then I was pleasantly surprised to see things turned on their heads.
Overall, a good game and one that had a positive impact on me. I do think I slightly prefer Bez’s longer games, but that’s about it.
Short illustrated dreamlike game, April 6, 2024This was a nice game to end the comp on. It’s a relatively brief and poetic Twine game that uses sound (which I believe comes from the seed being used) as well as line drawings to convey a story.
The idea is that you’ve found a journal that talks about someone missing someone else, and the journey it’s taken them on. I can’t tell if it’s metaphorical or literal, but either way it’s interesting.
The game is very short, but it serves its purpose well.
Relationship drama at an older university party, April 6, 2024This choice-based game is inspired by Shakespeare’s Sonnet 128, as well as the Reverse a Poem prompt (and the surprisingly popular Color Palettes prompt, which has been used in at least 3 of the games I’ve seen.)
I enjoy Shakespeare (although his sonnets and other poems are the works of his I’ve studied least), so I was interested to see where this goes.
It’s split into 4 pieces, each reflecting part of the sonnet, and inviting you to compare the storyline with the sonnet itself as you go.
You show up at a Valentine’s party for older singles, some of whom your friendly with and others less so. Interaction comes from choosing who to talk to and how to interact with them.
I tend to immerse myself in characters as I play and to suspend disbelief, imagining me to be the character myself. Obviously characters sometimes do things that I wouldn’t do, like theft and murder. But I had to pull myself out of immersion in this game, as I was presented with a woman, told that she is married but separated, and given a chance to put my hand on her thigh. An extramarital affair is something I’ve seen happen multiple times in real time and they have cause the majority of pain I’ve experience in my life, so I had to eject my immersion and puppet the character like an astral projection the rest of the game. I don’t think that was the author’s intent at all, and they certainly can’t anticipate every person’s reaction to different themes!
Fortunately, I could simply just not click on certain options and the game came to a satisfying conclusion. I found myself intrigued by the drama and drawn into the action.
The best parts of the game to me were the characters who are painted in vivid detail. I felt like I already knew Jack and Henry and Aline, like I had met them before and could picture them in my eye (I saw Henry as a younger Robert Redford).
A few times I felt like the pacing could have slowed down a bit to explore some of the more interesting moments, like a certain violent moment with a bottle. This is an author who I think would do equally well with long form fiction as with short form fiction.
The styling was well done and the overall presentation looked great.
The horrors of mankind, now in two flavors, April 6, 2024This game is about someone experiencing the worst the world has to offer: isolation, hunger, infection, homophobia, perpetuating cycles of abuse, and, worst of all: cryptocurrency.
It’s a short game, well-designed with animated background transitions and varying fonts and colors.
You play as a recluse without stable unemployment who has recently fled a discord server where they were picked on and called various slurs. They find hope in a new discord for a cryptocurrency.
While all of this is happening, their house becomes increasingly moldy.
I didn’t put it together until now, because while playing I thought these two storylines were disjoint, but the spread of mold and the cycle of crypto’s crash and boom have a lot in common and those parallels must be what the other was on about.
There are several kinds of creepy moments here, from strange questions to plenty of physical horror. The slurs made me most uncomfortable; it was clear, though, that their use was not positive and was reflective of the ill mental state of the character.
Overall, a thoughtful game. Reminded me a lot of when crypto first got really big; I looked up how it worked and couldn’t figure out how it would be sustainable due to the need to keep long lists of past transactions in each interaction, so I tried to code up my own and got it to work, and my dean decided to use it as fake currency for his econ class (we made proof of work really easy so that it wouldn’t destroy the environment). I thought it would make it clear to the students how silly crypto was, but they got really into it. But the mining was annoying so they eventually abandoned the crypto part and made it fiat by putting it on the dean’s spreadsheet, which pretty much sums up the usefulness of crypto in real life (it’s not).
Anyway, a good horror game but definitely check the trigger warnings.
An unfinished but ambitious visual novel, March 7, 2024This visual novel in French has you play as a character named Erika Wolfenstein. From what I gather (my French is imperfect), you have been sent by a spacefaring organization to visit a planet abandoned by the gods to retrieve a divine artifact. Along the way, you encounter vampires, etc.
I had about 2 or 3 choices in this excerpt from the unfinished game, and a lot of story. There were a few different backgrounds, and one main character sprite.
Overall, the unfinishedness made it difficult to know how to feel. A lot of plot options are set up but never finished (some even say "I will tell you later" but can't because the story ends). It's possible it could be finished into a great game, but what we have now is only the possibility without the proof. I would have liked more choices early on, even if they didn't matter, but I know that visual novel conventions differ from those of Twine or Choicescript. Alternatively, if it became a kinetic novel, it might be nice to explore some of the plot points more deeply instead of hopping from thing to thing quickly. In any case, the character seems interesting and the worldbuilding could turn out good.
A brief murder mystery with computer-generated voice acting, January 27, 2024I played this game as part of the short games showcase.
This game is a murder mystery, but a condensed one. It has 4 locations, each with their own person of interest (although one is mobile).
Each one lets you ask a long list of questions. You can then gather from them what information you need. Upon leaving the manor, you can guess who the murderer is.
There isn't too much replay value, as the true murderer is pointed out to you upon the first guess. There is voice acting in a way I haven't seen much in IF; I think it uses various text-to-speech voices, including a stentorian butler voice.
Overall, the system feels smooth. I do think that a more drawn out game, with some choices you must carefully consider (like things you can say that cut off other options) might increase the overall value if a longer mystery were to be made.
A short sci fi game, January 27, 2024This game reminded me of the first Star Trek movie in many ways.
It's a Strand game, a system that's been in development for some time. This game uses 3d-art custom made by the author, much of it quite good, especially the character art.
The game itself is short, with a nice core concept but somewhat rushed-feeling prose, kind of like a tech demo. I almost felt like this was a way to show off the Strand engine more than a stand alone story, as there's not a lot of time to get to know the characters before the big ending.
Overall, there are a lot of strong parts here, but it could have benefitted from more people, more places, more things, and more time for the plot to develop.
A short, branching visual novel adaptation of Jabberwocky, January 27, 2024This game seems, from its itch page, to have been made as part of a doctoral program.
It's a bipsi/binksi visual novel and includes the original poem with some of the original drawings that Lewis Carroll included in his book. It also includes a branching portion where you explore the world described in the poem, with multiple endings.
I got two bad endings; I think I know how to get the good ending, but I was hitting the arrows fast to get through the text quickly and ended up treading dark paths.
Overall, its competently done and reworks a poem I loved as a youth (I liked it when I was older too when I saw how translators translated it). I think I might have liked more long-term effects of choices to allow strategizing, but overall this is pretty good.
Cute micro idea, January 26, 2024This game was entered in the short game jam.
At first I thought it was that weird Ink game that turns on your camera and notices when you blink. But it's not that at all.
It's just (Spoiler - click to show)a game that ends instantly.
A cute idea, but not much there.
Graphical game about closing doors and chucking them out, January 26, 2024I'll grade this on my (usually internal) 5 point scale:
-Polish: The game is very dark on my screen and hard to see.
-Descriptiveness: The poem in game is very short and minimal, but also not very clear
-Interactivity: It was hard to know what to do and, do to lots of looping, to know if there was more game or just the same.
-Emotional impact: I didn't really feel anything.
-Would I play again? Probably not.
Old story, new pictures, January 26, 2024This is a fun short story by Ambrose Bierce which has been converted to Twine (without choices) and had multimedia added. The original story is about an abandoned, 'haunted' house and the new multimedia is about an abandoned, overgrown house that bears a remarkable resemblance to the one in the story.
So it's mostly choiceless, and all the text comes from previously existing material.
But it's good material, and the matchup between the two looks good. So there's not a lot of 'interactive', but a lot of good 'fiction'.
A dungeon of sorts explored through...powerpoint?, January 25, 2024This game is made in a powerpoint format, which is pretty neat. It has two formats, one in portuguese and one in english. I played the english version.
The text is minimalistic, with 3-10 words per page, and usually 1-3 choices. It was hard for me to piece the story together; it seems like you are a knight that awakes in a dungeon, in captivity. With some effort, you begin to explore.
I found someone (or something) to accompany me, found an area of horror, and made a choice...but I'm not sure of what.
There were several noticeable typos, which I think a pass through some online spellchaecker could help (I also get lots of typos in my own games). I did find the game confusing, including the title screen...what does 'soom' mean?
A short branching game about trying to get into a sci fi movie, January 25, 2024This is a short humorous twine game about trying to crash a screening for a new movie.
It uses 'copyright safe' versions of famous movies (for instance, your character is holding a 'light saver').
There are a lot of branches, and while there is some continuity between choices, each one is pretty random.
Overall, the game is pretty brief. Most of what's here is funny, but overall this felt more like a light snack than a substantial work.
Collect ingredients and bake magical foods, January 25, 2024This game is interesting; I went back and forth a lot on what to score it.
It's a cozy type of game, and more of an unfinished prototype (at least, several plot threads are left hanging). It's visually lovely though, with a rich background texture, pleasant fonts and colors, and icons of food.
The gameplay is simple, even (to my feeling) overly simplistic; while there is a little bit of planning required, just clicking every link one at a time generally solves things.
But it looks good, and feels good, so I'm still giving 4 stars. Feels kind of like an ascended tech demo that turned out better than expected, or a planned large game that had to be cut short.
Short joke game, recounting a famous story, January 25, 2024This game is a little bite-sized Inform game. Such games can often be underimplemented or full of bugs, or hard to follow, but I found this one was pretty reasonable and made effective use of its small size.
You play as a gentleman waiting for a train, with no one around but one other passenger. Things progress from there.
There was a review I read once for the game 'Fine Tuned' that praised it for how the humor was participatory, not just descriptive (I can't find it now, unfortunately). That's what makes this game work for me; everything that's funny about it is something that you personally take part of.
The author encourages not knowing the plot ahead of time, so I've omitted that.
Pain, both of body and mind, mixed with magic, January 25, 2024This game has you play as a kind of spellcaster desperate to reconnect with lost memories and lost people. I think. It's kind of hard to know what's going on; it reminded me at first a bit of Dreamhold, where you're an amnesiac in a magic place. But here, the character seems to know what's going on, even if we don't.
The game includes gore, the type that would be horrifying in real life but in text has looped around to be something cold, distant, and removed from emotion.
It's a short game. The main choices I saw were that you can pick from several different potions to toss in a bowl, each of which provokes a different memory. The ending itself did not seem to vary for me, other than one very brief early alternate ending.
A restricted life in twine game form, January 24, 2024I played this game as part of the short games jam.
It's designed to show what life is like when you're part of conservative Christianity. You are given many options, but your options aren't always things you can actually do.
This reminds me a lot of families I knew growing up. I remember one family that banned The Little Mermaid because her outfit was inappropriate. Another family I know banned soda pop and trick-or-treating.
That level of restriction was generally ineffective; the people I knew that were most straight-laced as kids grew up to be the most wild when older.
So the game is very relatable in that sense. It's also pretty brief, which can often be effective in this type of message, but for me, I just didn't feel a big impact. It's completely subjective, someone else might feel very differently.
Unfinished choicescript crossover game, January 23, 2024This game has some good potential in it, but is unfinished. It's the beginnings of a choicescript game mingling characters from Megaman X and Creme de la Creme, the choicescript game.
I hadn't played Megaman X but played the earlier megaman games, so that part wasn't too hard to follow. But it's been years since I played Creme de la Creme so I don't recognize the names off-hand; seeing what their characters look like or act like would have worked better for me.
I liked all the things built up around the game. If finished, I would probably give it around 4 ratings, but not all projects need to be finished. Great work needs a small series of 'aha' moments, which you can kind of force if you need to but are better left around. If nothing 'clicks' for the author with this concept, it would make sense to leave it alone. But it's definitely neat!
Strong writing, minimal interactivity, mlm romance, January 23, 2024This is a short game entered into the Bare Bones jam.
It has no real interactivity and a stripped down interface, but that's kind of not true as it uses text alignment which gives both some variety in link clicking and is visually appealing.
But overall there's really nothing here except the writing. As a lifetime woman stan there's really nothing in mlm stories for me, but the characters were well-written. There is a big focus on concrete details like clothing, appearance, etc. The dialog feels natural, with a back and forth more like what you'd expect in real life or in a back-and-forth part of a play.
If I could turn back time...I'd take back all the things that hurt you, January 23, 2024This is a kind of medium-length Twine game with some nice styling.
It starts out with a 'my parents don't understand me' kind of vibe and has the kid running out to have an argument with their current partner, which gave me lots of flashbacks to my most recent creative writing class I taught in high school, as that's the kind of story the better writers would write (the bad ones involved Ninja from fortnite and lots of helicopters). Still, I didn't have high hopes.
But then it pivoted into a thoughtful and interesting story involving (Spoiler - click to show)time travel that made for an excellent game. You have the chance to try a lot of different ways to stay with your partner. Your character has real flaws and strengths and felt like one of the most real people in a game I've read recently.
I thought the ending didn't make sense in-universe, but makes perfect sense as a metaphor, so I'm leaning more towards the second point of view in my personal interpretation.
There's some fairly frequent strong profanity.
Bitsy game with graphics and a mishmash of sensory experiences, January 23, 2024I don't say this often, but I really just didn't like this game. It shows talent in making, and is almost certainly the game that the author had envisioned when they set out to make it, but that design is not something I enjoy.
It is primarily visual and graphical in nature, with text added as flavoring. The beginning is set up in a way that the controls are unresponsive, playing a harsh dissonant sound with blinking lights while nothing you do does anything, followed by a blank screen for such a long time I thought the game had crashed. Then there are some graphical mazes with some light text.
The writing is scattered and surreal, which can be an amazing effect, but I couldn't find any thread to connect it all. It reminded me of nothing more than hearing Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica for the first (and only) time.
In no way does this take away from the author's skill; they seem perfectly competent. But their intentions and my reception were at cross purposes in this instance.
A nice, brief love story about summers and what goes unspoken, January 22, 2024This game was entered in Shufflecomp.
It has beautiful styling, with an easily readable font and nice color choices.
The game plays naturally, and tells you upfront what stats are being tracked, which made it easy to plan out overall paths through the game while still maintaining agency. I liked that.
The story writing is very strong, talking about a young person and the strange boy they fall in love with at a young age. Only during summers can they meet, and as the player ages, they soon must part.
The two paths contrast each other well, and overall the story is scoped just right, with a nice narrative plot arc that rises, has a climax, then falls to a denouement. I had chills for one ending. Very well done.
A brief but fun musically-inspired magic game, January 22, 2024This game was entered in ShuffleComp and inspired by Charlemagne by the Blossoms.
It's a fun game with both strong character building and strong world building. There is a magic system sketched out, even coming with a separate 'spellbook', and multiple modes to play in.
The game itself is small, easily consumable and not enough to show off a greater system or world, but it works as a whole, paced especially well through the use of chunks of the song lyrics. This allows you to get a feel for how far you are in the game, something that is missing from so many IF games.
The worldbuilding is a mix of spacecraft and sorcery, with heartbroken people running a heist together to stop some tears of gold. Pretty fun!
A meditative and peaceful story about father and child, January 22, 2024This game had a few surprises for me, and I liked it. It was entered in Shufflecomp.
You play as a child come to visit your father. There are a few customization options for yourself, which I thought were nice.
What makes the game work for me is the reflective and meaningful (to me) choices you can make. They aren't really black or white, but instead give you a chance to roleplay yourself and your own relationships.
Nice writing, very thoughtful, not too long, and with nice visuals that I was trying to figure out how to emulate for my own future games.
An atmospheric game about inescapable destiny, January 22, 2024This game is surreal. It was written for ShuffleComp.
In it, you find yourself compelled, no matter what you do, to approach (Spoiler - click to show)the unholy city.
The best part of the game is the feeling of dread and the awful feeling of (Spoiler - click to show)waking up from a bad dream to another bad dream.
Overall, I don't know if the ending had enough of a buildup to support it, but I liked this overall.
Elliptical writing about an encounter between a sorceress and others, January 21, 2024This is a Texture game entered into Shufflecomp.
In it, you see a variety of characters in a fantasy setting, talking about witches, wards, dragons, and rangers.
I had a great deal of difficulty understanding what was going on. That's not necessarily bad; a lot of games use metaphor or surreal settings to convey a specific emotion.
But I was at a loss for most of this story. I'll show an example from the first page. I'll put it in spoilers because it's long and my analysis may not be interesting to most people:
(Spoiler - click to show)"The sorceress picked a stone from the fire and put it in the pitcher. She poured the hot water over Strider's cup of leaves, who wrinkled their nose in rote protest.
Over the course of tea, a design uncoiled across her red skin, all imbrication and tedium. The flick of a wrist described this creature's forked tongue.
Strider watched Rahel work until the cone went dry. Was she afraid her right hand would spoil the work of her left?"
The first paragraph mostly makes sense; picking up a stone from a fire would burn someone, but presumably this is her magical power, which is cool, and it seems she has a friend with a goofy relationship.
But in the second paragraph, what does 'over the course of tea' mean? Does it mean the meal 'tea' that British people have? Over the course of brewing the tea? Over the course of Strider drinking?
This is a magical setting. Is the design literally uncoiling over her skin? Is her skin red from picking up the stone, or bright red as a fantasy setting, or is it a callback to older racist notions about native Americans?
'Imbrication' is a scale like pattern. So the design is scalelike and tedious. So is she bored making this? It's a weird contrast with the luxurious metaphor of a dragon uncoiling itself. 'The flick of a wrist'--does this mean she's drawing this? Someone else? What is the cone that goes dry? And 'worried the right hand would spoil the work of her left'--what does that mean? If she's using one hand to draw on the other, then it sounds like she's drawing on the right with her left. So how would her right hand spoil anything if that's what she's drawing on?
The whole story was like this to me. I never knew what was going on, wasn't certain how many people were present or what their roles are or if they're aware of each other.
I think there's interesting worldbuilding here, I just hit a brick wall with my personal interaction. It might just be my own personal reaction, it'd be interesting to see how other people felt after reading.
Reminiscence of lost friends, January 21, 2024This is a brief Twine game with a single branch, giving a tale of grief and loss.
Each of the two branches gives a slightly different story, although the beginning and end are the same.
The story is about a pair of couples, Emmett/Harry and Juno/Bell, who were friends in high school. Juno and Emmett meet up years later to discuss what they have lost.
The writing is emotional and descriptive. There's not much going on in the way of significant choice; the two different branches are meaningful, though.
A short take on Goncharov, the fake Tumblr movie, January 16, 2024This was written for the single choice jam.
In 2023 (or maybe starting 2022?) Tumblr started pretending that there was a movie called 'Goncharov' based on a misprint on some merchandise for another movie. Together they collaboratively invented the main characters and plotline.
This game spends a few paragraphs summarizing that plot, and then gives you a single choice. That choice only gives a couple paragraphs more of text, but leads to very different endings.
Getting more detail on Goncharov was definitely interesting, but it felt like this was just setting up a lot of background info for a story that itself was quite insubstantial. What was here was good, just not a lot of it.
Rob a witch--but keep only one thing, January 16, 2024This game was entered in the Single Choice Jam.
In it, you play as a robber who has picked the absolutely wrong house to rob--or maybe the absolutely right house.
You've found a witch's home, and there's a lot to grab. But you only have time to pick one item.
What this turns out to be in the end is a series of witty short stories, essentially, with each option giving a page or two of some dramatic development.
Fun overall, but fairly brief.
Nice characterization in a cosmic story, January 16, 2024This entry in the Single Choice jam works as either a short story or a part of a broader setting.
In it, you play as a human witnessing the end of the universe as an inevitable, encroaching force approaches and begins to slowly devastate earth.
There's some nice storyline and characterization here. Given the brevity of the game I think the surprising revelations didn't have time to build up quite enough, to provoke investment in the characters. To me, while the story was good, I felt more like 'I would read this book!' rather than 'this feels like the whole story'.
A poetic image of echoing worlds featuring you, January 15, 2024This game has disjointed and poetic imagery of you as a person that exists across multiple worlds and dimensions.
It was written for the Single Choice Jam, so it only has one choice at the end, deliberately in(?)consequential.
The imagery evokes kaleidoscopic existence and hints at a deeper backstory for the 'main' protagonist (if there can be said to be one).
A card game takes a dangerous turn, January 15, 2024This game was part of the Single Choice Jam. It features a low stakes card game that suddenly becomes much more dangerous when a stranger walks in.
This is a classic story, and I've seen at least two other takes on the general concept this year. What I like about this one is its nice character development, showcasing well-thought-out people with interesting traits.
It's short and kind of cuts out, a straightforward but well-done implementation of the 'single choice' prompt. Would read more by this author.
Mobile-optimized game about establishing contact, January 14, 2024My feelings went up and down as I played this Single Choice Jam game.
It looks really nice, with good pictures, transition, etc. I felt like it was setting up a pretty cool scenario.
Then it turns into kind of a tech demo sort of thing; the game has you click at exactly the right time. There's also timed text; I found myself doing other stuff in real life while waiting for the game to finish, until I found I could click through...most of the time. Other times there's more requirements.
To me, the story never really broached established tropes, or really defined what was going on. I don't think it was AI generated, but it had a similar vibe, a cobbling together of pre-existing ideas without specialization into something unique. As a tech demo for the engine it's advertising, though, I think it's successful; it looks easily as powerful as Twine, and works well on mobile. I wonder if it works good for screenreaders, as I've heard complaints about Twine related to that.
A silly single choice game about making toast, January 14, 2024This game was entered in the single choice jam.
There is only one choice, of course: make toast, or not?
Each gives you a pretty silly story, each connected to the other. Each is very short. It was pretty funny, but there was at least one typo (windowcill vs windowsill).
A dinner party invites self reflection and a choice to be made, January 14, 2024This game was entered into the Single Choice Jam.
The concept is that you are invited to a dinner party where you have the choice to win an inimitable item, one that can change your destiny forever.
Your only choice is whether to participate or not. Doing so requires some self reflection.
There are strong scraps of worldbuilding and an interesting thought experiment, although I felt like those two facets didn't mesh very well. The interesting parts of the worldbuilding were the individual human stories and their mundanity, while the 'twist' of the game invites more personal introspection. I'd be interested in seeing some more of the setting/people in another game.
A surreal dream landscape, January 14, 2024This game is written for the Single Choice Jam.
It depicts a single passage from which many other links branch out, each giving a disjointed dreamlike narrative.
I think the game succeeds admirably in its design, being dreamlike and disconnected. However, that very disconnectedness works against its lasting impact, for me. I almost wish that either things had been more connected (hidden narrative) or much more disconnected.
A game that teaches about a certain kind of trauma, January 14, 2024This game was entered into the Single Choice Jam, and uses the format well, I feel.
It's a beautifully styled short Twine game with one choice at the beginning followed by 'dynamic fiction' (just click to get to the next part).
It talks about a certain kind of trauma, specifically (Spoiler - click to show)secondary traumatic stress. It hit home, for me.
The concept is a big part of different cultures, including mine. In my religion, we believe (Spoiler - click to show)Jesus basically experienced everything in the game, but willingly, as a big sacrifice that was extraordinarily painful(Spoiler - click to show). When it's not so willing or the person doing it not so capable, it can be very painful. Very interesting read.
Knight's tour with 3 variations, January 13, 2024This game was made for the Single Choice Jam.
In it, you play as a knight on a chessboard (with a framing story), and have to do a knight's tour. The path is completely predetermined; all possible movements are highlighted but only one is clickable. However, you can choose initially between three such paths.
The paths basically teach you how Knight's tours work. I enjoyed the 'stick to the edges' one best.
Realistic simulator of overbearing adult talking to kid, January 13, 2024This is a Twine game in the Single Choice Jam.
It's based around a single gimmick, where an adult is lecturing you but (full spoilers) (Spoiler - click to show)he gets mad if you click too fast, because you're just rushing, and mad if you click to slow, because you're not paying attention.
To me it feels like a real conversation with an abusive or at least just grumpy/self-involved person, always looking for something to nitpick and always trying to leave you with the feeling that you did something wrong.
The main mechanic did leave me scrambling, and I had to do several retries, so I'm still on the fence on how I feel about it.
An exaggerated version of the classic trolley problem, January 13, 2024This game is an entrant in the Single Choice Jam, and makes that Single Choice one of the most famous ethical dilemmas: the trolley problem.
Taking this basic premise, it pushes both choices to their logical (or rather illogical) conclusions, imagining all sorts of after effects.
The writing is amusing, but it goes by quick; it only lasts a few seconds while sounds play before moving on, with no option to pause or adjust speed, which I found detrimental.
Short and pretty funny.
A gourmand's tale with some twists, January 13, 2024This is an interesting game in the Single Choice jam.
You play as a desperately hungry person at an exclusive restaurant where you just can't wait for each course, but, unfortunately, the courses are tiny and they do not sate your anger.
The text here is rich and, unlike the meals, benefits from slow reading/savoring.
I did feel like the game was initially setting up something slightly longer (I looked forward to a description of the main courses), but it still made sense as is. I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars, but I see from the description that 2/3 of the original game was lost and this is a smaller part, so I'll gives 3 stars for the game that is (here on IFDB) and 4 for the game that might have been (in my heart).
A simple but stylish fortune telling game, January 12, 2024This is a French game entered in the Single Choice jam. It has some nice presentation and look overall, with multiple play modes and a long explanation.
However, there's not much there. You pick a description from a selection of rhyming couplets, and then a dice roll gives you a 'fortune'.
It's short, replayable, etc., and plays a role more similar to, say, a Tarot deck then a traditional narrative.
Repeat to win, in a one room game, January 10, 2024This is short one-room, one action puzzle game entered in the Single Choice Jam.
I interpreted it as a short coding exercise designed to be an brief but enjoyable game without further pretense.
At that, it's completely successful. It is nice and repeatable, each action uncovering more about the world but forcing you to think laterally to solve them.
I only had to use one hint, and that was for an item that's not in the room description but could be implied. Otherwise, this was short and satisfying. I didn't feel any strong emotional connection to the game, but I don't think that was a goal.
A glimpse into humanity as seen through the eyes of soda, January 8, 2024This was part of the Single Choice Jam.
It's a well-written surreal-ish game from the perspective of...
soda pop.
Apparently, it can talk! And it can read the mind of people that are drinking it...and it know all about you and your past.
This absurd setup is used to tell a touching and sad story about family and, possibly, something larger in the world.
There is only one choice, but this game rests almost entirely on the strength of its writing, which is strong in this case.
Short PunyInform game based on 80's miniseries., December 29, 2023This is a relatively brief PunyInform game inspired by the start of the TV series Otherworld, and 8-episode miniseries that takes a family to another world.
Only the intro and a few puzzles are implemented. Most of it is implemented fairly well; I saw few typos. The game is a bit sparse; I imagine that having watched the series allows you to mentally fill in a lot of the missing details.
I had some implementation issues, as shown in the two following segments:
(Spoiler - click to show)
> x tools
Mostly made of wood, are now useless.
> search tools
No need to concern yourself with that.
> take tools
No need to concern yourself with that.
> take all
There are no things available that match “take all”.
> x corner
It’s very messy. It might be worth searching through the mess.
> search mess
Sorry, I don’t understand what “mess” means.
> search corner
You search through the mess in the corner and find a crowbar.
(Spoiler - click to show)
> pry sarcophagus
Using the crowbar you manage to push the lid aside so you can search
the inside.
> search sarcophagus
The big sarcophagus contains a box.
> open box
You can’t open that.
> take box
Taken.
> look at box
It consists of a wooden box. It feels like there’s something inside.
>
Besides this sort of thing, this was well-scoped and not too hard to handle. It would kind of be fun to see a one-room game from this author; they have the sort of writing and puzzle style that I think would work well with a single room with a lot of little puzzles.
Cinderella gone wrong, December 12, 2023This Twine game is a retrospective from an alternate ending of the original Cinderella story.
In this version, the stepsister won out. By cutting off her heel to fit in the shoe, she married the prince.
But...
She knows she isn't the one he fell in love with.
This is part of the Single Choice Jam and, as such, has one big choice in the middle, which is a nice complex option letting you choose an adjective and a noun. Each one gives a different branch.
The game is not too lengthy, but has several poignant points. At times, it felt a bit repetitive, before the choice, while after the choice each branch seemed unique.
There are text effects adding to the overall appeal of the game, although one passage was all shaking, which was a little distracting.
I enjoyed playing this overall.
Fallen London fan game with a single choice, December 5, 2023This game was written for the Single Choice jam. As such, it is designed more as a short story, adding interactivity only to punctuate important feelings.
As such, this game relies heavily on the writing quality and the styling of the game. And I felt that this game pulled off both of these very well; having played Fallen London (and finished the Nemesis ambition, although with a different choice than the author), it was clear that this was an author's depiction of her own character and the features/items they possess, but the descriptions were skillfully woven into the story rather than being dumped all at once.
The styling is nice as well, with gentle colors and subtle animations that I thought were just my eyes tricking me at first.
The overall story is a monologue of sorts from an interesting perspective. There are several stories, for decades, of (Spoiler - click to show)'they came back from the dead, but wrong', but this one gives the viewpoint from the other side. Maybe the reason someone else feels (Spoiler - click to show)you came back wrong is because they changed, not you. A lot of food for thought.
It's hard to know how much playing Fallen London affects the feel of playing the game; the ambitions are hard, and it's likely that < 2000 people have completed it. But I think this story has some elements that everyone can appreciate.
A constrained parser game with a family dinner, December 5, 2023This is a parser game entered in the single choice jam, which requires that games only allow a single choice throughout the game.
This takes a clever spin on things by making you only capable of one real action at a time. There are many small things you can do: looking around, taking inventory, etc. But only one action really works.
It took me a bit to find what it was, which was frustrating at first.
Once I did, the game took on new dimensions, basically showing everything that could go wrong with a family party when your values and self-concept don't align with theirs.
Short and constrained, but impactful.
Orpheus and Eurydice, with a single choice, December 4, 2023This was made for the Single Choice Jam, and it takes that format in a straightforward way. The game has a linear text that spools out until the single choice, upon which the ending spools out.
The styling is done well, with a moody background color and font (as well as well-chosen graphical icons) that add a lot to the flavor of the game.
The story is about Orpheus and Eurydice, told in an engaging and dark style.
Most takes I've seen on this classic story are subversions, so I was expecting the twist in the first ending I saw. But I didn't expect the second, and overall felt this was pretty creative.
The interactivity was the weakest point, but that is severely limited by the jam.
The hatching of a creature, November 27, 2023This is a brief Ink game entered in the Single Choice jam.
You play as a creature newly formed, emerged from a chrysalis. Being exposed to the brave new world, the creature must adapt quickly, especially since a human approaches.
The game is very short, but the writing is solid, from an alien perspective. Despite the single choice, there is real agency, as all of the endings give logical but not straightforward.
Brief but enjoyable.
Story through documentation, November 25, 2023This game unrolls as you read through the documentation of a certain piece of software, digging into its API, its pipelines, its documented users, and, at the end, its chat logs.
The dry format allows for contrast with the futuristic setting and the drama-filled true story.
It's surprising this game was able to be made in less than 4 hours, but less surprising if the author already had experience in creating such documentation. Either way, it's an amazing feat.
Very well done. The format did keep me at a distance emotionally, but the story was effective.
Creepy telephone message game, November 24, 2023In this game, you call your son to apologize for not picking him up.
The reason you didn't pick him up? That's...complicated. The actual answer depends on your choices. You have a few 'main' choices and then a chance to add details.
The system is interesting, with realist options on what to do with the voicemail once you run out of time.
I played about 3 or 4 times and liked each of them. An expanded version of this would be fascinating, but a lot of the appeal here is from the wild branching, and that would quickly get out of hand.
Build a movie, but do it your way, November 24, 2023I like this game, the kind of inherent symmetry it has.
It starts with introducing you to a young trio who have recently escaped from a cult and want to do what anyone would do in that situation: start making a movie!
You have several options on what to spend the money on, like a better monster or better set.
While one early option will lock you out of victory, others will lead you onward to greater glory. I had one ending I loved and another that was pretty good.
There's not a lot of game here, but it has plenty of character.
A clever twist on haunted house games, November 24, 2023This parser game for Ectocomp was written in 4 hours or less.
This game really surprised me. I started it up, liked the writing, and decided to start poking around. I found a lot more things implemented in the first room than is normal for a speed-IF, which intrigued me, but I had trouble doing things.
Once I realized the twist, though, I found it to be clever, reminding me of some enjoyable games from the past. Just when I thought I couldn't do any more, I reached the ending, which was a satisfying conclusion.
So I'm not saying more because of spoilers, but I thought this was a good game and a good choice for the scoping and size issues that usually come with having a time limit for writing, like Ectocomp' Petite Mort division does.
A linear, illustrated bitsi story contemplating the nature of writing, November 24, 2023This game is a Bitsi game, a platform which has art with minimal palettes and simple responses to movement keys, as well as text. This specific bitsi game provides a new image for most (but not all) lines of text.
There aren't any choices as such. It's just a narrative essay about writing; what is the gap between characters and their author? How does fan fiction come into play?
The writing is good, the art was inscrutable at times but also well done. There wasn't anything wrong with the story/game, but also it lacked many of the elements I most enjoy about interactive fiction without providing a substantially exceptional experience to make up for it.
Overall, short and well done.
A powerfully-written body creation simulator, November 24, 2023I like short, ritualistic Twine games like this. You progress, in any order, through five different sets of body parts, choosing how you will present yourself to the world.
The choices are both physically meaningful and symbolic. Tree arms, for instance, are bad for physical defense, but all growth through painful pruning.
The styling is nice, with a background that is both visually interesting but non-distracting, and good color choices.
Overall, I found the writing strong. I didn't feel a strong need to revisit it, but my personal experience was positive and I would happily recommend the game to others.
A sweet short story about a tasty afterlife, November 24, 2023This short Twine game was entered in Ectocomp in the Petite Mort division.
It features a father running a food stall who sees his daughter after a long separation. There are supernatural elements, as well as LGBTQ elements.
The food stall descriptions are delightful, with sounds, smells, and sights described with a complex preparation for a meal. The supernatural elements are varied and interesting as well.
There seems to be an Ah Lim Chicken Rice in Singapore, but other aspects could place it in Malaysia, perhaps. There are names that sound Cantonese and names that seem to have Muslim origins.
Overall, a nice blend of culture and human emotion.
Deeply moving game with deeply flawed implementation, November 24, 2023This game is based on the emotional true story of the author's mother having deep dementia, causing her to lash out at those around her.
I can't even imagine what that would be like. When I was young, I lived with my great-grandmother in her 90s who had dementia, but she was rarely violent, just forgetful, sometimes thinking she was a little girl, and only occasionally lashing out. I remember it being scary as a kid, but she seemed nice. Now, as an adult, thinking of that for my parents, and much more violent, is terrifying.
As a game, the mechanics are simple. You explore the world around you, which is hostile, and you try to get rid of that which is causing you pain.
I immediately came in planning on giving a score of 5 just from the opening scenes, and despite the typos and the difficulty with implementation, I thought of keeping it there. But I had more and more problems interacting with the game; many commands repeat text that doesn't make sense; many commands return nothing at all, especially when the darkness covers the door. I tried to find a guide, but everyone's comments only talked about the story, so I had to decompile it to find what to do.
In a way, the difficulties with typing commands can simulate the frustration and unfamiliarity of dementia, but I don't think it was intentional.
Storywise, of course the game deserves a really high rating, but this author is of such a high caliber I think that she would prefer a rating that reflects the whole experience (but feel free to message me if I'm wrong, author!). I think this game could be helpful to others in the future who have similar experiences, and smoothing out a couple of the bugs could enhance their experience.
A brief scary poem game with multiple endings, November 24, 2023I enjoyed this poem-based choicescript game that was entered in Ectocomp, and was made in 4 hours or less.
The poem is written in verses of 4 lines each, with the 2nd and 4th lines rhyming.
The topic is a haunted wood with a deep and evil pond. You can get various achievements by delving into the pond's mysteries or exploring the woods.
I found deciphering the meaning of the poetry added an extra layer of interaction with the game, which I liked. A lot of poem IF games are very obtuse, but here the meanings were clear enough to understand.
The meter of the poem kept throwing me off; at times it seemed like it had a pattern, so my brain would set it up, but then it'd go off pattern. The number of syllables and the emphasis of syllables varies a lot. Here's an example:
Deep must the pool be,
For its exterior to be black as pitch
Strange the wind does not disturb,
The mirror smooth surface that seems to bewitch.
And another:
What lies 'neath the water,
Where the wind fitfully blows,
Undisturbed and dark with an algae scudded facade,
Surface unreflective in the sun's dawn glow.
There aren't any rules in poetry, of course, and I liked this quite a bit. But I wonder if it might have been good to either lean in harder to a rhyme scheme or meter or to just toss out the rules and go full free verse. But, given that I liked the game, I'm not sure either of those are necessary. Pretty fun!
A heartwrenching story of saving a child, November 24, 2023This is an Ink game entered into Ectocomp, written in 4 hours or less.
It's story-focused, with a well-written tale about a father who has to get up in the middle of the night to help his son get to sleep.
The emphasis in this story is on details and emotions. Little reactions from people, the way that your mind picks out different things, the emotions that don't quite match up with what you'd expect.
There are multiple endings, which is interesting, but I didn't replay because I found mine satisfactory.
A sad game, but a good game.
A short, linear game about cannibalism and Vietnamese food, November 23, 2023This game was entered in Ectocomp.
It's essentially a long villain diatribe, first discussing how Christianity justifies cannibalism, then going off on a very long message with slow timed text that explains how they use traditional Vietnamese recipes to cook what is implied to be human meat.
The game has some great music in the background, and a cool (albeit somewhat busy) visual background.
It's hard to identify with straight-up villain stuff like this. When something is one-note, it's hard to feel invested. There is some variation in emotion; it swings between sadness, gruesomeness, and mundanity, but I think having a spark of light or hope, or some indication of true happiness, could have increased the contrast with the horror.
I didn't get frustrated by the timed text because I downloaded the file and edited it out.
The Vietnamese food and culture were the best aspects of the game, for sure, along with the music. Also I'd love to have this quote framed in my kitchen:
ANYTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING RESEMBLING "BREAD" IS BEYOND MY CAPACITY, NOT AS A CHEF BUT AS A "HUMAN BEING" WITH "LIMITED PATIENCE" and "THINGS TO DO, VASSALS TO KILL."
A haunting story about evil in a church, November 22, 2023This is a brief but replayable Twine game. To me, it felt like a speed-IF that was polished up and made nice, and from the About page that's exactly what it was.
The styling is really nice, with a dark textured background and legible light grey serif text.
The writing has a thoughtfulness to it I appreciated. You play as a non-believer exploring an abandoned church, and a lot of people would just put random thoughts in about how the person hates religion and so on, but this game provides a more balanced approach; the narrator is an interested outsider, looking in but aware they will not ever take part.
Storywise, the game is brief, so much so that its narrative arc felt underdeveloped, which is the main drawback I found; I liked the story, there just wasn't much of it. You are investigating the church with a loved one, and things go wrong in a bad way.
The interactivity has quite a bit of depth, with many endings and achievements despite its short length. I wondered how they could fit so many results into such a short game, until I realized that the game underneath is tracking more variables than you'd think.
Overall, an impressive effort, but one I'd have liked more of.
Brief texture game about falling forever , November 22, 2023This is a brief Texture game about falling in an infinite void. The setting gives me fond memories of the Magnus Archives, but the tone is very different; rather than using the infinite fall to provoke horror or terror, its used here as a sort of metaphor, although a vague one.
You have a companion in this falling, a mysterious person dressed as a rockstar whom you can learn more about.
There were a lot of real choices in the game, as most options disappeared after choosing one. I didn’t choose to replay because I found my one playthrough satisfying.
Short Twine game about dealing with a dangerous lion, November 22, 2023This is a short branching Twine game with links to other websites and multimedia about a lion.
I don’t have much to say about this one. It’s pretty chaotic; each branch does something really different and then returns. I found a death ending but no other ending.
Parts of it were sweet and parts of it were funny. The writing is a little weird; not in a ‘bad spelling/grammar’ kind of way necessarily, but in a logical flow kind of way. It jumps from idea to idea, kind of like listening to someone spitball ideas about a game.
It had some interesting links about lion diet and a girl hypnotizing a frog, so that was cool. Interesting game.
Short game with unfinished story about a supernatural deal gone wrong, November 22, 2023This is a Texture game, where you drag actions onto nouns.
It also seems to be incomplete, or possible part of a series, as it includes ‘TO BE CONTINUED’ at the end.
You play as a famous and talented musician who has had one of the best years of their life. Leading up to their biggest performance yet, a deal they made comes due.
Overall the characters were interesting and the story a timeless one that has been retold in many ways in many ages. It felt a bit slight; there is a complete narrative arc, though. I almost wonder if it would have been stronger without the ‘to be continued’.
Brief, intense Texture game about a sculptor's work, November 22, 2023This is a Texture game, one of several in IFComp. It’s a game system where you drag actions onto nouns, with different actions having different nouns. Hovering over the nouns can add more info, as well. It’s a character study of the main character, a sculptor who has given up everything to buy one final marble block and carve a sculpture.
The man is deeply invested in this. He focuses on his work despite the loss of things like family, friends, and good health. The writing is highly dramatic, with unusual positioning across the screen and extensive use of metaphor. Here’s a sample sentence: ‘Her words were cascaded venom, and you, their subject.’
It also changes between tenses from time to time, in a way that’s hard to know if it’s intentional or not. I found at least one important typo. In general, the text is ambitious but I was confused from time to time.
What works best for me here is the effort put into descriptiveness. I can feel the author’s enthusiasm for the story and that gives me enthusiasm for the story. But for me, it was hard to sustain that emotion; the whole story was at the peak of intensity, but I think it could have benefitted from having more contrast between high-intensity and low-intensity. But that’s a personal choice.
There is some intermittent strong profanity in the story that, for me, doesn’t fit the abstract and metaphorical text very much, but it may be intended as an earthy contrast to the heights of the rest of the game.
Brief, branching twine game about fate and the universe, November 22, 2023This is a twine game that uses some simple branching and rejoining to tell a short story. In the absence of state tracking and styling, its stripped down to just the essentials of twine. Such a story can be amazing or awful, depending mostly on the storytelling.
This game has 2 main paths and four different endings. I played through once, backed up and tried another path, and then looked at the code. The code gave me a much deeper appreciation for the game, as I hadn’t checked out the other 2 paths. They strongly complement the other paths, so I highly recommend playing through at least three paths to see how things go.
It’s a shorter game, and all the paths tell of a cycle of rebirth and of timelines in a universe that has gone wrong. It also focuses on love.
Overall, it’s pretty slight and small, but I loved the storytelling trick with the different paths. The game could benefit a bit from more work; for instance, there were numerous typos in the early game, around 1 per screen that I noticed. Other than that, it seems like a complete story as envisioned by the author.
Small PDF CYOA game about psychosis, November 22, 2023This is a choose your own adventure pdf. The last one of these in IFComp I’d heard of was Simon Christiansen’s Trapped in Time, which was a long pdf and included a system for maintaining inventory through loops.
This game is different. It’s a bit shorter, and focuses on a real-life situation: psychosis. It describes different episodes that can happen in the life of someone with psychosis and ways that it can be treated.
It also has very well-done drawings that add significantly to the game.
Overall, I found it small but interesting and would definitely check out future work by this team!
A texture game about siblings and loss, November 22, 2023This is a brief Texture game, one where you drag actions over verbs. It looks like several of the Texture games in this comp were written by authors who supported each other, as they retweet each other on twitter, use similar verbs in their games (like THINK and INSPECT) and one mentioned a writing circle. If it’s true, then that’s cool, because having people to bounce ideas off of can make for much stronger games.
This is a compelling game about someone receiving a text about a sister who died. You must go to your sister’s apartment and inspect her things, deciding what to do with them.
While they are unrelated, I kind of saw this as a counterpoint to My Brother, the Parasite. That was a dark and unpleasant game about a brother who was very close to the protagonist but also very violent. This is a bittersweet game about a sister who is distant from the protagonist yet left behind a lot of sweet memories. While you can’t see everything on one playthrough, I most enjoyed the moments about the big red jacket, as it was a striking visual and a sweet way to remember someone.
An altgame for social anxiety, November 22, 2023This is an altgame, like Depression Quest or Will Not Let Me Go, a game that seeks to bring understanding to a mental illness or other aspects of life that need awareness.
In this case, the topic at hand is social anxiety. You sign up for a haunted house tour that can result in cash prizes. Along the way, though, you encounter several social situations that cause you extreme anxiety.
The situations do seem well-designed to cause a lot of anxiety. I don't have social anxiety, but two of my close relatives do, and this really reminded me of them.
The game is fairly short, though, and I didn't get a feel that the ending was strongly connected to the rest of the game; it felt abrupt, perhaps due to the 6 hour time frame for the game? In and of itself, I thought the ending was effective, though.
Other than that, I found the game well-written, thoughtul, and interesting.
A deeply confusing visual novel about fantasy and strange monsters, November 22, 2023This is a relatively brief visual novel written for Ectocomp in the Grand Guignol competition.
It's a tale about a creature from Hell (a tiefling maybe?) and a paladin who dispute over an apprentice called Strider who apparently was captured by a shapeshifter (or replaced?), although this is never mentioned again.
I've struggled to review it, so I'll use my arbitrary 5-star criteria:
+Polish: The game has no bugs that I can see and looks visually well-put-together.
+Descriptiveness: There is some vivid imagery around things like snakes and eyes.
-Interactivity: You have choices, but it's not clear what effects they have, and the narrative lurches from scene to scene with little connection. I'm all for disjointed or dream like narrative, but I feel like there was no connecting thread binding this together.
-Emotional impact: Because of the 'jumpiness' of the story, it was hard to get invested. They are at a bar...then there is a fight...once the fight is done an abbess enters the same room to condemn a character...but maybe this room is in hell?
-Would I play again? Not at this time. I've played at least one other game by this author in Gruescript, which was interesting, and I would play more in the future, but this one kind of went over my head.
Brief Android game about resurrection, November 21, 2023I played this game on BlueStacks, an Android emulator.
This is a short game with a few options, each of which seems fairly strong. It uses a variety of Japanese words, often with explanations. There are several points where it seems like the game gives you freedom to make big choices; I didn't replay to verify.
It's hard to explain the story or to check the interactivity, because the game was really hard to understand. Usually a game is hard to understand because the author struggles with grammar or the story was written by AI and is bland, but this story seemed like it was written by someone with perfect English and unassisted by tools. It just is...weird. There's a lot of elaborate high language interspersed with random curse words. The language used is full of metaphors that didn't quite make sense to me. I think there was an experiment involving reviving someone in a relationship, but beyond that...I'm not sure.
An impressive amount accomplished in 4 hours, but it remains a mystery to me.
Sobering thoughts and bittersweet memories on a night of violence, November 13, 2023This is one of the more serious Ectocomp games I've played. It can be hard to write interactive fiction that has gravitas and purpose to it, as giving players agency can take away from overall arcs.
This game handles it well. You are in a hotel room, a haze filtering in through the curtains. War is going on, bombings and violence. And you are confronted with the memory of someone who is no longer there...
The game is short, so there isn't much to say, except that this is written well and was poignant.
Procedurally generated (?) game about students torturing a professor, November 7, 2023Every year when I play Spanish Ectocomp I encounter a game by this author and it's always wild. They usually have 3d models that are in the uncanny valley, as well as choice-based gameplay where you can move around. The stories are always wild, often about crime or insanity.
This game restricts the 3d models to profile pictures, and they actually look pretty good. But the story now is some kind of procedurally generated thing, where 4 students have kidnapped and are verbally abusing and torturing a professor. Every action gets a reaction by everyone in the room (even actions you don't take), and you get the same choices over and over (my character drank at least 7 cups of a mixed drink of three heavy liquors with no ill effects). There are a few more dramatic choices, but overall this is mostly just seeing a wide variety of Spanish profanity interspersed with torture and the decision to drink or not. It's full of drama and mechanically interesting to observe but narratively a little weak.
An Ink game about mystery, life, and death, November 3, 2023This was the first Ectocomp game I played. I played the French version, then later ran through it in English.
It's very extensive for a 4-hour game. It's an Ink game, and you have quite a few different choices throughout the game. The author has used several interesting techniques, like branching and bottlenecking choices, choices that allow users to lawnmower through items in any order, and choices where you have a limited number you can select.
The story is a bit haphazard, as would be expected in a speed game. It had so many elements...there was a jaded romance which I found quite interesting, and then more chance for romance later. But there are also competitive game aspects, and some mystery. To me it felt like three ideas for great games, all rolled into one small game, and so it didn't gel. But I like each of the ideas! Impressive for a work of 4 hours.
A linear narrative of a time traveller in love, September 26, 2023This game was entered in several minimal jams, including the Single Choice jam. It is the author's first game.
It's a visual novel with one main image of characters with slight variation. The writing is intense and earnest: you, a time traveller, have been stuck in a loop over and over again with one person at its focus: your love.
The image used is high-quality and is very stylized, more anime-style. The story reminds me of fanfic in its genre conventions.
Though this is in the single choice jam, there's not really any story choices, but it is rewritten in as a 'restart/quit' option, which I actually thought was pretty clever.
I think if there's anywhere this game could be improved, it's in specificity. Right now the writing could apply to almost any time travel seting and situation: it could be a WWII era drama set in France, a turn of the century New York tale, a futuristic sci-fi set in China. And the lover could be anyone; we meet with only tiny details that fit in every life, like grabbing a cup of coffee or going on the bus. Part of that is intentional and works, in that it could be read as a MC/reader fic that needs to be vague to allow you to insert yourself. On the other hand, those incidents could be expanded on; there could be conversations that were had; there could be specific incidents recalled that are unusual and remarkable. IDK, I felt like I went off on this a long time but only because I feel like this author actually has a lot of talent and so I'm kind of imagining a really good story that could be written by them, if there were some more concrete details in it.
A visual novel about contacting your deceased wife, September 25, 2023This visual novel was entered in the Single Choice jam.
My overall impression of it varied over time, as at first I thought the story was a bit trope-heavy but later on I enjoyed the progression it made.
You play as the husband of a recently deceased witch. After her death, you discover a letter from her telling you how you can contact her spirit.
You adventure through dungeons, killing goblins, to get a spirit orb to contact her with. Eventually, things come down to a difficult choice.
Overall, a lot of the game could have had more specific descriptions instead of relying on implicit common knowledge (like the fact that dungeons exist with goblins who are enemies, who the Lord of Light is, how heaven/hell work, etc.). But I liked the main narrative thrust of the story.
Kidnapped by a cruel psycopath, September 14, 2023This is a Ren'py game entered in the single choice jam with some other minimal constraints.
It's go-go-go from the start, with flowery and/or extreme language choices, intense scenario descriptions, harsh music, etc. It tells a lurid tale of someone kidnapped by a jealous rival and tortured over and over.
I only played through one ending, so there were likely chunks of story I missed, but what was there was very descriptive. Aside from the game itself, I'm surprised that ren'py has over 1700 files to unzip when you download a python game.
Overall, a good exercise in writing stressful or tense situations, but the one-note harshness and intensity could have been balanced by contrasting scenes.
A cosplay convention goes terribly wrong!, September 14, 2023This is a game from the Single Choice jam written using Ren'py.
It depicts an annoying situation edging towards disturbing where the main character 'you-chan' meets 'yandere-chan', who is cosplaying as a yandere girlfriend from an anime (here 'yandere' being part of a classification of character personality types, including tsundere and kuuder, with yandere being the personality type that is obsessive and mixes romance with violence and abusive behavior).
There are two endings depending on your single choice. Mine went from a kind of cutish, annoying meeting to a deeply disturbing one, as is appropriate for a yandere situation. I didn't feel super invested in the storyline, but the descent into danger was handled pretty well I think.
A short story from three perspectives, September 14, 2023Although short, this game satisfies all my criteria for 5 stars:
+Polish: This is a short twine game with custom styling and no typos or errors that I saw.
+Descriptiveness: The three main characters are painted vividly, with distinct and well-defined personalities and motives.
+Interactivity: As part of the single choice jam, there is only one option to choose, but it's an interesting one: which perspective to see the story from. It was fun to contrast the different perspectives and viewpoints.
+Emotional impact: I chuckled after the first story, not so much that I found it amusing but that it managed to pack in so much in a short time.
+Would I play again? I enjoyed playing it three times to see all endings.
A story about family, heritage, and changes, September 14, 2023This game was written in Narrat, an engine I hadn't heard of before but which worked very smoothly; this was a visually well-done game, with an appropriate stock image, nice styling/layout and smooth scrolling.
This story was entered in the Single Choice Jam, and features exactly one choice in the center of the story, at what felt like a powerful emotional moment.
Content wise, the story revolves around remembrances of Girl's Day, which I assume is the Japanese holiday, as the imagery used reflects that, and I'm not currently aware of other Girl's Days out there. The protagonist is old now, but reflects on the generations of women in their past. There are strong implications of the narrator's changing gender identity, but nothing explicit.
Overall, a thoughtful, reflective, and well-done piece.
The latest in an ongoing saga of dinosaur related short stories , September 14, 2023This is my fourth TrexandDrago Development game and honestly they're out here doing things no one else is really doing.
All of these games are kind of surreal setups for dinosaur-related mysteries or dramas. None of them seem to lead into each other, so it gives the feel of an anthology.
All of these games are fairly short and unpolished, including this one that has elements of Gravity Falls, dinosaurs, and horror.
I've been giving most of these games 1-2 stars because they generally feel short and rushed, but if they were in one big compilation I'd probably give it 3 stars since it has a whole vibe going for it.
A look into the mind of a person surviving in a bleak world, September 13, 2023This is a Bitsy game, a kind of game that uses arrow keys to control minimalistic pixel images.
In this game, you pass through the mind of someone who is deeply concerned about the world. Passing through the mind once gives one thought, which can stick in your brain (usually only bad things) or pass through. The background images change depending on the person's reaction.
Topics include things like dating, climate change, police brutality, and others.
Overall, the concept works thematically. There's not really any kind of choices, though since it's in the One Choice Jam it might have made sense to have a decision at the end. Overall, everything that was here was well-made, it just felt a bit light overall.
A twine game built with minimal assets and choices, September 13, 2023This game is built around a pretty tight set of constraints, with limited words, graphics, choices, and music. But it manages to do some nice worldbuilding and scene setting in that time.
You play as a character who has been poisoned by their lover, a dashing rogue of a man. You have tracked him down, and have one choice to try to secure the antidote from him.
Due to the constraints, there is only one choice, one background image, one character image, etc. but what it comes up with is pretty memorable. It's not in any way a complete story, feeling more like a vignette from a larger work.
A linear ADRIFT game about escaping an abusive situation, September 12, 2023This is the third game I've played by TrexandDrago Development. Like the others, this is a shorter story with a bit wobbly English and an emphasis on cool dinosaurs.
This time the dinosaurs are toys named after characters from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but they are only a side part.
The main character is an abused teenager who is covered in bruises and dried blood. The action is all about escaping with the help of a new friend. It's an Adrift game with each action tied to a single letter command, so the game is 'type C to continue' or 'type B to grab the backpack'.
While this is part of the single choice jam, there don't seem to be any choices other than progressing through the story. The game is written in Adrift, but is only available in a downloadable .exe
Overall, as a jam game this was written in a short amount of time so has rough edges; but overall there is a quirkiness and sincerity to the story that I think works well. If there was more time to take these ideas and polish them, I could see it working pretty well!
A science fiction musing on death and family relationships, September 11, 2023This game in the Single Choice Jam focuses on a single emotional moment. You are on a space station and are preparing for your mother's delayed funeral/burial ceremony.
You are allowed to bring a single object back with you. Most of the game revolves around looking at objects one at a time and remembering what significance they have to you and to your mother.
My father talked to me before about how sci fi is really about everyday human stories, just placed in an extraordinary setting to bring out different key points. This game is fundamentally about the relationship between a difficult but attentive parent and their adult child. The sci-fi setting serves to strengthen some of the emotions, like isolation and lack of self worth.
The reduction to a single choice makes sense thematically, since you are deliberating on a major decision you can't really go back on. I felt satisfied with my choice and didn't feel a need to play again.
An alchemical riddle mystery, September 11, 2023This game was entered into the Single Choice jam.
It's a long choice-based game with an elaborate setup and worldbuilding. You are part of a detective agency, and a couple has reported that something was stolen from their house.
It was stolen by a thief with a clever gimmick: they take an item, and then replace it with a photorealistic painting.
But this time, what was stolen is unknown, and it was replaced by a poem. The couple that hired you was a pair of alchemists.
Overall, the game manages to be engaging despite the 'one choice' limitation by adding a lot of outside-game thinking: what does the riddle refer to? Which clues matter?
On the other hand, it's hard to know what the player's thought process is supposed to be. I made a guess at the end, and it was right, but I couldn't pin down why.
The worldbuilding is rich and detailed. The setting feels extravagant, more like a cartoon than a film, if that makes sense. Could be fleshed out in more games or a revision of this one.
A truly awkward moment, August 7, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
I saw this game from two points of view.
In the first, it's a truly awkward situation. You're running into your ex girlfriend with your now boyfriend. You're nervous it'll be awkward but...(Spoiler - click to show)she barely remembers you dating? That's super awkward. And pretty funny.
From the other point of view, it's kind of a mystery. Everyone has very specific and unusual names. Is it a reference to a show? An in-joke? Some OCs?
Either way, the styling is nice, some good choices for color and font to add to the awkward feeling.
Interesting twist on a well-worn story, August 6, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
There are a lot of Orpheus and Eurydice adaptations out there, from the original stories to the first recorded opera to the platformer Don't Look Back, and I generally like them all; it's a good story.
This game manages to do something I haven't really seen with it before. It merges it with the author's personal history, and it manages to (Spoiler - click to show)gives an ending where Eurydice is reborn, and does so in a way that isn't cheap and unearned but also has its own mixture of emotions. Well done.
Pleasant little dungeon crawl, August 6, 2023This game has some fabulous looking images and nice sounds, accompanying its text size of 500 words for the Neo Twiny Jam.
Storywise, there are several branches here. You are trapped in a dungeon, although your true nature may not be apparent at first.
Freedom is possible for you...possibly. But sacrifices must be made.
This was well-written, and enjoyable to play.
Work on your resume over and over, August 5, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's a Texture game, which I haven't seen a lot of recently. This system has you drag verbs onto nouns (or, here, resume sections), both causing changes when you actually drop it and tooltips when you hover.
The humor (or pathos, depending on how you view it) comes from the self-criticism or uncertainty or Sisyphean task of dealing with all of this.
I found only one ending, but I found it multiple times.
A cute story about different social media, August 5, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It is as far as I can see completely linear, but uses interactivity as you can click to make each line appear.
The gimmick here is that it's a single story but changes every few lines into the format of a different social media site like Twitter or Reddit, showing how some things stay the same the more they change.
Pretty neat. One crude joke that doesn't add much to the story, but overall some tight writing.
A night of troubled thoughts, August 5, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It uses all of its words in one path, a torrent of thoughts that pile on. The narrator lies in bed with thought after anxious thought crowding the mind. Thoughts of death, of unimportance, come endlessly.
There is some comfort in the end, at the hand of a friend. Overall, the feeling is of a storm followed by sunlight, observing the wreckage.
A brief but thorough exploration of two assassins colliding, August 5, 2023This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.
It features 2 assassins who have met at knife point. Will you fight, or romance?
It manages to pull a few surprises while playing with well-trodden tropes. The writing is to-the-point and effective. I enjoyed playing it right after I finished re-watching Hawkeye, which includes a similar assassin-on-assassin fight.
Short, but worth it.
Fascinating and beautiful exploration of a historical work, August 5, 2023This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.
This one was fun to read up on. I was just talking to my son a few days ago about 'automatic writing', where mediums would just let the pencil move and see what writing the spirits produced.
This game is about one such work, a long epic by Sara Weiss detailing the history, biology, and language of the people of Mars. It is accompanied by beautiful illustrations from the original text.
While the game itself provides fascinating insights, reading up on the accompanying material and just searching the original book in general was very fun.
Implacable villain vs unstoppable cat, August 5, 2023This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.
It's pretty funny. A cat has appeared in your evil lair but you, a supervillain, are completely unable to do anything to stop it or damage it.
There is a lot of flexibility, and paths diverge but merge again, which I prefer to pure branching or no branching. Pretty fun!
Pretty words but complex; a difficult life at court, August 5, 2023This is a game that is styled in loving detail, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It describes in elliptic and complex language a person who has arrived at court and must carefully navigate the political systems and other intricacies.
The text is simultaneously rich and difficult to understand. For instance, here are two sentences (not set in stone; both can be changed with cycling options):
(Spoiler - click to show)Overwhelming in its capacity for promises as binding as fingers through water. Bloodless as the art she would learn soon enough to become to survive the court’s pleasure.
These sentences are both descriptive and grammatically correct, but due to their nested phrases and clauses it becomes difficult to figure out the meaning.
Overall, it presents an interesting setting.
A tiny but huge game: one-word pages, but hundreds of them, August 5, 2023This game was entered in the Neo-Twiny jam, written in 500 words or less.
The author has decided to maximize the usage by putting only a single word on each page and making the game branch quite a bit. I played to 2 or 3 endings and found things very unlike the other reviews, so I suspect there's just a ton of stuff out there.
There are references to a lot of stories. Extra nuance is given to the single words by having voice acting for most of them.
Overall, it was pretty funny in general. This is a very clever idea and unique in the comp; I think I saw a few two-word games, but a one-word game like this take a lot of work, especially to make it work out as well as it has here.
Play as Judas betraying Jesus, August 5, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
I'm a fan of Jesus, so it was unusual to play a game from one of his opp's perspective. The game was black and red themed, with a shaky-looking font.
In it, Judas condemns Jesus while also regretting his actions but also justifying it by sorting through and twisting old words. I imagine these thoughts to be very similar to those of someone who just got dumped because they cheated on someone.
Promising start with a few bugs, August 5, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or yes. It actually had a pretty cool setup and I liked the structure and where the story was going. Unfortunately, it had some broken logic that made multiple errors appear on most pages on both Chrome and Firefox.
Seems like the only thing missing here is more Twine expertise. With some more practice with the code, this game could be great (or the next one the author makes). Right now, I don't think it's finishable, though.
Slow-paced mythology game, August 5, 2023This game is about the love between Cygnus and Phaethon (my spelling may be wrong), written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It has few options, but each paints a picture of deep love. It uses some nice color choices to complement the story.
It's also very very slow. I thought a couple of times that the game had broken or dead-ended, only to realize after staring at it for ten seconds that it was actually going to change. I think it could benefit more from 'next page' links for pacing, or from static formatting.
A game about death and grieving, July 31, 2023This is a brief game written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's a slow game, with peaceful sound and delayed text. You have called a taxi (I got a jumpscare which was fairly amusing when I saw the driver, (Spoiler - click to show)the screen shaking and it saying It looks like Grandma ominously).
It's a meaningful story, about grief and AIDS epidemic and an anti-God/religion feeling (the idea that God is a jerk if he exists).
The best part to me was the strong friendship.
An exploration of the frustrations and agonies of comparison, July 31, 2023This was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's an introspective essay, bordering on rant, about how comparing yourself to others can be so frustrating and painful. There is bitterness and seething rage in the words. This is paralleled with dark styling, using multiple colors but mostly black and red.
The emotion feels real here. They mention how they theoretically could just walk away from it all, but the desire to do so isn't there.
Bedtime routine, July 31, 2023This is a Neo Twiny Jam game written in 500 words or less.
It's basically a bedtime routine. You have a set number of tasks to complete before sleeping, but before each one your phone tempts you, and you have to wait to resist.
Very realistic, but waiting got tiring after a second playthrough. Another reviewer mentioned images, but I didn't see any in this one. Otherwise a nice chill bedtime game.
A brief vampire tale, July 31, 2023This is a short Twine game entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, written in 500 words or less.
It's a fairly well-written story of a woman on the hunt finding a man on the hunt and what ensues.
The styling is appropriate, with red hues. The story is entirely linear, one link at a time. There are at least two significant typos (especially (Spoiler - click to show)'hater' for 'later') which detract from the overall experience.
But I didn't mind reading it, it was pretty fun.
A physical exploration of a tarot retelling, July 31, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It depict a Tarot deck drawing (using a nonstandard deck), and its main feature is that the cards that you draw can be entered. You don't explore them through links, though, it just describes you going and coming back.
It's not a bad idea, but could probably have benefitted from a larger game size to allow more flexibility. The overall vibes were chill and pleasant.
A space battle in the style of Classic Twine, July 31, 2023This was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
This one reminds me of the classic twine scene around 2015 and earlier, especially the Porpentine/Furkle style. You have bodies that are modified in uncomfortable ways and integrated with technology mixed with a vulnerable protagonist whose interior monologue is at odds with the actions around him. Another similar feature is the blend of religiosity with patriotism in the authority figures in the protagonists life.
That's not to say that this game isn't original; it has a nice poeticism to it and does its own take on things. I'm just saying that I think it benefits from having a body of related work to compare and contrast it to.
This game is about being part of a space combat squadron protecting a payload of a large bomb. It's mostly linear, but has some nice color changes.
Fancy bitsy game about...well, I'm not sure, July 31, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's written using Bitsy (or one of its derivatives), with low-resolution pixel art that looks pretty good here.
The story itself is hard to describe though. I couldn't tell if it was a guy carrying his dying baby through an apocalyptic wasteland or a dating couple walking around the block...the ending is more clear, but earlier parts are a little vague.
The controls can be hard to figure out at first, but some parts are pretty cool as you move a mouse in a virtual device.
Whispers of many possible stories at a hero's death, July 31, 2023This is a well-produced game for the Neo Twiny Jam, written in 500 words or less.
It looks good, with a nice background and well-chosen fonts and color schemes.
The story is about a hero who is dying, and you are the one to comfort him. You can choose what to say.
It branches a lot; I don't think any of the branches reconnect. But 2 of 3 starting options end the game immediately, while a 3rd has more options.
Most of the stories seem more like intros, like a teaser for a larger setting.
Just two frog buddies chilling in space, July 31, 2023This game was entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, written in 500 words or less.
It's about a real thing I never knew existed, the Orbiting Frog Otolith, which was an experiment thing where they put two frogs in space and measured the effects of weightlessness on them, with no intent of ever recovering them.
I looked up 'Otolith' and it means 'ear stone', which is a pretty weird name for a spacecraft. But apparently there's a part of the ear with that name in frogs (and maybe humans?) and the experiment studied that.
Anyway, this is a short game with a lot of branches; I got about 6 different endings, but all the ones I got were grouped into two major groups. It's pretty fun, imagining two frogs chilling and trying to talk to each other about things that are purely beyond their comprehension.
A self-checking quiz to help you evaluate your day, July 31, 2023This is a feel-good kind of quiz, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's a quiz that you take about your work habits, what you do for fun, and treats.
It presents a few surprises and overall a wholesome and positive message.
It's not very long, but I get the impression that there are multiple results. I enjoyed playing it.
A poem about love and violence, July 30, 2023This is a poem written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's styled nicely, with a nonstandard font and a red and black theme.
The structure involves going back and forth between one major poem that slowly grows and smaller poems on the side.
There's some vague imagery of pain and slurs towards women. It's meant in service to overall narrative, but I wonder if the same point could have been achieved in a different way.
NIcely styled twine poem about turning 22, July 30, 2023This is a poem entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, with 500 words or less.
It's styled nicely, with beautiful fonts and illustrations and transitions and some music.
It's mostly just a poem, the feelings someone has for their 21st birthday, The freedom is in what order the poem is explored.
I liked it overall, but a lot of the enjoyment of a poem is either in symmetry or purposeful asymmetry. But there was a bit of unevenness, like rhyming 'skills' with 'skills' and varying between exact rhymes and almost-rhymes in a non-symmetric fashion; and some of the lines were hard to fit into the meter when read aloud. However, the sentiment was strong, and those features I described as lacking may not even be desired by the author, although I feel like they could be introduced with some mild revising.
Complex coma nightmare loop game, July 30, 2023This game was pretty hard to beat. It was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
At first, it seems extremely short, even on replay. But apparently you have to play 3 times before it changes, which is a bit weird.
It has images that were drawn on notebook paper and scanned, which I actually think look cool!
You have to explore different things in the coma, but you have little time due to constantly dying. Even worse, there's a counter in the corner and you fail the game completely once it ticks down, with no way to undo.
I eventually realized that (Spoiler - click to show)There's exactly one action that can be indefinitely be repeated to raise the counter. Overall, it was pretty tricky. I'm not sure I loved the counter of doom and the initial 3 replays, but it was interesting enough that I wanted to finish.
A poetic story that invites the reader to create the structure, July 30, 2023This game/story/poem was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's all on one page with expandable text. I read it at first, seeing in it obtuse musings on relationship.
Then I read the trigger warnings, which gave me insights into themes I hadn't identified. Then I realized the poem has a different structure that first appears, a sort of meta puzzle.
I ended up liking piecing things together, having to reach for what's going on. Very nice. Vivid imagery.
A brief game about word limits and world's limits, July 30, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It looks nice, with a black/off-white/gold color scheme.
It's a bit of a self-referential story, as you encounter a typewriter that is creating a world but is limited in the number of words it can use.
Unfortunately, it just feels cut short. That's literally what's happening in the game, but even if it's being pointed out it's still a little 'cut-off' at the ends, and could use a bit more of an ending. But that's just my opinion and not a fact.
Effective puzzle structure in a 500-word twine hotel game, July 30, 2023This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.
I manages to have multiple locations, puzzles, inventory, essentially a whole world model. It's brief, and the puzzles aren't difficult, but it was nice to see how smooth everything is.
You end up locked in a hotel room and have to find your way out. The only part I felt was missing was perhaps some final twist or surprise at the end, or otherwise an explanation, just a sentence.
A character study about a person stuck in a tough situation, July 30, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's a simple story, mostly linear, with some hover-links.
But it depicts a part of life that many of us have experienced, when money is running tight and we have to make choices that might betray our values or require us to swallow our pride; the point where we have to admit that we can no long live by our own means.
Not a lot of structure here, but relatable and detailed.
Thoughtful musing on humanity's future, July 30, 2023This game is written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It uses its words more or less all at once, spooling them out into a mostly linear essay/story with occasional expandable text. A lot of parts of it are customized.
It's a piece about humanity colonizing the stars and how it must feel to start processes that will not be finished for thousands of years. About what it means for worlds and humans to evolve. With minimal structure, it's relying heavily on the styling and the text itself here, and I liked both.
A cute and at times frightening story of a Frog, July 30, 2023This short Frog game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.
It's a cute story and written from a frog's perspective in various phases of life, including egg, tadpole, and adult (I think).
Each part is written in minimalistic style. At times I lost the thread of what I was reading, trying to figure out what the terse words corresponded to. The ending was pleasant.
A mysterious science researcher drama, July 30, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It does a great job of getting use out of those words.
At first, it just presents a kind of opaque technical screen that I didn't really understand, and then more of the same. I was so lost, all this scientific research-type jargon about chemicals and samples. It ended quickly but with some mysterious notes.
So I replayed 4 times and got deeper into the mystery. I don't think I ever completely solved what was going on but I got plenty of hints of horrible things going on.
A brief Twine game with a puzzle and a twist, July 28, 2023This Neo Twiny Jam game, written in 500 words or less, has you exploring your father's crypt after his death.
It seems he has built an enormous tomb, and under great secrecy. But you're determined to find out the truth.
The game has a puzzle or two, and did a good job incorporating exploration and mechanics. All of it was a bit slight; the 500 words was pulled thin, having to handle story, puzzles, etc. but all the pieces that are hear are either already good or promising.
Choose from a selection of beneficial wonders, July 28, 2023This game features in a more self-reflective way than a traditional narrative. It was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, and all of those words (save just a couple) are displayed on the page at once.
The self reflection is in choosing which words to keep. There are a dozen or so 'cards' with nice images, good backgrounds and fonts, etc. and they describe magical abilities and items like lucid dreaming or door portals.
It's a fun choice and written well, but there's no hidden depths. In a way it's the opposite of the author's other entry EVISCERATETHISGIRL.com, which is completely linear and nothing but hidden depths. Together they make an interesting study in contrasts.
Sisyphus myth, July 28, 2023This Twine game, written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam, is about Sisyphus.
I've seen a lot of revisionist takes on Sisyphus recently, but this one is a straight-up thoughtful interpretation of the original myth as-is.
The short 500 words get reused a ton as you go through many very similar loops. There is a gradual increase in knowledge, the loops changing.
I found that very effective. But the frequent use of yellow-on-white was a bit hard to read, and it got repetitive (which I know is the point, but an accurate representation of a frustrating thing is still frustrating).
Short story about a glitched out word doc, July 28, 2023This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.
It uses a UI similar to a google doc, and the best part of it to me was the way that it looked and the detail in the highlights and such.
The second best part was the overall writing, which painted a fun picture of having a mysterious officemate who you contact every day but don't know in person.
The worst part was not having enough of it; the premise was great, but it kind of just stopped, presumably when the author hit the word limit.
Cute rat simulator, July 28, 2023This short game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, has you play as a cute rat and to live out your days. You can eat, drink, play, etc.
There's not a ton of variation, so I was inclined to give it 3 stars, but it's sweet, especially the tribute in the credits, and in a way the way it just keeps going on (Spoiler - click to show)could be thought of as a way for Puck to always live on.
A Twine game where words must be preserved, July 28, 2023This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam competition.
It takes the limited word concept of the competition and works it into the game. You have died, but your soul only has 400 words left to say before they perish.
Unfortunately, Charon is a bit of a chatterbox, and you've got to cross the river.
This game was pretty entertaining. I only found 2/3 endings, though, although I tried a lot of stuff to find the third.
Solidly written game about love and prejudice, July 28, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It uses a mild amount of branching and a few other text techniques to tell the story of an Australian who immigrated from Jakarta. While the rest of the family is preoccupied with political unrest, the protagonist is interested in love.
While not long, it is well written and presents some interesting facets of life that I wasn't previously aware of, and it looks good while doing it.
Diverging creepy scenarios, July 27, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It has some excellent tech behind it with creepy music and an SMS-style interface.
It's a branching game with storylines that diverge wildly, each ending in a different reality. I played about 3 times.
I would have played more but the beginning is agonizing slow, seemingly in pursuits of mimesis. For a game meant to be replayed, an option to read at leisure may have been better. Each individual story I read was well-written, though.
A linear story with some strong twists, July 27, 2023This game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, takes a twist on multiple meanings of the word 'correspondence'.
Rather than using the word limit to ration small paragraphs into multiple branches, it unloads it all in one linear story.
There's a nice twist halfway through, which is executed well. But a lot of the phrasing in the letter felt very vague to me. I realize that they may have helped the twist, but I'm not sure. Overall had some strong moments.
Kind of like 'The Normal Elevator' from Roblox, but in text, July 27, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It has two segments. The first is a slow, timed text description of being at a party and leaving. It focuses on visceral details rather than overall storyline.
The second is a series of elevator stops, each presenting the reader with an image (which sometimes requires you to zoom out; I think enabling scrollbars on itch would fix that). You can choose to enter that level, or not.
I replayed twice, but no more, as the timed text was really very slow and all had to be repeated each time. But the atmosphere was effective and moody, which was nice.
Short battle negotiations with some timed text, July 25, 2023This is a Neo Twiny Jam game written in 500 words or less.
This is a kind of a gauntlet-style game, where a wrong choice can end the game in an instant.
The concept is intriguing: negotiating with an invading force much stronger than yours, with your only options being death or appeasement.
But it's slight obnoxious to play, as it simultaneously types out text a little bit slowly and also urges you to click as fast as you can. Kind of like having an escort quest in a game where their speed doesn't match yours and you constantly have to go in spurts to keep up.
Unhappy vampires at the end, July 25, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
I like Vampire stories in general (original Dracula, Twilight series, VtM and its associated Choicescript Games, Interview with a Vampire when I was a kid). This game plays on the relationship between a vampire and her Creator, and their back and forth pain.
It was well written in general, but there was so much left unsaid. A lot of the descriptions are vague generalities that hit the right notes but might (for my personal taste, maybe not same as author) benefit from having a bit more specificity from time to time. I feel like this author must be good at writing dreams.
Cool spacefighting simulator, too hard for me, July 25, 2023This is a Neo Twiny Jam Game, written in 500 words or less.
This game has a nice setup. You have a variety of alien ships you can target, each with a varying amount of health and damage. Attacking them nets you scrap, with which you can buy upgrades.
It's a cool idea and has some fun backstory, and looks like you can unlock more as you go on. But I will not see those, because it is too hard for me, even on easy mode.
For me, the issue is that if you're hit even once by the enemy, the damage they do is almost exactly equal to what you can heal with the rewards. That means at best you get no upgrades and exist in stasis, and at worst you slowly get damaged each turn. Someone suggested doing easy mode and buying a bunch of drones, but those got vaporized in one hit when I tried going up against a harvester.
So if it's a 'there is no hope' simulator, it works well, although some kind of 'give up' ending would be nice. But as a battle simulator, for me it is not one I can imagine trying more at.
A touching poem in expandable format, July 25, 2023This poem was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.
It's written with a neat interactive structure with little triangle to expand or shrink the text, all nested within each other. Inside the nesting are some other types of links that manipulate the text in various ways.
The poem is a nostalgic one, talking about memories with a friend that have a different shade of emotion looking back.
Overall, it's well executed.
A blend of good old western life and unsettling humor, July 25, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
I played this game the day after Pioneer Day. This holiday is only really celebrated in Utah, where I don't live right now, but I celebrated it by telling stories about my pioneer ancestors to my kid. They journeyed west over the plains in the 1840's and 50's, and lived western lives, like being a coal miner in Nevada or running a farm in Utah.
Growing up in Utah, a state with a religious majority, we were required to learn Utah history every three years but religion was not allowed to be mentioned. So besides the occasional Native American history, we spent almost all of those years learning about Mountain Men like Jim Bridger.
So this game brought back a lot of thoughts. It's pretty short. You play as a kind of mountain man who lives through multiple stages of life, each with a varying amount of its own branches. Each life drives you further, inexorably west.
If this was just a straight-up western, I'd probably give 3 or 4 stars. But little bits of deadpan humor are slid in that really enhance it. Sometimes I had to read it twice before I realized how funny it was. And some of it is almost not humor but just an unsettling inconsistency, a literary uncanny valley.
Anyway, the game itself is quite small and I have a whole cloud of baggage attached to it so if someone reads this and plays it and thinks 'That was it?' yes, that was it, I just liked it.
Fascinating but confusing story about mechanical life, July 25, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It has little in the way of branching or complex mechanics and so relies entirely on its capacity for storytelling and the momentum provided by links.
The links work pretty well; a series of moral dilemmas in the middle and a nicely paced denouement at the end.
The writing is evocative, reminding me of all the old sci fi anthologies my dad had from Philip Dick and Isaac Asimov. However, the writing was very 'skirting around the edges', asking people to fill in the blanks, and I just couldn't fill them in very well. There are some clear and strongly hinted/described aspects, but I didn't see how they gelled together. (Edit: Like (Spoiler - click to show)the dramatic birth moment indicates a story of extreme drama and prowess; the moral choices just seem like a run of the mill utilitarian AI; and the finale indicates unimportance. All of these can exist in a self-contradictory story with no single interpretation, but there's a consistent negative viewpoint on the AI's interactions with humans that makes it difficult to imagine wildly different interpretations.
Micro twine story with a neat structure, July 25, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It has an unusual mechanism for telling the story. It is a page with just three short lines, with two cycling links. Clicking to the next page gives just a sentence. Very barebones...
Except each set of choices gives different results, building up a larger story and eventually providing some differences. Very neat way of utilizing the mini theme.
Accurate sports superstitions simulator, July 25, 2023This is a short game about 350 words, written for the Neo Twiny Jam.
It has two parts. In the first, you pick from several sports superstitions like food to eat or clothes to wear.
In the second, it tells you the results of several randomized playoff games. This is repeated over multiple years, although you can skip a bit if it takes too long.
The randomization is impressive. At first, though, I was not a fan of the interactivity, as there's not really any indicator that your superstitions do everything and my teams usually didn't win.
But then I reflected and realized that that's actually the real experience with superstitions. It doesn't matter if you wear dirty socks on game day. And in play-offs with 16 people, 15 will lose, so losing is a standard experience.
Micro game about neurodivergence and life, July 25, 2023This game was written for Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's a short game with a simple structure, with a binary decision, each result being followed by a binary decision.
The writing is emotional, a metaphor for some form of neurodivergence (depression? anxiety?) as a beast. It takes events from normal life and makes an allegorical version in another reality.
It's well written, but the different endings felt a bit disparate, and perhaps could have been tied together more.
Good art/writing but not much there, July 25, 2023This game was entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, written in 500 words or less.
It has a series of encounters on board a space ship, each with custom art.
The individual paragraphs are well-written and the art is pretty good. Just not much happens, though. Of the encounters, only a couple seem to affect later ones, and there's not really any kind of overarching plot. There is a link to another, bigger game (one I've played before and is actually pretty good). So I think as an ad for the bigger game, this works, but I didn't feel especially strongly about this smaller one.
Bittersweet cat story, July 20, 2023This game, written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam, is about a lost one who still thinks about home.
It can be read in many ways. It becomes apparent (and is in the cover art) that this is about a cat, but the sentiments can apply to a lot of other life relationships.
It goes through month by month, detailing the change, the hard variations between hoping for a return and mourning a loss.
I found it a sweet tale.
Dream looping simulator, July 20, 2023This game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, describes the experience of looping dreams, trying to wake up.
It's a simple concept but executed well. Everyone knows (well, at least people that don't have issues impacting their dreams) that feeling of thinking you've already waked up and then realizing it's not true.
The game branches a lot, at first appearing like a time cave structure, but it's slightly more complex than that, which I thought was cool.
Three birthdays, one mother, July 20, 2023This game is a Neo Twiny Jam game written in 500 words or less.
It is a triptych of vignettes, each about a different birthday, each about interactions with a mother.
It uses both changes in artwork and changes in interactivity to signal the transition between the birthdays. I don't know if it is intentional, but I liked how (Spoiler - click to show)you started with few options to interact with mom, grew to have more, but ended up having no choices.
I thought this game was sadly sweet, and I'm glad I played it.
A grim tale told in Ink, July 20, 2023This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam, using Ink.
It is brief and linear, but told with appropriate dualities. The design is stark white and black; the game is in either French or English; and love and marriage are contrasted with bitterness and funeral.
The story is of two men, wedded, who fight fiercely. Their story is told in reverse, from the end of the marriage to the beginning.
I imagined the envelope at the beginning to be divorce papers; I remember for my own when it became real enough to have papers to sign. That was quite the day! Overall, despite its simple structure, the strong storytelling shines.
Anxiety vs cat, July 20, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words for less.
It uses some creative styling with black and white geometric figures (although it did overlap the text a bit on my laptop screen).
It presents three visions of anxiety: worry about the future, worry that the present is slipping by, and ruminations on the past.
Each is countered by a cat, though, which is sweet. There wasn't any wrapping-up at the end that I found, just three separate paths. Maybe there was one additional passage before looping, but it was hard to tell.
A beautiful musing on self-concept and family, July 20, 2023This poem was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It is written using a variety of visual techniques, including spacing the poem very carefully using columns, lines, tabs, and spaces, and changing colors for both links and backgrounds, as well as hover.
The poem muses on the author's perception of the self; trying to understand why they look so different than others, which features that don't match the standard of beauty. They look to a distant parent, an 'other', unknown, who gave them these features, and contemplate what seeing their similarities would be like.
I definitely know how this feels! I too have been startled when looking in the mirror, realizing that I don't really look like people in the shows I've been watching or (now that college is a distant memory) realizing I don't look like the 18 yr old I imagine myself to be.
But like the author (except I don't need to imagine), connecting with family really helps. I have a big, bulbous nose that is very distinct. But in family pictures, you can trace the exact nose back to my dad, his mom, and her mom, passed on from generation to generation. When I see that, I'm proud, and I'm glad of this game for reminding me.
Beautiful text styling with a kind of parser like structure, July 20, 2023This game has an amazing concept with a few snags here or there.
It was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
You are a witch facing execution for the death of a boy. Your throat has been cut, but you are able to piece together words from those spoken by others in a form of mimicry.
These words are shown as golden, shinging letters floating in a void. Selecting them is simple, and it looks very nice.
The difficulty is the interaction; you can form sentences from words (and later words from letters) but there are so many possible orders and combinations (I think 1000 or so combos are available on one page) that it can be hard to figure out what works and what doesn't.
Definitely one of the most visually nice games I've seen in a while, would love to make my games look this nice (especially for a title screen or something).
Literally what it says on the tin, July 20, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
However, it contains a great deal of graphics and sound, making it a longer experience than its word count might as first suggest.
It's exactly what it states; you play as a character who keeps visiting a website called evisceratethisgirl.com where you make an avatar of yourself and then stab it.
The idea is to communicate self-hatred, loathing and despair. The graphics continually get more glitchy and dark.
For me, the narrative emotion arc was a bit off. It starts off grotesquely and with distorted visuals right off the bat. There's not much chance to identify with the protagonist because they're immediately displayed as an unusually messed up person. So when things progress, it doesn't feel like it's happening to me. Similarly, the graphics start out shocking and weird, so there's not much room for it to grow. But this is subjective and another person might have the opposite reaction.
Brief Binksi game about a kind stranger, July 20, 2023This game is a Binksi game, which uses minimal pixel art and animations to create an environment for narrative storytelling.
The story told here is about a shut-in whose depression is keeping them from finding enjoyment in any of their previous activities.
But then checking the mail reveals numerous messages from an anonymous penpal. The sustained communication from a stranger provides some solace.
I've seen this effect before in real life; I've definitely benefited from regular contact with people I don't even know that well. So I liked that part. Some of the story really stretched suspension of disbelief though; I wonder if simulating a longer time period might have worked better, even without additional words (like having it get dark and light again each time you get a letter).
A grab bag of different outcomes for a rhyming Spartacus, July 20, 2023This game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, is a bunch of short rhyming stories interconnected by having names of heroes that rhyme with 'Spartacus'. Like 'Farticus' or 'Articus'.
It's a branching story, where you pick one of the heroes then select an option or two in their path, usually getting a poem out of it.
Each page of the poem/story/game has some ai-generated art in it to serve as a backdrop.
The rhyming is entertaining, but there are so many different directions here it doesn't really feel cohesive, either in design, storyline, or emotion.
A little exploration of different baseball seasons, July 18, 2023This short game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam was written in 500 words or less.
In it, you have to choose how your chosen baseball team progresses through the different parts of the baseball year.
It ends up having a little math puzzle in it, which is always fun, and it doesn't take too long to play. I mostly like it for the combinatorics.
A complex text describing an interaction between old and young, July 18, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less. It's a linear narrative that is taken from an RPG setting or campaign that the author participates in.
The writing is very complex. I had to stop and reread it multiple times to understand what is going on. Even the number of people in the scene was unclear until the second or third playthrough. Allusions are made to many things that are not explained or are unclear. All of this combines to make a rich text that rewards patient exploration. The most interesting part to me was the idea of the time of birth in the day influencing expectations for or names of children.
A brief story written as a conversation, July 18, 2023This is a story about a celebrity encounter, written in the Neo Twiny Jam in under 500 words.
In it, you play as a participant in a conversation with a friend who just met a celebrity that knew them in a store and was given an expensive, fancy present.
The main appeal here (to me) is the friend dynamic, the combination of disinterest, jealousy, and support shown by the main character.
There is a feature that crosses off links if they go to a page you've been before (I thought it was just if you've clicked on the link before, but Manon pointed out it's for if you visited a page before). This is a bit weird for the final choice, but otherwise works well. Nice work overall.
Acquire milk in multiple ways, July 18, 2023This is a brief game written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less featuring some cute images of anthropomorphic animals.
In it your character must get milk, but there are obstacles to this, like dealing with rain, multiple choices at the store, and interacting with the cashier. A lot of the PCs reactions reminded me of an autistic student I once had, so I wonder if there are autistic themes here.
Overall, the game is well put together, but the stakes never felt very high for a game prominently featuring stress, and some delayed text made replay a little bit harder.
A brief, meaningful tale of what remains , July 18, 2023This game made me think, in a very unintended but positive way, of a whale fall.
This was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less. In it, a character name Jacob dies, fallen from the Ceiling (a literal ceiling? the top half of Midgar in FFVII? heaven?).
When they died, their bones, flesh, and blood were used for various purposes, detailed in the story.
The writing here is excellent and the story and imagery are rich. I didn't feel a need to replay this or revisit it in the future, though.
An exchange of names...or not?, July 18, 2023This entry in the Neo Twiny Jam, written in 500 words or less, concerns an encounter with a mysterious spidery being in the forest.
This is a fae-like tale, which a creature asking for your name whose motives may not be everything you think they are...
This is honestly a pretty good setup and mostly good execution, but the limitations of the wordcount bind this story and it ends long before the narrative energy has been expended. A less weighty tale or longer matter might make this stronger.
Amusing barbarian RPG written in Twine, July 18, 2023In the original Twiny Jam, some of my favorite games were ones that used the 300 word count limit to make tiny RPGs.
This game, in the Neo Twiny Jam that has been updated to 500 words, uses a similar concept, but with a barbarian twist. You are a wild axe wielding warrior exploring a small dungeon. There's a bit of a money system, combat, traps, and surprises.
I played through till one ending.
The game is definitely funny and I think I could recommend it. It's pretty short, so you won't lose much by playing it.
Game boy aesthetic evolution game, July 18, 2023This game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, is made in the style of an old game boy game.
Just like other monster raising games, you start with an egg which you can pet or feed, and your monster evolves from there.
By using graphics and understood mechanics, the author is able to create a lot of game out of the small number of words. The visuals and effects are really beautiful and I loved my ending. I played through twice, ending up with Bast the second time, which I felt satisfied with, and stopped playing there.
A short game about getting advice in high school, July 18, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam, with 500 words or less.
It's a take on the short story A Diamond Necklace, which I only learned from Manon's review.
In it, an older student takes you in and gives you a great deal of advice (you can get 20 or more pieces of advice, it feels like). Then you meet them again later, much later, and have the chance to thank them...
The language and wording are unusual. Many of Andrew Schult'z games are based on wordplay and are intentionally written in weird ways to satisfy word patterns. This one sounds a lot like those texts but I don't see any discernible pattern, outside of some 1984 speech.
Reading the short story it's based on helped me understand it a lot more!
Creepy/nostalgic abandoned mall story, July 18, 2023This was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
Abandoned/liminal/nostalgic media has been oversaturated this decade, but this game nails it pretty well and feels fresh. It uses creepy audio to establish the feeling, and it hits the right ratio of wholesome to unsettling that makes for a truly good horror piece.
Short and sweet. Interactivity is slight but used to good effect.
A surreal experience with romanian, July 18, 2023This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.
In a refreshing twist from the primarily (though not entirely) English games of the jam, this game is bilingual, with some Romanian first translated literally and then idiomatically (I assume that's what's going on; if not, it has the feel of that).
The first page had me captivated for a bit, puzzling over the different meanings and words and trying to understand the final message.
Then it was all soon over; another page, and then an ending. I definitely wanted more of it, but it seemed creepy, mysterious, and effective.
Very brief simulation of some private messaging, July 18, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam using 500 words or less.
Someone logs onto a group chat and demands an explanation about a solar panel. It could just be a friendly group of people with nearby cabins, or a post-apocalyptic group, or just some rural people. It's hard to tell.
It's pretty funny though. There's some mild swearing, but overall I laughed out loud multiple times at this, and I haven't done that at a game for quite a while.
A choicescript game about waiting and love, July 18, 2023This game is written for the Neo Twiny Jam, requiring 500 words or less. And it uses the Choicescript engine, which is a bold choice, as choicescript is suited towards very verbose games (there are several choicescript games with over a million words of text!).
However, this uses its text wisely, with a longish loop. The words in the game evoke desperate waiting and loneliness for another. The patient lover, the waiter, who is faithful and won't abandon their love. But when the loop ends...
The tone varies a bit, seeming almost modern at first, then heavily antiquated, then more like 1800s speech. Each style is well done, but perhaps could be consolidated into one? Overall strong writing.
Covid lockdown loop, July 18, 2023This game, written for the Neo Twiny Game Jam, which requires 500 words or less, rubbed me the wrong way at first, with some capitalization errors and using default Twine format.
But I honestly like loops, and I enjoyed the earnestness of this one. I loved clicking on these burning questions like 'Who did this?' and immediately getting an effects-heavy response like (Spoiler - click to show)ME, THE CREATOR. It was honestly fun. The loop had a few interesting variations, as well.
A brief preliminary to a greater story, July 18, 2023This short game, entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, serves as a brief introduction to a greater story.
It has an interesting mix; a dangerous location, a mysterious facility, weird beetles, and a connection with someone you're desperate to find.
All of these blend together well, and the setup looks nice. If it were to continue, I could imagine it being a powerful story. As it is, in < 500 words, it only manages to give the beginning of the prologue.
Brief cannibalistic love simulator, July 18, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam, where entries need to have 500 words or less.
This game is about cannibalistic love. Or hate, you get to choose. You and another, someone who was close to you, or dying on an icy plain. They go first, with leaves you with one option:
to eat.
The game's tone varies from darkly morbid to the chant of 'hungry hungry hungry', and one path provide more effective psychological moments at the end than the other.
An interesting concept buried in the code, July 18, 2023This game has you allocate 100 units of something into 6 different boxes, then makes a poem based on it.
It's a small game (written for the Neo Twiny Jam, which requires 500 words or less). But it just doesn't make much sense; after making a poem, which is you extracting sense from the universe, it 'extracts sense from you' and gives you a number.
Nothing really changes from this.
Well, I wanted to 'extract some meaning' from this, so I downloaded the zip file and looked through it.
Under the hood, it's doing some fun information theory type stuff. Really convoluted things like taking the average of all your past choices and looking at 2-log of the ratios of the differences of you etc. etc. etc. to represent the information the universe gets from your thing.
None of this comes across in the game. Complexity that players never see is the exact some as simple code that the player never sees. The experience is everything!
Solid game with an abrupt ending, July 18, 2023This game is written for the Neo Twiny Jam, made for games written in 500 words or less.
It presents the story of someone who always felt like a boy, even though his mother felt otherwise. It presents a general feeling of malaise, before transition, a feeling that you could never be yourself, and the difficulties of living with unsupportive people.
This story is well-written and has some nice effects. There aren't too many choices, and then suddenly...the game ends very abruptly. It makes sense, and I think the whole game was designed around this moment, but it was intriguing enough that I think more could have been better.
An exploration of alcohol as a monster, July 18, 2023This Neo Twiny Jam game explicitly describes alcohol as a monster that haunts you, your father and his father before him.
The jam conditions require this to fit into 500 words or less, and it does this in part by having choices that more reflect your personal feeling rather than branching the story, and that works well.
The portrayal of alcohol as a monster is a good concept but I feel like this doesn't really add anything to that idea that hasn't been done before. The monster exists, whispers darkly to you, is resisted by love. I think old ideas can work very well without needing to switch them up, but it works best if there is a strong underlying story to graft on to rather than existing alone.
A short story about dueling powers, July 18, 2023This is a Neo Twiny Jam game, written in 500 words or less.
In it, you take the role of one of two primordial powers, meeting endlessly to discuss your opposing roles. It's also a love story.
In a cycle that never ends, what is the point? Do you succumb to despair, or try to change?
I was a bit lost in the first couple of paragraphs, and re-read them 3 times to try to focus, but after that it all clicked and was enjoyable to read.
A relatable poem about drifting apart, July 17, 2023This game was written as part of the Neo Twiny Jam, written in 500 words or less.
It's a poem, and it's well-crafted, both in its words and meaning, but also in its design; I enjoyed one segment where each line was just a bit longer than those before, forming a pyramid.
It's about a couple drifting apart. One person, the narrator, is always trying, always eager to please, while the other always seems to drift away, no matter how much the narrator tries.
I found this game especially meaningful as something similar to the narrator happened to me during my divorce. I had mentioned (Spoiler - click to show)that we would be having our 10 year anniversary soon and my ex realized that she had spent almost (Spoiler - click to show)a decade of life together, and it was frightening. We ended up being divorced at (Spoiler - click to show)8 and a half.
The folly of Icarus, July 17, 2023This is a pretty solid representation of the myth of Icarus. You play as the fated child, ready for your first flight, but with a mocking crow observing you.
This game is written for the Neo Twiny Jam, with <500 words, so there's not a ton of story, but the author manages to make it feel both long and meaningful by having series of pages with many links of which you can only click one. There's no going back, contributing to the feel of falling.
The contrast between the main text and the 'inevitable' text felt a bit off to me in a way that's hard to express. But I liked the overall effect of this and enjoyed the mythology references.
An expandable essay, July 17, 2023This game is an essay in an expendable format, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.
It's an edgy tale, with theme of black, red and white and displayed over a background of what looks like abstract art of muscle cells.
It is one static paragraph with numerous links that expand into their own page, giving it the feel of a children's book with little openable paper windows giving more details. I like this technique and would enjoy seeing i more for short works.
It's about self-harm, and a very different take than Gavin Inglis's game Hana Feels, which was an educational game designed to inspire sympathy. This game explicitly rejects sympathy; to the author, self-harm varies between amusing and matter of fact. It's not meant to be something sad.
The game has a very focused narrative and tone. The narrator wants zero credit or sympathy for both self-harming and stopping self-harming, so in accord with their wish, I will afford them none, but for other readers in similar situations, I do have sympathy for you.
Very brief story about a dinosaur nightmare, July 17, 2023This game was entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, written with 500 words or less.
This is just a big text dump; two choices, both leading to a solid wall-of-text paragraph.
The story is disjointed, about a dream about a skinned dilophasaurus. This is the second game by the author I read, and I far prefer the other one. This one just doesn't have enough substance to support itself.
Simple but effective goldfish simulator, July 17, 2023This game manages to fit a lot into its 500 words, written for the Neo Twiny Jam.
You play as a goldfish in your little world, a 29 gallon tank. There isn't much to do, but even your small routines take up the whole day, and soon you're sleeping, ready for more.
I found some nice little surprises, the tone varying from amiable to disturbing to contemplative. Does our goldfish dream of a higher realm, or is it merely troubled by thoughts of other possibilities?
A short twine game about rescue and robot , July 17, 2023This game was written for Neo Twiny Jam, in 500 words or less.
In it, you play as a young captain, alienated from your father and crash landing on a planet. Your sarcastic droid gives you comfort in these last times.
This has some great setup but kind of felt unsatisfying at the two ends, for me. The narrative arc felt like it hadn't reached the climax and so hit the ending running. Maybe a paragraph or two of further narration could help, but that would run into the word limit. Overall these characters could work well in other works.
Autism/alien analogy in Twine, July 17, 2023This is a short game in Twine written in less than 500 words. In it, you play as an alien who has, with other aliens, infiltrated earth, trying to impersonate humans but often failing.
In the author's notes, this story is framed as an analogy to autism, specifically the difficulty in determining what is normal for human behavior.
This is a good idea and has some authenticity in it that lends it strength, but it's a little messy the way it's been put together. The UI is garish, with clashing colors and random icons that don't do much but make a field of blinking eyes, making things confusing to navigate. It may be intentional to express the confusion of autism, but an accurate simulator of a frustrating experience is, itself frustrating. The story seems to be three or four different stories, as it's hard to tell if this is an omniscient narrator infodumping, a person thinking alone, or a party; it hops back and forth disconcertingly.
Some solid ideas here, but their current presentation is confusing for me.
A drunken tirade, July 17, 2023This game is sadly somewhat realistic. It's a Neo Twiny Jam game written in 500 words or less.
The game is simple in concept. Audio indicates that a door is opening, then a conversation ensues.
This is essentially someone drunk who is tearing down their partner, trying to ruin everything they had together in a tirade.
It's hurtful, but brief. It could fit in to many relationships, not really bearing either a unique individuality or a universal applicability.
A toxic protagonist on the verge of losing it all, July 17, 2023This game uses a simulation of texting. There is some delay between texts, but it is mild and the game is short (< 500 words).
In it you play as a classic example of a toxic person in a relationship. Silent treatment, blaming others, pushing others to invest in fantasies you never intend to complete, ignoring people until they're leaving and love bombing them.
It's kind of twisted to see things from the abusive person's viewpoint, but the game does a good job of being authentic to the style of thinking.
Fan game of a newer cartoonish shooter, July 17, 2023I haven't played Friends vs Friends, the shooter/deckbuilding game this is fanfic of, but I looked up some images of it and it seems pretty fun.
This game is in binksi, and is controlled by the arrow keys to select different text options.
There are some cool graphics and text, and you have a conversation between friends at a diner.
Everything seems set up pretty nice, but I feel like there's a slight lack of nuance. Facial expressions don't change much, conversations lack a lot of details and feel like they could fit in almost anywhere, etc. So everything's high quality, but I could have seen it having more uniqueness.
Twine game with parser-like functionality and shocking conclusion, July 17, 2023I tried this game in French at first but didn't know some words (like damier) so I switched to English.
This is a Neo Twiny Jam game, a game written in 500 words or less. It uses a parser-like functionality in that you give commands by clicking on links, with your list of commands expanding over time.
It took me just a few moments to figure out what was going on, but that grew into a mix of amusement and horror. Trying my options, I thought I had failed, but trying more and more my interest grew, especially as I had just been listening to season 3 of the Magnus Archives, episode 83, which is strongly relevant.
I got a bit annoyed by timed text on replay but it makes sense for the setup here. Very well done.
Pitch a difficult project to investors, July 17, 2023In this brief Twine game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, you play as an inventor who is pitching their project, Sprinklepills!
The game is pretty short, with only an option or two, but presents a whole story from start to finish in a way many of the other jam entries fail to do.
I liked that the story could be read a few different ways; as stoic heroicism in the face of doubt (like The Pursuit of Happyness), as a goofball story of a whacky inventor, or as a deluded individual.
Overall, there's nothing wrong with this story, but I feel like it has a lot of features that could be dialed up. There's some good writing, but it has the potential for being great; the plot is interesting, but could be engaging, etc. So I look forward to future works from this author, but feel like this won't be their greatest work.
Pain and escapism as a child, July 17, 2023I've heard of the name Cressida St. Claire before although I'm not exactly sure where. I guess it makes sense, since this story is written well, but I think this is the first game of theirs that I've played.
It's a brief tale, written for the Neo Twiny Jam. It deals with a child who ponders the constellations they cannot see while waiting for a mother to visit who brings pain.
It's hard to read, because it represents a harsh reality for so many people. Especially the idea that no matter what you do, your abuser will consider something that you did as wrong, anything to justify the treatment. Overall descriptive writing.
Just a crumb of a clever game, July 17, 2023This game seemed almost intimidating at first, like a puzzle box unfolding.
You are outside a palace on a gondola, intent on breaking in. As you explore links, more and more of the text unfolds, allowing additional links, additional interactions.
Once I solved the first big puzzle, the game ended. This, then, is just a prelude, cut short to fit into the Neo Twiny Jam.
This seems like it will be truly great, but for now is quite short.
Deep fear and driving, July 17, 2023This is a well-put-together twine game for the Neo Twiny Jam, written in 500 words or less.
In it, you play as someone who seems to have a crushing fear of injuring someone while driving. I understand this fear for sure; I'm a mediocre driver and zone out a lot, and have had close calls in the past, like almost getting sideswiped by a semi truck when I was in its blind spot.
This driver's fears are expressed through oblique references and through the use of color and a few other graphical techniques.
The game itself is tense, but the background is hard to define. Parental trauma lingers in the background, but there's something else going on that's hard to define and is left unsaid. Interesting game.
Powerful and evocative imagery: friendship and loss, July 17, 2023This Twine game entered in the Neo Twiny Jam is, like the others, under 500 words.
It uses a pleasing text effect where hovering over underlined words brings up a box with clarification, like words muttered under the breath or mental comments reviewing your own previous thoughts.
I at first thought this was just going to be some edgy stoner thing (as it starts with you passing a joint back and forth with a friend) but it's a lot more meaningful, with a deep science conversation about the sun and a link between that and the situation going on around you that is full of implication but not brought into the open.
The ending is powerful in its own way, but it didn't completely land for me, as I felt like it was slightly disconnected from the rest of the game. Kind of like a differentiable piecewise function that has a discontinuous second derivative; the transition is fairly smooth at the break point but something feels slightly off. But the writing is great, some of the best I've seen in the jam so far.
Touching words in poem form about grief, July 17, 2023This is a short poem entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, coming in at slightly less than 400 words.
It is a poem of consisting of short, staccato sentences of roughly equal size, some using text effects such as blur or cycling links. It covers brother who is not there, a brother who the parents refuse or are unable to see.
It has several possible interpretations, between loss, a change in self-identity, or something sinister.
There are few choices, if any, but the links there are help to guide your own pace through the poem and split it up in good spots, so the interactivity worked for me.
A descriptive and plaintive monologue by a dying vampire, July 17, 2023This game has you, an ancient (I think) and powerful vampire, trapped on a roof, dying as morning breaks.
The author does a good job of evoking feeling. There is some minimal use of quickly timed text, which felt appropriate for the story. The character is portrayed with nuance, both bombastic and arrogant but also stoic and resigned.
There is some appropriate music setting the stage. It was brief, as intended for a Neo Twiny Jam game.
Very relatable story about depression and difficulties of birth of a child, July 17, 2023I identified with this a lot. It's a story about the agonies of feelings of inadequacy after childbirth. I remember that feeling after my son was born and knowing that every second of the rest of my life (at least for a decade or two) somebody had to be watching and taking care of him. I remember panicking when some numeric milestone wasn't reached like weight and I remember the first time he had a serious injury. The protagonist is hit even harder, though, as there seems to be very strong post-partum depression and/or anxiety, so it must be a truly rough experience. The author clearly loves the child but that doesn't make it easier; if you didn't love, didn't care, then things would be great, because you wouldn't have to stress about the kid. It's the love that allows the anxiety to take hold, which adds to the guilt. So it's all very relatable.
A poetic and haunting dance by a puppet, July 17, 2023This Neo Twiny Jam game reminded me of the Magnus Archives in a good way.
You are a puppet made of the shell of a cyperus (which I think is a tigernut? after looking it up). You are forced to dance and dance, but unlike the other puppets, it brings you no joy.
This is framed in the art for the game as a trans story, which it makes sense as, but it also could extend to many things where the reader differs from others around them.
Overall, I found the writing evocative and poetic, which pulled the whole thing together for me.
A discussion about the title, July 17, 2023This is a short game entered into the Neo Twiny Jam, made for games with 500 words or less.
This game features a creepy situation, where one of your classmates admits they constantly want to grope another classmate. In a twist, the would-be groper turns out to be (Spoiler - click to show)a girl. So I guess the moral of the story is that creepiness is not limited in its scope, but all can be disturbing and/or put on watchlists.
Heartbreak in a half-K words, July 17, 2023This game is entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, having less than 500 words.
It's an interesting game, a sequel to an idle game called Literally Watch Paint Dry that I'm in the middle of playing as I write this. It has some interesting plot twists about friends saying cruel things.
This game is split into two branches, one with a friend that is pretty kind; this branch is fairly bland. The other is with a 'friend' who hasn't been there for you since transitioning. This one is more poignant.
Overall, I feel the game made sense without knowledge of the idle game prequel. But both branches felt like they could use a little more 'seasoning', some more uniqueness in either phrasing or plot.
Clever concept but a bit confusing, July 17, 2023This is a well-made Twine game written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam
Rather than attempting to fit a grand structure into that small space, the author has created a linear narrative that is frankly very amusing.
This linear narrative is enhanced by many little animated doodads which react to hovering or clicking. These are pretty cool, but they all seem to advance the story the same as each other; I think. That's the thing, I couldn't tell if they were different branches, little side effects that returned to the main thing, etc. So I liked the overall idea, but my brain didn't comprehend well.
A cute micro story with multiple endings; game about a bird, July 17, 2023There's something about a minimal twine or parser game about a cheeky bird that makes for a great story. There have been quite a few in recent years (like Free Bird or The Familiar or Among the Seasons), and this one is a great addition.
It's in a scrollable format, each choice you make adding to each another in a chain, reminiscent of Inklewriter. The words are minimal, which makes sense as it's entered in a jam for games with < 500 words. It uses this minimality to add 8 different endings, mostly in a branching time cave-type format.
Cute text styling and mild animations/timed effects add a lot of character. Very fun.
A brief emotional goodbye amidst the flames, July 17, 2023This is an entry in the Neo Twiny Jam, written in less than 500 words.
Rather than focusing on significant branching or mechanics, this story paints a picture of two cursed lovers perishing in the flames.
It has some mild worldbuilding and instead focuses on emotion. I felt like the overall story and vibe worked better than some of the individual phrasing. The characters seemed at a distance from each other, having slow, tender conversations while in a situation that would make speech quite difficult. But I think this author is one I'd like to read more of in the future.
A t-rex/tiger hybrid questions existence, July 17, 2023This is a brief Twine game written for the Neo Twiny Jam.
It features an illustration of a t-rex/tiger hybrid called Baron Magmawalker who questions their existence.
The very concept is, in fact, deeply cool. However, this game seems to want to go into four different directions and doesn't manage to get far in any. It's an origin story mixed with an exploration of personal depths mixed with an Aesop's fable mixed with the prologue to an epic quest. I feel like it could do with a bit more focus or a bit more time.
A short but luxurious and desperate dream of love, July 17, 2023This is a short game, less than 500 words, entered into the Neo Twiny Jam.
In it, you recreate a dream of the author where you meet a beautiful individual whom you can try to be with over and over again.
The game is brief, but it satisfies my 5 main criteria for games:
+Polish: I saw no bugs or typos. The lush color scheme and music complemented the story and setting well.
+Descriptiveness: Every word felt like it had a purpose.
+Interactivity: I had the impression of control at first, and when I didn't it felt like it fit the theme.
+Emotional impact: I totally understood where it was coming from, especially as a dream.
+Would I play again or recommend? I did play a couple of times.
Brief but vivid tale of a vampire on the hunt, July 16, 2023This is one of the better Neo Twiny Jam games I played. You play as what seems to be a vampire at a coffeeshop, contemplating your latest prey.
It has customized styling and background music. The words are well-suited to the length of the piece, eager and fast, like they're racing through the protagonist's brain.
It is violent (I could do without the reference to (Spoiler - click to show)popping eyeballs), but it fits in with the theme and the imagery. Overall, this is wrapped into a nice, concise package with consistent tone and strong emotion.
The brief story of a trans fairy, July 16, 2023This Neo Twiny Jam game, written in 500 words or less, is the story of a young fairy that is trans.
The balance here is interesting. There are a lot of games and stories out there about being trans, and even more that are allegories for being trans. Some of these are incredibly effective, while others can be confusing.
This one overall has a lot of authenticity but can be confusing at times as it mixes between the explicitly trans nature of the character and the fantastical allegory for it as a fairy who doesn't feel like a fairy. It felt like the same dialogue twice, once at a whisper and once as a shout, and I wonder if it could have been stronger to structure it in some different way.
The beginning of something great, July 16, 2023Unlike other Neo Twiny Jam games I've played, this one is openly unfinished a taste of a later game to come.
Therefore, it just stops in its tracks, a less satisfying resolution than a full story.
But it holds out promise for a greater game. There is already tension here; you are a young noble, unhappy with your parents, and bound to marry a prince you do not love, while other potential romantic partners are in the air.
Looks like it could be great when finished, but the current amount is just a dip in the water.
Two different takes on curing viruses, July 16, 2023This game was pretty cool; I replayed it about 4 or 5 times.
It's a Neo Twiny Jam game written in 500 words or less. But in this case that's distributed to two separate games: one about curing a biological virus, and one a technological.
The biological one is basically just a branching tree. But the computer one had a few fun parts, including exposing its own code in a clever way and having a text-entry puzzle that was complex enough to be fun.
Splitting up the text into two games may have been a mistake, though, as each part is almost painfully brief in terms of both descriptiveness and gameplay.
Brief fantasy horror game with high production values, July 16, 2023This game was entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, which restricts text to 500 words or less total.
This makes it hard to make a big, polished game. But this author managed to achieve that with background music, complex UI, fancy fonts and styling, etc.
There's not much time to tell a big story here, given the word limit, but there's a lot of world building that paints a bigger picture.
This is pretty good and I'd give it 4 stars, but I think that there's something missing from the story that ought to be there and I can't put my finger on it. I'd like to say it's more emotional complexness or a surprise or something, but I can't say exactly what it is. Very good, though.
The finale of a trio of tiny games, July 16, 2023This is the final game in the series, and while it doesn't pull out too many surprises compared to the first two, it's a fitting conclusion.
Like the others, you put in a couple of names and choose between two worlds. This is a bit surprising, as the main character of the last two games (Spoiler - click to show)died, but it makes more sense as you play.
I enjoyed the small trio of games. It was perhaps a bit overwrought at times, but it works with the styling.
A tale of two people and two worlds, July 16, 2023Like the previous game in the series, this is a very brief twine game that allows you to enter names for you and a loved one, and then cycles between two options, each comparing different worlds.
I always liked 'two world' stories from a young age (I think light world/dark world in Zelda is what got me into it). This is short, but I like seeing the contrasts.
A love letter with brief interactivity, July 16, 2023This game was written for the Neo Twiny jam, in 500 words or less. It is part of a series of 3.
The interactivity at first appears intentionally minimal, with the option to enter two names at the beginning and the option to toggle between two variations in a cycling word.
But as I went to write this review, I realized that that cycling word changes much of the rest of the story. It's clever and subtle; the piece is still slight, and must be so to fit into the confines of the jam, but I enjoyed this large-scale choice.
A sexual game in the form of poetry, July 16, 2023This game is essentially a love poem about a couple, describing their sexual experiences.
It is written in less than 500 words, and interaction occurs in two ways: clicking arrows back and forth, and mousing over text which expands the legible text.
The wording is poetic, and the UI is well-done and artistic. The game had content warnings, which I should have heeded, as it was much more explicit than most games with similar content warnings.
A brief and cryptic gruescript game, July 1, 2023This game is more the hint of a story than a full story. It's written in Gruescript, a relatively recent language that is a parser/choice hybrid, created by Robin Johnson.
This game blends physical objects with conversational topics. What you're holding, you can talk about. If you can talk about something (like a name), you can take it and drop it.
The setting is some kind of alternate mythology, a fantasy world that has echoes of Greek mythology (some kind of box that wasn't meant to be opening, blends of snakes and people).
There's just not much here; I reached an ending early on that I thought was a time limit. I restarted and found out it only comes from asking a certain topic. I avoided that topic but couldn't find much more; downloading the (helpfully provided source), I see that that was the full ending.
So this game is pretty short. The concepts are good, though I had some trouble with figuring out how to do what I wanted. In a fuller game, it could be very fun, but for now, I'll be content with this hint of a game.
A sketched-out game with a vintage engine, June 21, 2023This game was written using ADL, which was the engine Ken and Roberta Williams used for some early Hi-Res Adventures (from what I can gather, though I may be wrong).
The game itself is a downloadable windows executable. It consists of a moderate number of rooms (around 10-15), each with either one interesting item or one interesting NPC. Nothing can be interacted with outside of these singular items (no scenery, etc.). All play consists of fetching one item in one room to get a new item in another room (like a trading-up quest). There are occasional typos, and the storyline isn't really there.
The author has admitted to having run out of time. Having more time would certainly improve the game; the author has mentioned implementing the scenery, more puzzles, etc.
For now, though, the game is lacking in polish and descriptiveness, and due to its unfinished nature lacks emotional depth. I'm giving it one star for its current state, but if the author ever updates it I'll definitely increase the rating, as the ideas in it are good, it just looks like it needs more time.
A goofy game about business networking, May 13, 2023This is a relatively brief Twine game with some silly/goofy humor in it. It seems like the main goal is just to get the reader to laugh, like when you can choose between wearing a suit or a cardboard box for your big debut.
'Aesthetics over plot' seems right, as there isn't much plot to talk about. You're out of work and are going to a networking event, and you just choose how to react to a few different things.
I'm not sure how to approach this review, so I'll use my five criteria scale:
-Polish: The game has some typos, and I think decapitalizes your name when you type it in.
+Descriptiveness: There are some clear textual images that are pretty funny, like your character shouting out their plans at the party.
+Emotional impact: There are definitely some funny parts.
+Interactivity: There are some significant differences on replay, even though it's a short game, and achievements are generously handed out.
-Would I play again? It was entertaining, but too slight to replay several times. I did replay once to see how much of a difference there was.
A short but amusing pig farming simulation, May 6, 2023I enjoyed this brief respite while playing Spring Thing games.
You play as a mutant pig farmer dealing with bikers. Life is kind of unfair, because if you don't feed your pigs, shovel their poop, and deal with bikers, you're gonna lose your pigs! And there's not enough time to do all of that...
Fortunately you have other options as well. And trying some of them out can give you different fun endings in a short amount of time.
I reached a point where I could pick between two different endings, and I picked a deathmatch, which was pretty amusing.
I liked the game, finding it polished and descriptive, but I didn't feel like replaying it in the end.
An individual's life explained in autobiographical fashion, May 2, 2023For me, I tend to choose interactive fiction that has features of escapism, and feel like I'm taking a break from reality when I play the game. That's one reason games like Violet threw me off at first, since, despite their quality, they reminded me of my real-life PhD pressures.
This game is quite the opposite of escapist. It poses (from my perspective) a single question: if you knew you were going to die, what would you do to be remembered?
Bez talks in honest and self-reflective detail about his experiences with pseudo-dementia, which led to concern that they would soon perish. Now, though, e's in a better place, so now we can look back and see how things were going, and how the game A Single Oroubouros Scale was developed.
Like a few of Bez's other pieces, this is structured not as a game but as a narrative essay, which different chapters broken up by hyperlinks. For me, the hyperlinks brought a definite sense of interactivity to the piece, because it was like finding clues in a mystery game, except instead of solving a crime you're trying to understand a human being.
I thought I had finished the whole project, and felt it was missing just a bit more that could help communicate the author's intent, but when I came to review the game, I found a poem (by the poet that his recent game Hidden Gems, Hidden Secrets centered on) which beautifully complemented the overall experience.
An unpolished first game about Emperor Nero, March 25, 2023It is clear that this game wasn't really finished. It even says so in the description, that it is a first game, rushed, etc.
The idea is that you are emperor Nero and that you are furious, because it is the day of your concert, but instead of paying attention to you, everyone is crying about their houses burning!
You have to investigate three different groups of people to find out what's going on, and then try to get your concert going.
The amount of typos and such increases as the game goes on, with errors in Twine popping up and at least one blank spot. However, I do think it's being updated during the comp, since it says only the Epaphroditus path is finished, while I was able to talk to a few people.
The text is descriptive, and the interactivity is actually a bit fun (should you sacrifice dignity and talk to the guards naked?), but this just needs more polish. Emotionally-wise, Nero is a bit too much of a single note--his arrogance just gets hammered over and over again without anything to contrast it with.
From what I've seen, I think this author could make great Twine games with just a little more preparation and time.
The most-reviewed game on IFDB, March 25, 2023As of writing, this game has 54 reviews on IFDB, more than any other game on the database.
I had a review of this game years ago that was mildly spoiler-y, and it was my lowest-rated review on IFDB by far (like 0 out of 9 people found it helpful).
I thought I'd give it another go.
This game is short but memorable, and its main defining feature is the way that it sets expectations. Funnily enough, this helps it serve as a great introduction to IF for newbies, since each command is hinted so heavily without feeling like handholding.
For instance, in my games, on the first turn I'll say something like 'You can PICK UP the telephone', just holding the player's hand very heavily, while this game simply says 'the phone rings'.
The room prominently displays loose objects, encouraging the player to pick them up; mentions only a dresser, encouraging the player to try OPEN; clothing, encouraging the player to WEAR, which then triggers the need to shower, adding a little complexity.
Driving can be complex in other games, but hear any reasonable actions with the car will get you in and going. Even the (Spoiler - click to show)ID card, usually something people code in a weird way, is hinted nicely with saying the reader has a place for you to INSERT the card.
For most people, at least in the years when this came out, the events in the game are completely reasonable and logical ones that they've either experienced or seen on TV (younger players may be confused you can't take the telephone with you). For experienced IF players, the bare-bones house descriptions are par for the course. So in this way, the author manages expectations in a brilliant way.
In my last review, I dinged the game for its bland prose, but looking back, it manages to add a lot of character in small ways. Like, if you eat the pop-tart, it says 'It's not Sunday brunch at Le Trop Cher, but it'll do.' That's clever. So it's not that the game isn't well-written and punchy, it's more like an optical illusion where it takes good descriptions and interesting responses but puts them into the same overall 'shape' as a bad, first 'my apartment' game so you just gloss over them until you realize they had more depth than you thought.
Overall, an interesting game, and an influential one.
A brief verbless escape room in Twine, March 17, 2023This was a nice little treat, but was over as quick as it began.
This is a seedcomp game based on the prompt that players do a closed door game without using verbs, just adjectives and nouns.
I spoiled myself a bit here by not clicking the links in order; because I went out of order, I skipped about 1/3 of the game, which was red herrings.
Overall, I like the cute ideas expressed in this. It was polished to me, and descriptive in its own enigmatic way (what does the paintbrush mean? interesting). The interactivity worked well for me, but I didn't have enough time to get really drawn in. I'm glad I played.
A study in contrasts with vibes of Porpentine, March 16, 2023This Twine game has you enter a beautiful cabin that you can customize to your hearts content. Drinks, decorations, everything is what you like.
There's even a holoscreen, which is nice. And the game can end this way.
Or...
There is an alternative world you can enter that strongly contrasts with this one. It reminded me of Porpentine a bit (mostly the juxtaposition of a pleasant holochamber with (Spoiler - click to show)body horror, so there's a ton of people in similar genres, but I'm not widely read in that area, so I go to Porpentine first).
It also reminded me of a grimdark video my son and I used to talk about called the Rainbow Factory from the MLP fandom.
Anyway, there was good atmosphere overall, the game was very descriptive, and it had some nice interactivity, but I think the overall length wasn't enough to draw me in, and the ending scene for me lacked something I can't really put my finger on. Still, it's overall a well-done game and one I hope is preserved for others to play in the future.
A lovely fusion of TS Eliot with a clever mechanic, March 14, 2023This game takes several TS Eliot poems and combines them with some original poetry (which fits in quite well and is lovely).
It uses a stressful mechanic: a giant countdown clock in the background ticks down one minute's worth of time. Once it's over, something special happens (and is a pretty neat trick).
I like the overall vibe T.S. Elliot's work, having encountered it once in high school and again in Graham Nelson's Curses!. There's a lot of parts of his work I dislike, but this game has great chunks in it that work well. The frantic race to see things leads to quick reading and moments of 'huh, what was that??' that were fun. I guess it was the opposite of timed text; instead of the author telling me how long it will take me to read a passage, I get to go at any rate I want through the game with just the overall experience being timed.
I played through three or four restarts until I saw everything I thought I could see. I don't know if there's a canonical ending, but my game ended with a lengthy race against the clock with a piece of actual timed text that made me feel like I was some person at the end of their life just watching the last bits of daily existence before floating away.
Overall, the game is polished, descriptive, has a nice interactive twist, drew me in, and I played it several times.
A surreal dream game with glitch graphics and adult content, March 14, 2023This is a Seedcomp game, made with Super Videotome, a branching visual novel/IF engine.
It has a great deal of glitchy graphics that honestly look great and add a lot to the game atmosphere.
You play as someone stuck in a club for hours and hours on end. So long, you can't even remember why you're there.
From there, it branches quite a bit; a feature I really liked is that you can choose to skip a choice rather than choose anything, and that felt really authentic.
Mine ended up in an explicit sexual encounter with a biblically accurate angel. I don't associate explicit sexual content in games with positive feelings, and so it decreased my enjoyment of the game, however it was clearly signalled at the start of the game that it contains such content, together with strong profanity. The profanity use reminded me most strongly of the 14 yr old boys at my high school, so that's how I imagined the protagonist.
The best part of this game is the atmosphere and the surreal world.
I thought the atmosphere worked well.
Track down environmental criminals in a family friendly game, March 12, 2023I liked this game, and felt it was a solid improvement over the author's previous game.
Here, you play as a member of the coast guard who is trying to track down a tramp steamer leaving a trail of destruction around the Florida coast.
The game is well-suited for children, with needed commands bracketed to be clear, light puzzles, and a generally positive and happy attitude.
Movement is unusual; a single N command might move you one room forward in a ship or send you dozens of miles through Florida. It reminds me of Victor Ojuel's game Pilgramage in that way.
The conversation system is well-presented, with an extra window popping up, although most conversations for me involved just going down the line one at a time.
I appreciate the game running smoothly and well. There were a couple of minor issues like 'an unsecured items', but overall it worked well. I feel like there could have been a bit more polish like replacing 'you can see Bart here' with something more specific.
So to me, it was descriptive, interactive, and fun, but not completely polished and I don't feel like I would revisit it. If the last game was a 5 or 6 out of 10, this one is a 6 or 7 out of ten.
Place your own prophecy upon the world, February 27, 2023This is a brief but replayable game.
You have found the ancient Temple of Destiny. Inside is a prophecy in the form of a poem. Interestingly, the stone it is carved on is movable, and you can alter individual words and phrases.
This allows you to construct the prophecy you most desire!
Unfortunately, you cannot go back to previous choices; what's done cannot be undone (without replaying). This makes it a bit hard to strategize without writing everything down, as you can't just cycle through.
Like others, I found the Good Ending and the Bad ending but not the Worse or Better ending. I also found the 'give up early' ending.
Pretty fun concept!
Spy on grandpa in this text game with graphical UI, February 4, 2023This game reminds me a bit of Sweet Dreams by Papillon or of Bitsy games. Basically, you control a character on the screen and you interact with objects by hitting the space bar. Then you get some text or possibly some options.
It's a relatively short game, but well-done and polished. Your grandfather never lets you up into the attic, but you've sneaked in and now you're going to discover the truth for yourself. The relationships depicted are by turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, and there are definite funny moments (like the expressions grandpa makes when you ask very personal questions).
The game's only fault, to me, was that it was fairly brief, giving a limited sense of interaction. I don't think a game has to be long to be great, but I feel like this game didn't fill up the full size of its concept. I did enjoy it, however.
Fun, short branching game about defending from treason and war, February 2, 2023This French Comp game uses the theme of 'betrayal' well. An army is coming to your castle at your weakest moment. Someone must have betrayed you, but who?
The game is short but pleasingly symmetric. There are three suspects, each with three possible actions (consult with them, accuse them, and interrogate them). When it's time to face the enemy, you have three choices.
There are a lot of endings, mostly bad ones, of which I received two, but overall it was fun. The text doesn't vary much based on your choices so you can replay very swiftly. Investigating the treason felt interesting. Overall, the game is short but with a fun pattern.
Body horror with skin/flesh, last of unfinished series, January 10, 2023I hadn't realized when I started this series of games based on the Magnus institute that it would just end. As far as I can tell, the creator abandoned social media (under the current name) a year or two ago.
These games were based on the Magnus Archives podcast, which has 14 archetypes of fear. The ones that were missing, and would presumably end this series, are the Web, and, appropriately, the End, or death.
This game is about the Flesh, the fear of body horror and of being eaten.
Your girlfriend is getting a scarification, with some strips of skin removed. She has it bandaged while its healing, but when the bandages are removed...
Overall, this series started out strong and had some great parts (I enjoyed the Dark, the Spiral, the Stranger, and the Eye), but kind of petered out near the end, which may be why they stopped writing it. But I think, if they ever decided to finish it, a strong ending with The Web and the End could make the whole thing kind of a masterpiece.
Survive the aftermaths of a fire in a lonely watchtower, January 4, 2023This is the 11th in a series of games based on the entities from the Magnus Archives Podcast. This one focuses on The Lonely, or the fear of being abandoned or all by yourself.
This short Twine game opens a bit slowly. You are sent to decommission a fire tower in a US national park. With no one around, you can at least take comfort in another nearby firetower and its inhabitant that signals you.
Things pick up a little bit later.
While I think this one doesn't really evoke much fear in me, compared to the others, I think its twists and the overall writing is strong. It has also the most action I've seen so far in the second, 'worldbuilding' part.
Short, sad trans horror game with some overall world-building, December 30, 2022This is the tenth game in the Usher Foundation series, in which each game is centered on one of the primal fear archetypes of the Magnus Archives Podcast.
This one is about the Stranger, which is a fear of the uncanny valley and that people around you are fake somehow.
This story is short. You are trans, and your best friend is trans. You are in high-school. Over the summer, your friend changes somehow. He appears to be detransitioning, possibly against his will.
This game is shorter than the others in the series, but has a more extended 'overarching worldbuilding' segment at the end, which is good, because I felt like that subplot had kind of stalled.
Short, horrifying insect/trypophobia twine game, December 30, 2022This is the 9th game in the series of games based on the archetypal fears found in the Magnus Archives Podcast. This one focuses on the Corruption, which is one that really gets me, a fear of decay, disease, and insect infestations.
You are bidding on storage units to sell the stuff in them, when you find one that has a peculiar insect infestation. Later, you find out it wasn't the only thing that got infested...
The game has some nice (as in very gross) interactions with picking/popping black dots on your skin. Overall, this game made me feel deeply uncomfortable.
Madness and minotaurs in a metropolitan subway, December 24, 2022This is the eighth in a series of short Twine games based on the central themes of the Magnus archives.
This one is based on the Spiral, associated with the feeling of losing you mind, as well as being lost.
In this Twine game, you are exploring the subway tunnels under NYC after a hurricane as part of your job, when your crew comes upon a perfectly preserved wooden door deep underground that leads into a well-lit, carpeted hallway.
The game employs some clever mechanics to track the feeling of slowly losing your senses.
My five star rating is not necessarily because I would recommend it to everyone as being an exceptional game, but because it satisfies my personal rating criteria in terms of emotional impact and interactivity.
Civil war reenactment gone terribly wrong, December 16, 2022This is the 7th in a series of Twine games centered around the main themes of the Magnus Archives podcast. This one is based on the Slaughter, or fear of mass violence and death.
In this Twine game, you are hired on to help with a Civil War reenactment, helping fix uniforms, belts, etc. But one of the men has a strange book, and you almost feel like you've gone back in time...
This one didn't pull me as much as the others in this series, probably because the Slaughter has always felt like an academic fear to me, given that I've been lucky enough to avoid direct contact with war during my lifetime, only seeing it in the news. The best parts are linear and the branching parts are rather dull, so I'm glad to see this one go and move on to the next. So far this author's best games that I've seen have been ones that focus on personal connections.
A brief tale of a criminal escaping a burning hospital, December 13, 2022This is another entry in the series of games based on archetypes from the Magnus institute. This one is based on the Desolation, which is associated with loss and fire.
Thematically, it works well; it features a burning hospital and a health point meter, and has some complex decisions in regards to human life.
Emotionally, a lot of it didn't land with me; the PC is unequivocally bad, so it sets you up to play as a bad guy, but then presents moral decisions which would be completely straightforward for a villain in distress.
And the 'overarching plot' section at the end felt a bit like an exposition dump, one that is well-needed but could have been dragged out a bit more.
Magnus archive fangame about being watched, December 12, 2022This is the fifth in a series of 12 twine games about types of fear from the Magnus Archives podcast.
This story is about the Eye, or fear of being watched.
Like the others in the series, it is short, with a couple spelling errors. But it does some fun tricks that make you, the reader, feel that your personal space is being invaded or that you're being surveilled, in addition to the regular story, giving a more direct version of the fear than the other stories so far.
Besides these tricks, the main story is about a man selling off his dead father's possessions, including a very large collection of glass/plastic eyes. But he starts to get a feeling that he's being watched.
Interestingly-styled Twine game focused on adrenaline and open spaces, December 12, 2022This game is the fourth in a series of Twine games centered around the Magnus Archive podcast. This one centers on the Vast, or the fear of very large things like the sea, sky, or space.
Except...this one's not really about fear. Quite the opposite, really. This story is about two girls that meet and start to bond romantically over falling, whether tripping on a sidewalk, bungee jumping, or skydiving.
The game implements 'vastness' into its styling, with very long pages to scroll through; it's actually very effective, I liked this quite a bit. It adds a bit of interactivity to an otherwise linear story.
I was a little disappointed that this doesn't really follow the modus operandi of the Magnus Archives. No one is really afraid, here; this is honestly a feel-good love story with a bit of drama at the end. Which could be great, if that's what you're looking for.
A brief horror story about a gay couple and deep snow, December 12, 2022This is the third game in a multi-part series based on the Magnus Archives. This one focuses on the Buried, or the feeling of claustrophobia.
The main characters are a gay couple on a vacation to a cabin in the mountains. One of them finds a disturbing book in the cabin, a copy of a Jack London novel that's not quite as it should have been.
As the story progresses, things get increasingly more frightening. I actually found the writing very strong, feeling visceral discomfort from the horror.
Unfortunately, I found some formatting issues, which others apparently also experienced. At different points, the white links disappeared, until I went to full screen, and even then I had to change the font size multiple times to reach the next links. This took away from the experience somewhat.
Spend a horrible night in a lab, December 12, 2022This is the second in a series of short Twine games centered around the themes of the Magnus Archives podcast.
This one is based on one of my least favorite archetypes from the series, 'The Hunt', and it's presented in a fairly straightforward manner without a lot of twists or turns. For most of the game (spoilers for midgame) (Spoiler - click to show)you are running away from bizarre beast, dodging different directions in a maze-like labyrinth.. It was just so on the nose that I wished there was more subtlety, more build-up.
Overall, the writing is strong; in both games I've played there are occasional typos (I've been guilty of that quite often myself), but the ideas and atmosphere are solid. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
First in a series of games based on Magnus Archives, December 11, 2022While hunting through few-rating games from this year, I was pleased to see a whole series of Twine games based on the Magnus Archives, my favorite podcast (I've listened to the whole thing at least three times). The organization of the games in this series is based on some of the deeper lore of the series, centered around archetypes of fear.
This one is about darkness, a fear the original podcast writers said they had trouble writing effectively themselves. This one does a great job; at first, it's a pretty mild/boring Twine game about going the bathroom, but quickly gets darker...literally. Warning for those who have trouble reading, (moderate spoilers) (Spoiler - click to show)the text gets harder to read and eventually you have to hunt the screen for text that pops up.
The game is pretty short and could probably have been extended, but overall I'm looking forward to playing and reviewing the other games in the series.
Short game with colorful links about an abused prisoner aided by voices, December 11, 2022I've been browsing IFDB by searching 'added:2022' by the fewest ratings to see games that didn't get noticed this year.
This was an interesting IFDB entry: added by an author who only was on the site for a couple of days, editing this post a couple of times, with no other activity.
The game itself is actually an interesting concept. You are a prisoner in a torture chamber-based prison deep underground.
Three voices, (a red one, a blue one, and a green one) urge you to acts of escape and violence.
It doesn't last too long, but looks neat visually. There were several typos (it's possible the name of the player was some special effect that doesn't display, since the subject was missing of several lines). Overall, it could stand to be fleshed out a lot more. But the core concept works.
A classic story with a small addition involving reader response, November 23, 2022This game is part of a group of similar stories. Other such games by this author have consisted of a classic short story with modern additions by the author where people comment on the story, including a text box where the reader can type something which the game then interprets using sentiment analysis to change some subsequent text.
This game is no exception, although it is smaller than the others. It is also different from the others, in that its 'meta-commentary' is no longer a separate, modern story; instead, it's an addition in-universe, still with the sentiment-analysis text box. However, due to this being a speed-IF, only one text box is included.
The short story chosen this time is obscure; I only found one 'hit' when searching, on an internet archive of an old magazine.
My view on these games has certainly changed over time. I went from believing they had no interaction to believing that they are excellent at hiding all the interactivity.
A game that makes you think its responding to your actions, even if it doesn't, is a game that is very fun to play, if only for one time. (For instance, see Attack of the Yeti Robot Zombies). But the converse is true; a game that does extensive work, but leads the player to think it does none, is not fun to play. Simply putting a message next to the box that is, as the author once said, metaleptic (or maybe extra-diegetic???) saying 'positive sentiment detected' in green and then highlighting the subsequent changed text in green or using red for negative sentiment would instantly improve reaction; this is just one idea, there are many ways to make it look like the game is really thinking.
Like a character says the movie The Prestige:
"The trick was too good, it was too simple. The audience hardly had time to see it[...]he's a wonderful magician; he's a dreadful showman. He doesn't know how to dress it up, how to sell this," and I think that applies to this whole series of games.
A light snack of a game about reviewing zombie brains, November 14, 2022This game has a pretty simple concept and executes it well. You are a zombie who has just completed a tasty meal of brains, and so you write a yelp review.
You pick the number of stars, describe its connection with past meals, discuss how you approached the entree/victim, etc. It's all pretty brief, but I didn't see any bugs, and it was descriptive and funny.
Overall, a nice note to end playing the ectocomp games on.
It's the end of the world. What do you want to do?, November 14, 2022This is a speed-written IF game using the Twine system. In it, the singularity has happened, but technology is giving humans exactly 7 days to do what they want with their lives before being assimilated.
It's a sobering situation. The emotional stakes are subtly raised by changing the background color every day.
This is a speed-IF, so options are limited. The main options here are to write or to go outside. I varied back and forth between them, and had an ending that to me was satisfying.
Shoutout to the very specific descriptions of listening to local indie bands, felt very realistic.
Love poem about romantic encounter with a husband, November 14, 2022This brief game is essentially a poem about physical love between the main character and their husband.
It is simultaneously explicit and not, similar to the Song of Solomon, which represents sexual feeling as a form of divine worship. This short poem combines both that religious sentiment and also a form of physical violence.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and each person experiences romantic and physical attraction in different ways. While I could appreciate the author's emotion and feeling, I didn't feel a universality in the experience that called me to share in the experience.
The styling is quite complex, with shades of pink and red. The majority of interactivity is in moving to the next page or clicking on words to get essentially footnotes.
Overall, I valued the elegance of the language the most.
A torture/religious game written in 4 hours or less, November 14, 2022(I discuss some body horror stuff in this post, so squeamish may want to skip)
This is a speed-IF made for Ectocomp. In it, you play as a victim of a torturer who sadistically injures you.
The game is quite gory. There's a lot of things that various games can have that makes me uncomfortable and not play, but I don't really hear that as often from other players. So when several commenters on other websites had said this game made them feel deeply uncomfortable or stop playing, I was expecting perhaps the most horrible game ever created. With such foreboding expectations, the game itself, while still excessively gory, wasn't quite as bad as I thought.
For one, you are a very willing and happy participant in the events. While the descriptions are written to shock and horrify, is it all that different than a C-section, or a dentist visit? I go to the dentist, and they stab the roof of my mouth with a needle and then grab my tooth with pliers and pull as hard as they can, ripping out what's essentially a bone and leaving a bleeding cavity for weeks. So the game wasn't quite as bad as I expected; in fact, the part that turned me off the most was the first ending which had some unexpected misogynistic language.
Overall, the game captures a rapturous tone in a way that reminds me of some of Porpentine's work, specifically Their Angelic Understanding. The violent torture in exquisite detail reminded me of Paperblurt's The Urge.
I don't recommend this game in general, due to a few people having an adverse reaction (and me personally not being a huge fan of torture), but I think the craft is well-done and the writing is descriptive.
A brief Choicescript tale about a troubled ocean voyage, November 14, 2022This is a speed-IF written in 4 hours or less, written using Choicescript (which is a hard engine to do speed-IF in). It features a dinner party in old Constantinople, where you, a ship's captain, have to tell the story of a fated ocean trip that leads to the title of the game.
The story itself is bizarre and perturbing, and well done. The opening setting is also solid. Other parts of the game are a bit patchy, as is usual for speed-IF, since time runs out; the main things here are the quickly-sketched out endings and the fact that some parts of the game are written in rhyme and others are not.
Still, the story itself is very solid, and I like this setting and would like to see more. The only Byzantine/Constantinople game I've seen before is Kyle Marquis's Silverworld, also in Choicescript. Overall, I'm glad I played this short Ectocomp game.
A text message horror game written in 4 hours or less, November 13, 2022This is a relatively brief choice-based game with an interface written in Ink that mimics text messages.
You are texting your mom and your friend ash, just having a regular day, when things get strange and weird. The game's appeal is mostly based on its twist, so I won't spoil it here.
The plot is pretty good, but the dialogue and characterization are a bit generic; it's hard to get a feel for who the characters are, and their individuality. The texts are slow to come, which was a bit frustrating.
The UI looked neat, which seems like a good accomplishment. This game makes me think its author is really talented at web programming.
Man-shaped mushrooms make me maniacal, November 11, 2022This is a relatively brief twine game with three endings, two bad and one good.
The idea is that global warming exposed a layer of mycelium all over Antarctica that is sentient. Scientists made super-soldiers out of it by using genetics to create human-shaped versions of the very strong mushroom material. But these mushrooms tend to cannibalize each other, so to stave off their desires, humans volunteer to be companions that the mushrooms can drink the blood of every now and then.
You volunteer to be this companion, and have to fill out some intake forms and get acquainted with the area before meeting your future companion.
The game does a good job of expressing the alienness and horror of the creatures, but I'm not sure it presents as strong of a picture of the protagonist, whose motives and actions didn't always seem connected to each other or to my desires. Overall, the styling was nice and I enjoyed the ending I reached.
Branching supernatural disaster game during Hurricane in Louisiana, November 5, 2022This game has you play as a well-prepared Louisiana resident hunkering down during a category 5 hurricane. Fortunately, you have an attic stocked with tons of equipment. Unfortunately, all sorts of supernatural creatures are messing around with you.
This game has nice presentation with Chapbook and music/sound effects. The color and font choices worked well for me. It's pretty brief, but has some nice non-linearity and several endings.
The thing I liked best about the game was the specific local flavor. Several of the monsters are referred to with French names or have characteristics unique to the area.
The only drawbacks to me were that each path was fairly short and a lot of the items didn't really do much that I could see.
Branching Twine Tarot game written in 4 hours, November 4, 2022This was a fun game to finish on while playing through Ectocomp games.
You are at a party that is winding down when your friend Mery suggests using Tarot cards to predict your future.
In the game, she deals 5 different piles, each of which contains 2 cards. When she gives you a brief interpretation, you are also allowed to pick one of the two, or to quit playing and walk away.
There are a lot of endings, including gruesome deaths, but there's at least one cute and positive ending about being creatively inspired.
There's some content warnings for sex, drugs, etc. but I only really saw deaths and the Tarot cards have some nudity. This game has a lot of endings for a game made in 4 hours, which is nice!
A trippy Spanish binksi game about visiting a small town, November 4, 2022This game was complex and difficult to understand at first. It's a binksi game, similar to bitsy (the game system with minimal sprites, color schemes and animations), but mixed with Ink, the scripting language.
In this Spanish Ectocomp game, you wind up driving to a small village that still has people using donkeys and children play strange games with silhouettes and with a fountain in the town.
The game has several shifts in perspective that I didn't fully understand, which I can mostly attribute to my own poor understanding but also seems to be a mechanic designed to mirror the protagonist's own troubled mental state.
I definitely found the imagery in the game disturbing and frightening, but only from a psychological viewpoint; there is little to no gore and no jumpscares or anything. I think it is effective at being frightening. Like the author says in the description, it can be easy to miss things; I missed a lot of things on the first try and had to replay. Fun, short, and easy to play.
An unfinished Spanish witchcraft horror game with promise, November 4, 2022I was very excited by the beginning of this game but soon found that it was fairly unfinished.
The opening is very mysterious: you and your wife arrive at a house. Your wife has a bruise--is it from you, or someone else? You enter a house with 5 rooms, greeted by an old woman with dark secrets. That night, you have a terrible dream...
All of this is great. But much is left to be done. Conversation doesn't work (TALK TO, ASK ABOUT, direct speech, etc. in Spanish), and many items are not implemented. One of the few things that is implemented is an inventory limit of just two items.
The game has so many cool ideas, I would like to see it more developed. It stopped right at a very cool part! But for now I think it just needs more work to flesh it out more.
A well-implemented small scenario with thriller and occult elements, November 2, 2022As a non-native speaker, I appreciated this game, since it was well-implemented, suggested verbs in the text that can be used (like "Montando el kit se construye un..."), and is a tightly-contained one-room scenario which limits possibilities to a reasonable amount.
The idea is that you are in a building watching a newly-born political party (the Party of the Future) holding a rally. Something odd is going on, as people and buildings around you demonstrate if you watch them closely. On the bed is a suitcase containing a disassembled rifle.
This game is short, but it had a couple of twists I didn't expect. It has one main puzzle, which I think is pretty fair. I decompiled it to figure it out, but even then it didn't give it away, I still had to think about it. I really liked the writing in this game, too, it was terse vivid and descriptive with its few details.
A pleasantly creepy multimedia experience, October 29, 2022I'd first like to say that the art, animation, and audio for this game are very well done. I loved the style, and would be happy to see it again; it's unique, I haven't seen other games with the scribbly dark figures.
You play as a dangerous and large being that is hunting for food by a bridge. Humans pass by, and you can decide how to act towards them.
I played through to one positive ending (villager ending 1), but the way the game reacted to my choices made me feel like there were many very different endings. That's pretty cool!
There were some typos here and there (like "One of the small humans'", with an extra apostrophe). Overall, it was fairly brief. But what is here is excellent.
Use mind control for corporate profit--sparingly, October 29, 2022As of writing, this is tied with Esther for the most-reviewed game of IFComp 2022.
It's a fun short Ink game where you have the ability once per night per person to inject corporate slogans into people's brains.
The fun of the game is that you can use your powers to mind read 4 different 'tracks' all night (i.e. following each of the four main NPCs), jumping tracks at will, as well as watching the TV as a 5th track.
Your actions have a variety of drastic side-effects, and strategizing is fun, so I replayed several times. I do think it could have been fun to be a little longer, or have one more person, but overall I found it very impressive.
A brief spot of hope in a life that spiralled, October 28, 2022Katie Benson has made many games of varying length that are always well-polished, descriptive, and generally have simple, story-focused gameplay with a positive message (such as the Crumbs series), although sometimes things can get wild (like Off the Rails).
This game is a bit short but has a nice message. Each screen generally has two choices, one that expands the text and one that moves on.
The idea is that your life is spiraling out of control. Things are getting darker and sadder and you find yourself more and more isolated. But there is a glimmer, like the game name says.
I definitely appreciate seeing games from this author in competitions and hope to see more, always a positive spot.
A charming story about mice with a few small puzzles, October 28, 2022This game is small and designed for children. It has some lovingly made illustrations of little mice and the girl who runs a cafe.
Story-wise, it's about two mice who want to get special food at the cafe but can't communicate. Mechanics-wise, it's almost like a language puzzle, and had surprising depth for such a small game (like the depth of a medium-sized game).
The writing is generally pleasant; it had some, but I wanted more, humorous incongruities of the type common in good kid's stories (may favorite was the (Spoiler - click to show)fall of the pudding at the end and everyone's reactions. The whole thing feels like it was designed with prudence and restraint, maintaining a small size and scope and polishing itself in that sphere.
A short Twine game with lots of worldbuilding, short time, October 27, 2022The name of this game comes from the fact that you have 5 remaining hours and each big action or scene takes up one.
This is a short Twine game, but it seems like it has the worldbuilding for a much larger story. There is an ancient, near-immortal Shogun (named (Spoiler - click to show)Charlie????) that enslaves and tortures special people who have Curses.
A weird apparition gives you a weapon to fight the Shogun (from searching, the weapon may be inspired by Sword Art Online). You can have various fights, or just remember all the deaths in your life and give up, etc.
The game feels a bit rushed or unfinished, with lots of plot threads left hanging and some little bugs (an option near the end wouldn't let me click it, for instance).
Overall, I think this just needs more time in the oven. The slavery in the game doesn't really seem to serve a purpose besides being a shorthand for suffering.
An exercise in futility, made in Texture, October 26, 2022This is one of the more polished Texture games in the IFComp 2022 competition. Texture is an engine for IF that involves dragging verbs onto nouns to make choices.
This game is primarily a phone menu system. There are a lot of options, many of them creative (like turning it all into Polish).
The overall feeling is a sense of futility or frustration. I tried out several endings, and all of them seemed to express the same sentiment.
Overall, the game is very polished and descriptive, and conveyed its sense of frustration to me. I wonder if the joke could have been extended a bit or if there could be more of a central narrative, or something else to extend this a bit. Unless of course I missed a big final ending! I've missed stuff like that before.
A decidedly undercooked parser game, October 26, 2022Almost any game can be polished up and made great. This game needs a lot of polishing.
This is a parser game that puts you in the middle of 9 rooms, 8 of which have the same description that includes a typo. None of the standard responses are changed, ABOUT, CREDITS, HELP, etc. have no response. There are only two items.
It seemed like there was absolutely nothing to do. I eventually decompiled the code and used it to finish the game; the following set of rules may serve as hints to others:
(Spoiler - click to show)When Floor 1 begins
After dropping colored egg when the location of the player is flod room and Floor 1 is happening
When Floor begins
After jumping when the location of the player is pled room and Floor 2 is happening
Every turn during Floor 2
When Floor 3 begins
After inserting something into something
When Floor 4 begins
After touching monkey during Floor 4
Every turn during Floor 4
After pushing when the noun is Ye Shiny Red Button and Floor 5 is happening and player has golden egg and player has golden seven and player has golden octagon and player has golden monkey
After pushing when the noun is Ye Shiny Red Button and Floor 5 is not happening
According to my rubric, this game is not polished, descriptive, has obscure interactivity, did not have an emotional impact, and I wouldn't play it again in its current state.
But I don't think the effort is wasted or the author is bad. Clearly there are some good ideas here; this just needs more stuff implemented. I would recommend the author to pick the source code of one of the games you find when you search IFDB with the tag "tag:I7 Source Available", and look around to see what kind of things authors can do to make games more polished.
A cute, short choice-based story about a mug come to life, October 24, 2022This is a game intended for kids about a magic cup that comes to life, written with the Strand system, which is the system used for the Magnetic Scrolls memorial and several IFComp and ParserComp games since then.
A lot of stories intended for kids end up being too inspid for either kids or parents to enjoy. This game was 'corny', but it was a kind of corny I liked and an imaginative one as well, with its own internal logic and, to me, compelling arcs, even in its short playtime. I found the writing detailed and vivid.
You play as a tin mug that has the ability to affect the world around it, especially on today, its birthday.
Choices were usually binary, often with one clearly better choice, which would make sense when teaching a young child about how choice-based games work. I guess my only thought about possible drawbacks would be that the breaks between choices are fairly large and it would be difficult to hold a child's attention that long if they're excited about choices.
Exploring a city from Calvino's Invisible Cities, October 20, 2022This game lets you explore Octavia, a city described in the book Invisible Cities (by Italo Calvino) as a spider-web city hung on a great web of ropes, pipes, etc.
You are offered three different items to take with you. When you arrive, you have time to explore and look around, seeing the wonders of the city.
But not very much time. After 20 turns, the game ends with a vague message. I unfortunately got that message on my first playthrough right when I was trying to click a moving link, so I thought that this was a 'failure message'. With no undo, I was out of luck.
But I think the intent here is that you explore for a short time but are unable to see it all in one playthrough. That's a beautiful idea, but I find the execution a bit wanting. There's no indication that that's what the ending signifies, and the other review on IFDB I read also seemed to consider it as a bug or problem of some sorts.
I'm giving 3 stars mostly because I like the conceit both of the spiderweb city but also because of the idea of the limited time, even if it came off a bit weird.
Very short Twine game about picking a partner, October 20, 2022From the picture, blurb, and length on the IFComp page (which I swear used to say 2 hours, but I think I must have misread it because now it says 15), I expected this game to a big, polished Twine game with cool visuals, like Porpentine's Crystal Warrior Ke$ha.
Unfortunately, this is a very short Twine game with 1 major area, with simple links to rooms and back (each room being one passage). State doesn't seem be to be tracked at all. Almost all the endings are just vague statements that you slept with someone.
I think the author can do better. This kind of game can be written up in 30 minutes or an hour. That doesn't mean you can't make a great game in that time, but it's hard and needs good luck. I'd like to see more length and/or effort and/or cool new idea.
Surreal, abstract game about loss and ink, October 20, 2022This is a Texture game, involving dragging commands onto nouns, one of several written in a writing group and entered into IFComp.
This one deals with grief; a loved one is gone, and a letter from her appears and follows you.
I played through twice, one being peaceful and accepting, one being hateful and destructive. I felt like it made a lot more sense the second way. This game has poetic and abstract style, and I didn't connect with it. By that, I mean I would often read a page and feel like I couldn't remember anything I read or anything I felt. The words felt slippery in brain.
Overall I liked the branching paths, but I didn't like how the text often lacked paragraph breaks and sometimes changed font size dramatically from one page to the next; I know that can be a stylistic effect but I couldn't the connection between the text and the font size.
Overall, I like surreal games and enjoyed the 'dark' ending of this. But the formatting and phrasing threw me for a loop.
A surreal gruescript game about being lost in life and playing music, October 16, 2022So I have to shout out this author for being the first person to release a Gruescript game in a competition outside of Robin Johnson (that I know of). It's a cool language and looks neat.
This is a surreal game where you explore various dreamscapes after having failed at a musical career.
In a contrast to Robin Johnson's puzzle-filled games, this is more of a thoughtful introspection game where you wander around and follow directions given in-text.
I love surreal games in general, and Gruescript is cool, so I have a lot of good feelings in general. The execution needs a lot of work, though. The author says they want to learn, so here are my thoughts on things that could be improved:
-I feel like there could be a little space between the output window and the room description window; it felt a little crowded (I don't know if this is adjustable?)
-Some buttons had underscores (Who_Am_I) and some had spaces; I think it would look better if they were standardized.
-Some options seem like they unintentionally lock the player out of an action; like going south in the very last area and finding the envelope. Even if you don't open it, you can't go back north.
-The writing is descriptive, but it often feels like something's off with punctuation. I had similar problems and always check my games with Grammarly (I promise this isn't an ad lol), may be useful here. by playing through and copying and pasting the output
Overall, I think the game could be substantially improved, so I'm giving a lower score for now, but I definitely think this is promising and would like to see more from this engine and from this author.
A very brief RPG-style game about being marked and fleeing, October 13, 2022In this Twine game, you play as someone born as a Beast, someone who is marked with a strange symbol. You have to run away to a place where everyone else is like you or respects you.
The game seems like it will be huge, with two input fields and 4 status bars or conditions. But I played to two different endings in less than 10 minutes, both of which seem like full stories.
There are a lot of great ideas here; the overall storyline, the lush background graphics and sounds, the compelling choices and the way even the writing responded to my actions. But it all feels very unfinished and unpolished, with some typos and grammatical errors (like 'corspes' for 'corpses'). This just needed more time, I think.
A short texture game about horror with some emojis and pictures, October 12, 2022This game was listed as a 2-hour game, so I was expecting the largest Texture game ever, but it turned out to be less than 15 minutes long.
In this game, your roommates are going on a trip while you are left behind. Alone in the night, you face a few frightening encounters, and have a disturbing morning.
This is a Texture game, where you drag actions onto nouns, and here all the actions are represented by emojis.
I had trouble forming a coherent story out of this; it's mostly vibes, but it seems to contain elements of anxiety, self-harm, and something weird involving your friends?
An interesting experiment, but not one the grabbed me. It's polished and descriptive, but I didn't form an emotional connection and struggled with the interactivity.
An amusing adventure with a custom engine about a lodge, August 10, 2022I've been playing Parsercomp games in the reverse order of their placement. This one is pretty low on the list, but I actually had fun with it.
It's a custom parser engine, and it could use a lot of work when compared with engines that have decades behind them, but I liked the look, the browser-readiness, and the quick response time, so I definitely think it has promise, better than many custom parsers I've seen.
The game is silly fun and somewhat reminiscent of Zork. You are asked to visit an old professor friend (I think?) and end up at a lodge with several mysterious objects and items around.
A lot of text is non-interactive in this story, with lots of items described followed by 'PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE', which could lead to some disambiguation problems, but if you LOOK at the prompt it lists items in a big list, making it easier to know what you can interact with.
The structure branches a lot, which is a bit of a bummer as there is no save feature and replaying the beginning quickly gets repetitive. Replaying is more enjoyable if you can shake things up a little every time right from the get go.
I saw one typo, which is not that bad. I had some struggles at the end (this was my attempt at a happy ending after my bad ending revealed a surprising truth):
(Spoiler - click to show)
What will you do?
> hug beast
Undefined response.
> drop gun
Undefined response.
> say hello
What would you like to say?
> hi
What would you like to hi?
> x beast
A terrifying beast standing 12 feet tall. Its teeth and claws look razor sharp.
> give gun to beast
Undefined response.
> drop gun
Undefined response.
> l
I didn't understand that.
> look
There's a terrifying beast, and a bat swarmed exit.
> wait
I didn't understand that.
> stay
I didn't understand that.
> scream
I didn't understand that.
> x gun
It looks like an old service revolver. The wooden handle has been polished with sweat from decades of use.
> give gun
Undefined response.
> talk to yeti
What would you like to talk?
> x yeti
What would you like to examine?
> x beast
A terrifying beast standing 12 feet tall. Its teeth and claws look razor sharp.
> beast hello
The beast pauses.
PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE
Despite some typos, I'm impressed with the polish for a game made by hand. I found it amusing, and played a couple of times.
A demo for a game about searching a database for visual images, August 10, 2022This game seems a lot like Her Story (a popular game where you search tons of short video clips interviewing a woman about a crime, and you have to find and use keywords to search; I think, I haven't played it) but it uses static images instead of videos.
There are only about 8 images and it's difficult to know what to type. I got most of the images from this intfiction thread:
https://intfiction.org/t/anyone-having-any-luck-with-kondiac/56651/3
Overall, this is just the beginning of the game, so it's really hard to evaluate how enjoyable it would be if finished. Right now, I'm assigning it a low score on my scale (which measure polish, interactivity, descriptiveness, emotional impact, and the desire to play again), but I could see an improved version being really fun.
A basic sketch of an adventuring system written in Python, August 9, 2022This game was entered into the recent 2022 Parsercomp.
This is a python game. When it begins, it has a neat little loading animation, then gives you a list of commands.
Gameplay consists of fighting, where you can attack or run away, plus eating to regain health and trading.
There are only a few simple encounters and locations, so it seems like most of the work went into the system. These kind of things are pretty hard to program, so I imagine that the author found it enjoyable to wrestle out how to program all the different activities.
Unfortunately, most of the work recreated things which were done before in other languages, and so from a player standpoint there's not a lot here that's new or exciting.
-Polish: The game is a bit buggy and could use more disambiguation and error messages.
-Descriptiveness: The game is fairly sparse
-Interactivity: It was a bit hard to figure out what to do
-Emotional impact: It doesn't seem designed for that.
-Would I play again? Probably not.
A short ADL game about picking up and dropping items to get points, May 14, 2022This feels kind of like a game for the author to experiment with and/or learn ADL.
It's a .exe file that leads to a simple game with < 10 rooms. Most rooms have 1 item. There are several characters you interact with using TALK CHARACTER. Instead of GIVING items, you PUT items in different places. The game ends right when you get the final point, closing down instantly without waiting to display the end text.
The writing is minimal, there isn't a strong connecting narrative. The puzzles are logical, though. If this was a trial run for the author to check out the language, it succeeded. I'm very glad there was a tutorial, as most games written in .exe parser are hard to navigate, so that's a definite plus here!
UFO cycling twine poetry, May 1, 2022This is a short anthology of 7 poems.
Each poem consists of a few lines, each of which has cycling text.
You can either read the poem straight through and then cycle each line, or cycle through one line at a time. Or anything else you like! So it essentially is a collection of two-dimensional poems, which I like.
The poems are all about aliens, and saucers, and changes, and doubt. With its combination of obscure meanings and occasional goofy lines it reminded me a bit of Subterranean Homesick Alien or Decks Dark by Radiohead.
I appreciated this anthology intellectually, especially its polish and design, but didn't feel emotionally engaged for some reason or another.
An unfinished space parser game with graphics, May 1, 2022This is a short parser game set in space. It has neat little pixelart graphics at the top.
Like another reviewer, I had a bit of trouble realizing I had to hit enter to start the game (might be worth adding a 'hit enter to continue' text on the title screen).
The game has you floating in space. There's not much to do besides cry, it seems at first, but fortunately the game has implemented a lot of little actions to add character. But then the real puzzles start (for me, I started by (Spoiler - click to show)examining my suit, if anyone's stuck).
Besides being longer, the best thing the game could do is get more transcripts from players and responding to even more actions than are in the game (for instance, I think TURN ME should give a different response).
It also might be worth splitting up some of the complex actions into more parts; I typed in one command and the game had a big, complex scenario where I tried things over and over again until I figured it out. It might have been more fun to do that myself instead of having it described to me.
A lovely but incomplete demo for a romantic magical game, May 1, 2022This game has plenty of potential but is still in the early stages.
Right now, it's a completely linear intro with some nice music and some placeholder images with a charming feel. You are a young witch ready to profess your love, but when you arrive at your sweetheart's door, she's gone, and only a fragment of a spell is left to give evidence.
And that's it. Would play the full thing, when it comes out.
A short, amusing story of a crow with nice graphics, April 23, 2022This is a visually very nice game, and funny, too.
It's a short twine game where you play as a crow with an attitude and intentionally bad spelling (basically 'no u' times 100). Your attitude, is, in fact, measured, and you 'win' by getting the highest attitude.
We played this in the Seattle If Meetup and I played it after, as well.
It's fairly brief, and amusing. It seems to have some kind of randomization or procedural generation, as you can get different events on different playthroughs.
There's some mild profanity. Overall, it's not too long so if the above sounds appealing, try it out.
Archaeology and translation game with audio and glyphs, April 23, 2022This is an interesting experiment, reminicscent of Heaven's Vault or Short's First Draft of the Revolution, but I think it falls a bit short from both.
You plays as a translator, given glyphs in the ancient language of Asemia. Clicking on glyphs gives you other glyphs. After you go to the next page or two, a translation appears.
Asemia was a place of hard things, where people died and soldiers destroyed. The music and the extra-translatory dialogue also deals with this.
To me, the biggest difficulty I had was in the obfuscatory interactivity. What does clicking do? The same glyphs and stories came up multiple times, sometimes with different translations, and sometimes with the same. Do my actions, cycling through glyphs, change the output, or do you automatically get different results each time?
And it just doesn't make sense from a translation viewpoint. The glyphs you cycle through are very distinct from each other, so it's not like you are trying to guess what different words are in the language. It would make more sense to cycle through the translation of a fixed glyph, like Heaven's Vault does.
I'm sure there could be a deeper meaning to everything, but I didn't find it. Lovely visuals and graphics, though, and the writing is solid.
OCD/anxiety/sensory processing simulator, April 23, 2022This is a compact twine game where you attempt to go about your day despite a minor annoyance.
The bulk of the game is a long loop about dealing with the annoyance.
Quite a bit of it reminds me of my friends with sensory processing disorders including certain forms of autism, where they have to go to other rooms to avoid noise or where head-cancelling headphones.
Some of it, though, seems more directly tied to OCD, like repetitive hand-washing behaviors.
Its overall message about how to deal with these things isn't something I can personally vouch for; however, the techniques described do seem related to those I've used to manage depression, so I could see them being valid in this situation.
Overall, I think the structure is interesting, but I feel like it could have been developed a bit more, hit home more.
Smugness simulator: Edutainment about eating bugs, April 23, 2022This game's tone reads like a game parody of Neil deGrasse Tyson's 'well, actually' twitter posts (like when he pointed out that leap day isn't the earth actually leaping). The tone is very heavy-handed and smug, with the game literally telling you 'you made a wrong choice, make better choices in the future'.
I'm sure it's a parody, but a well-made simulation of an annoying thing is still an annoying thing.
Otherwise the writing is sharp and word choices and images are clever.
Message-wise, I think the concept of humanity eating bugs is just fine; I love shrimp, and shrimp is more revolting-looking than other insects. But it helps that I was fed shrimp at an early age; I got used to it, and I'm not used to bugs.
Overall interesting, but, to me, too successful at imitating an annoying person.
One-move game about you, an island, and a monster, April 22, 2022This is a short, one-move game from the author of the iterative Locked Door series.
You are alone with a hideous monster on a planet, alone and marooned. Most actions end the game immediately, with some kind of effect, while others give you more info.
A lot of work went into this. Decompiling this, there are a ton of verbs being implemented here.
Many of the results are similar to each other, but at least they're coherent. I got a Sisyphan vibe from the game (maybe projecting; I like Sisyphan things).
I can say I found it pretty funny when I realized what the general theme was. Worth trying out due to its short, easy-to-try length.
An accurate depiction of a controlling/abusive relationship, April 19, 2022Whew! This game brought back a lot of memories.
It's a game that doesn't take too long to play. You are a person with an abusive significant other, Alex (I read the protagonist as coded female and the antagonist as coded male, but the game is purposely ambiguous and uses they/them pronouns for Alex).
Alex does things that are expressed as being for your best interest, but really they are for their own selfish interest. Keeping your away from your friends and family on social media , moving to be closer to their family but away from your friends and family, constantly worried that you will cheat (yep), shaming you for interests they're not into. All of which I've experienced in real life.
Actually, contemplating this game made me zone out for about an hour, thinking about things, and I wrote a big personal essay about it and realized I never finished this review. I guess I'll have to give this game points for emotional impact, that's sure. I found the choice structure not as compelling, but I can't think of any recommendations for it. It has real interactivity and limited options, but I feel it could be somehow pushed a little more. Overall, a game that has unsettled me to my core.
Branching mini-stories over coffee, April 13, 2022This is a Bitsy game with 6 different main paths. Bitsy is a visual equivalent to Twine, using simple graphics and arrow keys, although this particular game has some more elaborate images.
Instead of moving a character like most Bitsy games, you navigate a conversation menu. It's a rainy day, and you walk in to see an old friend you haven't seen through years. Different conversations seem to give completely different friends; or do they? There's another thread at the end which is interesting.
Overall, I found this game polished, descriptive, and the interactivity matched its length. I don't think I'd play it again, but it was emotionally interesting to me.
An ink implementation of the famous opera in French, February 22, 2022This is an entrant into the 2022 French IFComp. It is a prologue that covers the first scene or so of Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte.
It's very appealing visually, with a detailed backdrop and avatars for speakers.
Overall, I found it solid, but I felt less capable of making decisions that change the story. Most options were about reacting, with a few important actions. I wasn't sure if anything was being tracked, but at the end it listed my stats and showed that I had changed things a bit. It might be good to have a way to check that more often in the finished game!
A compact but tricky multi-stage puzzle to open a door, January 24, 2022This series of games starts with a simple puzzle in the first entry (just a locked door) but adds puzzles every time.
This entry is quite complex compared to earlier entries, with a broad map, numerous tools and items, an NPC, easter eggs, etc.
However, some bugs and typos have crept in, like 'bathroom' being lower case and some synonyms not being set (like for the (Spoiler - click to show)safe, where 'set' and 'turn' don't work but 'turn' does).
So the game isn't polished, but it is more descriptive and compelling than the others.
The third iteration of a minimalist game, with a real puzzle, January 24, 2022This version of the Locked Door series (which adds more and more puzzles to the original) introduces the first real puzzle, although its fairly simple.
Rather than the original two rooms, there are now 5, with one room included in another.
There was a bug in this one, where trying to (Spoiler - click to show)open the crate without (Spoiler - click to show)the crowbar will (Spoiler - click to show)increase the score and partially act like you have the crowbar but not open. Given the smallness of the game, I think it could have been error-free.
Slightly more complex than the first game, January 24, 2022This game is part of an iterative series, where every new episode builds on the last.
This one adds an NPC and requires a single somewhat complex interaction, as well as making the final room one step longer. It's reasonably well polished, and I was amused/intrigued by the iterative concept, making it more emotionally impactful than the first.
Almost the smallest game possible with a locked door, January 24, 2022This game is essentially one of the coding examples from the Inform manual. It consists of two rooms, one with a locked door and a key. There are no real surprises; decompiling shows no hidden content.
The game is polished, but is not descriptive, has little interactivity, low emotional impact, and I wouldn't really play again. According to my rating system, it's 1 star.
A short, classic-style Halloween CYOA set in the woods, November 14, 2021This is just a choose-your-own adventure story with a Halloween theme. You are alone in the woods with various options, and have two encounters with strange creatures. Your reactions to the strange creatures (at least the second one) determines your ending.
It's pretty short and the interaction isn't too strong. I found it relatively funny and played through it a couple of times. It feels very 'halloween'-y, so if you're in the mood for a shoot spooky treat, this is a good option.
A short, linear twine tale about a true-life parental tragedy, November 14, 2021This is a short Twine entry in Ectocomp 2021 and is, I believe from comments on intfiction, based on a true story.
You are a young girl with a generally kind and loving father. He begins acting strangely, though, and you try to come up with a hypothesis to explain his behavior. But nothing you do helps...
The game has some options, but is generally structured linearly. The game has custom styling, but the majority of the game's strength resides in its matter-of-fact storytelling of an emotional and complex issue. I found it polished, descriptive, emotionally compelling, and with just enough dynamic energy to push the story forward; however, I don't see much replay value. That would make it a 4-star game under my rubric.
A short graphical game with text narrative about a baby nightmare, November 14, 2021This game is written in Mosi, which apparently is like Bitsy but for mobile. Both platforms are used to do basic pixel art and to have little 'interaction spots' that bring up text and change the environment somewhat.
This game has you wandering around as an egg in the world of nightmares, eventually encountering others of your kind and humans. I explored a lot but saw some parts I couldn't reach. One part of the game was still in spanish, but the rest was translated well.
There was some freedom as to what to do, but overall the game left me wondering a lot about the main character and didn't really fill in very much, so I didn't feel a strong emotional connection to the game, nor did I find it very descriptive or have a strong desire to replay.
An unfinished game about guessing types of blood, November 14, 2021This is a game with a lot of good ideas that get kind of lost in execution.
It was written in 4 hours, and not finished. It uses interesting color styling for the background, links and plain text that generally works well (although some inline links are hard to see, being merely bolded).
It sets up an interesting competition where you sample a blood's color, odor and taste and use that to guess its original owner's age, last thoughts, etc.
Only one scenario is programmed. I guessed wrong, but an error in the game let me go on; however, it merely went to a page that said 'this is how far I could get in four hours'.
The text that is here is detailed and interesting, but in most ways it is unfinished and not ready for play.
A creepy short Ectocomp game, November 13, 2021This is an excellent creepy short Twine game made for Ectocomp in less than 4 hours.
It features custom CSS styling that nicely represents multiple worlds. You play as someone swimming in a pool that serves as a sort of portal to a darker (or lighter?) world.
There are 3 endings, one of which took me a while to find. The writing is nice and tight, the pacing is good for a short game, and it's visually appealing.
I had to look up the name, as a US resident. Apparently a Lido refers to a public outdoor swimming area, which makes sense since that's what this game is all about.
A short story about an evil apartment, November 12, 2021This is a fairly short twine game made in 4 hours for Ectocomp 2021 (Petite Morte division).
In it, there is an interesting take on viewpoint as the main text is from the point of view of your (evil) apartment, while your choices are your own.
There is a short part introducing the setup, followed by a puzzle part with limited moves.
I found two endings, but both were pretty depressing, so I'm not sure if I 'won' or not.
-Polish: The game seemed bug free, but had little in the way of styling (which makes sense for a speed-IF!)
+Descriptiveness: The gam isn't heavy on environmental details but has a distinct voice.
+Interactivity: I enjoyed the main puzzle
-Emotional impact: I felt like I didn't have time to really absorb the chillingness, and the two endings weren't strongly differentiated
-Would I play again? I feel like I got the whole message in the first go.
Multi-colored horror personality quiz?, November 12, 2021This is a Twine game about a book. The book is said to drive people to madness.
The book is associated with 7 colors, and each of those colors with different (dark) facets of life. You first read about others who took on those colors, then read the book itself, and choose a future, associating yourself with a color/facet.
There's a weird fact in writing that if you use too much darkness, gore, or sexual references, it goes right past being powerful and/or disturbing and goes straight to silliness/camp, and I think that's what's happened here. For instance: (Spoiler - click to show)YoU doN’t knoW True JoY. StiCk youR FiNger in your eYe, put a KniFe throUgh youR TonGue. The writing is so extreme, ranging from insanity to guts to strong profanity to bizarre sexual references, that it loses a lot of its effectiveness. I think it could have benefited from being contrasted with something else, like more specific, concrete details or reactions from the PC that show how a human would feel about this, etc. What we don't see in fiction is often far more effective than what we do.
Of course, reading is completely subjective, and I could easily imagine a review saying 'This was amazing! The variety of voices, the visceral details, I loved it!', so I encourage people to try it for themselves.
Deal with a struggling food bank and personal decisions, November 11, 2021This is the third game in the Crumbs series by Katie Benson, all of which deal with a struggling foodbank and the effects of Brexit. All games in the series are speed-IFs.
In this one, your foodbank is one of many across the UK which are being pressured into closing by HappyHealth, a government-backed private company taking over health care in the nation.
You can call three people to discuss the foodbank, deciding what to share with them, what to ask them about. Then you make the final decision.
Each person seemed real, and the text was interesting. I felt like I had some interesting choices. However, there was a bug where I talked to Trudka and then Mom, but the game thought I had talked to Mika instead, so it looped me in talking to Mom over and over. I solved it by talking to Trudka, then Mika, then mom.
(Edit: In the latest version, this bug has been fixed).
Kinetic fiction about demons and obesity, November 11, 2021I played both versions of this game: the 'basic' 0.5 mb strippd-down version and the full 800 mb version with multimedia. The latter is definitely better, since the contrast of blocky white letters on black background makes the basic version hard to read.
This is a fairly short game, as typical for Ectocomp games, but maximizes its content by being choice-free. This style is sometimes known as Kinetic fiction, which draws its interaction potential from our own self-pacing and choosing to further the story. It doesn't always work for me, but when the writing is good, like here, I like it. Another good example is Polish the Glass.
The story is about a woman whose mother hates fat and pressures her to make a deal with a demon that would keep her skinny forever...until it didn't.
I've seen a lot of discussion of fatphobia online, with camps who are extremely upset with each other. The most extreme on one side get extremely upset at any online posts showing a person who's not skinny, while the most extreme on the other claim that obesity doesn't cause any health problems.
This game focuses on a gentler course than either of those extremes. Instead of telling us whether fatness is good or bad, it asks us to decouple our personal sense of worth from our body size; we can still make plans on decide what to do with our weight, but not to please others or out of shame.
I think that's an important message, since a guilt-fueled obsession with weight can lead to many bad habits that are worse than simply being overweight in the first place, such as eating disorders.
A blend of game types in a spoof on Castle Balderstone, November 11, 2021For several years now, Ryan Veeder has entered a game with a variation on th name Tales from Castle Balderstone. Previously, these games were parser games that contained many 'mini games' with a framing story that you were being guided around a castle that was holding a contest or reading of short horror stories, with each story being one game. The narrator of the framing story speaks to you directly as a guest, and is usually Ryan Veeder himself.
This game spoofs that general idea, but instead of parser games, it uses Ink, Twine, and Choicescript (possibly more). In an interesting twist, this year's real Castle Balderstone game also blends platforms by using both Twine and parser.
This game uses the same framing device, except now there are more Ryan Veeders; in fact, everyone is a Ryan Veeder.
The overall switching between systems is impressive, but the game has numerous errors, such as doubled periods in the Twine system and a game-crashing mis-defined variable 'raven' in the Choicescript section. My game ended abruptly after the Choicescript section with a screen that I could only see when not in full screen but couldn't click on, so I assume that was the ending.
Overall, the game has funny elements (such as the stats screen of the Choicescript section). I feel, though, that it misses the mark a bit. Castle Balderstone is already a humor/parody series, so making a parody of it is like making a copy of a copy, kind of how Scary Movie made fun of Scream which made fun of earlier horror stories. Part of what makes Castle Balderstone games work so well is that, within the framing, the stories can be seen as completely earnest and actually work quite well as sincerely creepy or heartfelt stories; the games also serve as a combination dumping ground/testing ground for interesting game concepts, many of which are completely new or at least relatively uncommon in the parser scene. This game has a touch of that (with blending Ink, Twine, and Choicescript), but in the end I was left a bit disappointed.
-Polish: I found several bugs, including game-crashing
-Descriptiveness: The game is pretty vague
+Interactivity: I liked the switching systems and some of the mechanics
-Emotional impact: Like I said above, it didn't really grab me.
+Would I play again? Yes, especially if the bugs were fixed!
Emily Dickinson, twice, November 10, 2021This is a Petite Mort game, meaning it was created in 4 hours or less.
The author has chosen two lovely Emily Dickinson poems focused on death and the afterlife. The author has turned them into a parser game as minimally as possible, so that looking or some other simple action is all that is needed to get the next action.
Most adaptations fail when they go 'off the rails', since people's writing is rarely as good as the original they're adapting, so choosing to be faithful to the original was a great choice.
Of course a game written in 4 hours tends not to be super polished, but I like the imagination here and the concept is done well.
A micro-story in space with growing horror, November 9, 2021This is a fairly short horror story set in space.
You wake up in a food storage area of a ship with all the food running out. You have to exit and explore your ship. The general feel is uncertainty, terror, and wistfulness.
It's a small game, only 4 locations. The writing has a nice creepiness.
Overall, it felt a little spare, a little far in the direction of minimalism, especially the final room.
A short and simple game with surprisingly little feedback, October 24, 2021I took a lot of ballroom dance classes in college, and I remember one of the biggest problems a pair could have is noodle arms. If the arms are rigid, the two dancers can communicate effectively, but if they're lose, dancers tend to step on and run into each other.
This game has some good ideas but has so little feedback. I had no idea what was going on until I peaked at the code.
Gameplay-wise, you wake up and have 3-4 areas you can take care of by watering, removing trash, etc. (Spoilers for ending and mechanic)(Spoiler - click to show)This lasts for 7 days, and, each day, the river grows bigger, removing gameplay areas unless you shore it up enough the day before.
For me, it was difficult to see any effect of my actions, besides the immediate ones of watering and such. (Spoiler - click to show)The effect of the river was indicated by the absence of old text, not the presence of new, and as I was shoring up a lot from the beginning, I saw few changes. This, for me, made the game more or less a tedium simulator. Even once I knew what was going on, I had no real reason to care for either out come, because I was nobody in a nobody land. I can see the thought experiment, but it just didn't pan out for me.
Gender identity through metaphor, October 24, 2021This brief Twine game has you exploring a forest after you accidentally (Spoiler - click to show)lose your gender. Lookin around, you try to understand and search for gender identity through metaphor.
There are only 4 or 5 choices in the game, but there is meaningful choice. The game invites you to understand what is meant by gender roles and identity.
In the end, the choice isn't all yours; regardless of your choices, the game will not (Spoiler - click to show)allow you to choose your old identity.
I found the game to be polished and descriptive, despite its brevity, and was in some ways emotionally moving, although I don't think I'll revisit it.
A quirky Twine game about exploring a fantasy-based cave, October 24, 2021In this game you explore a small cave with different fantasy creatures and gems and such in it.
This game is part of a small genre of games best described as 'quirky twine game based in a cave/dungeon that riffs on the silly parts of fantasy games but also has feels and is generally a simple branching structure with little state tracking'.
Other entries in the genre include Just Get the Treasure v0.9.1, Girth Loinhammer and the Quest for the Unsee Elixir (a more complex example), TOMBs of Reschette, The Cave (a less humorous example), The Thing About Dungeons, etc.
This game is definitely on the zanier end. My son first got into Twine with games like this when he was 5, like Escape from the Crazy Place, because it's fun to do silly things like (in this cave) refusing to enter the cave from the get go. For me, as an adult, I still think it can be fun at times.
For some reason one of the passages didn't work at all for me on PC chrome, but it did when I loaded it up in the Twinery app (the one all in cyan that's on time delays).
Overall, I think that this game has some entertainment value, but I think it didn't offer very much new.
Abstraction, surrealism and relationships, October 23, 2021There is a long history of using surreal, abstract worlds to describe relationships in interactive fiction, with Plotkin's game So Far coming to mind as an early example.
This game pushes that trend to its logical extreme. You are with a woman, walking through an abstract maze that is navigated by identifying three-dimensional solids (except (Spoiler - click to show)they're aren't really any of the options, making it guess and check) or picking out numbers in a pattern. The maze has a negative effect on those who guess wrong, (Spoiler - click to show)turning them into geometric solids.
Pseudavid is an accomplished Twine writer with an extensive back catalogue (I particularly recommend Master of the Land and The Good People). This game contains hints of those earlier games, but has reached such a level of abstraction that I honestly had trouble piecing out what was going on or making connections or 'aha' moments. In other words, this game was over my head.
+Polish: The game was very smooth
-Descriptiveness: It was quite vague. The writing is good when zoomed in but when zoomed out seems to lack content:
(Spoiler - click to show)Oh, still salty about it, aren't we? Of course you wouldn't forget it. So, what's the final tally? Very, very good! But not perfect. How should I take it?'
-Interactivity. The game is meant to be played once, but has pass/fail mechanics and inscrutable choices. I suppose winning may not be the point, but as its set up it seems to be a frustration simulator.
-Emotional impact: I bounced off hard
+Would I play again? The game suggests not to, so I won't, but naturally I'd be interested in seeing other paths.
An unpleasant man in an unpleasant situation, October 23, 2021I recently played through a game that used pedophilia for its shock factor, to show you just how bad the villains were. I mentioned in a review there how I dislike playing games that heavily feature pedophilia, regardless of the overlying message.
This game is similar, in that it uses something morally wrong (in this case, flagrant racism) to tell a a story. There are effective stories you can tell about racism, but this game uses unchallenged racist terms and ideas, leaving the player to make their own conclusions at the end.
I do believe the author intends this piece to have an overall anti-racist message. (spoiler for ending) (Spoiler - click to show)Your character turns out to be the true monster, and what seemed hideous monsters attacking him, saying things he couldn't understand, were soldiers of the race he hated. But that's only after we spent the rest of the game with characters saying things like (Spoiler - click to show)'all Asian women are ugly', 'mongoloids', 'sub-human'. It's like when an acquaintance repeatedly insults you but says 'just joking!', or back-handed compliments like 'I completely disagree with all your friends who say that you look like a hideous pile of cow pies'. It felt over the line, for me.
Overall, the game was polished. The only interactivity is choosing which memories to remember, and you don't have time to remember them all. I did experience an emotional reaction to the game.
When I play games, I immerse myself in the protagonist. And this is a protagonist I do not wish to identify with.
My 3 stars represents my overall rubric: polish, descriptiveness, and emotional impact.
Procedurally generated mini-adventures in DOS, October 3, 2021This game is intended to run in a DOS emulator such as DOSBOX. It has a nice aesthetic; there was a guy a few years ago who would constantly crank out BASIC games that ran in DOS and their best feature was the cool ascii art and overall look and style, and this game has that.
The parser may be a heavily modified Inform, but is more likely some kind of custom parser, since it doesn't understand standard Inform verbs like VERBOSE or PULL ME.
Gameplay is procedurally generated. You are in a maze of a house with NESW directions and one item or less per room. One of the items is a 'goal' (in my 11 playthroughs, I saw a wet elf, hungry goblin, pedestal with inscription, chest, etc.) and one of the other items is meant to be picked up and put in the goal.
I had always wanted to write a game like this as a meta-commentary on generic adventures, a game that would have random aesthetics and map but always be about gathering 'something' to put in a trophy-case analogue. But I never got around to it, and this game is a better implementation of my vision, so I'm glad to play this and see a better version of my own dreams.
In the end, of course, the game is very slight. It itches my 'play an adventure' desire, just like Nick Montfort's Amazing Quest last year, but that's it.
Mild spoiler if you haven't looked through other comp games: (Spoiler - click to show)This game seems to be part of a pair, since BJ Best has a game called "And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One" that appears to have you play a pair of kids who are playing this very game, with the same text and same credits.
(Spoiler - click to show)There may be something hidden in the game, perhaps a secret that must be communicated between BJ Bests games, of which there are three (I saw on adventuron discord that he entered an adventuron game as well). I'll change my rating if I see anything new from those games.
A fairly short and silly game where all coded responses are A's, September 15, 2021This game uses only the letter A in all of its descriptions. It retains inform's original error messages though.
Like SCP-5251, the puzzle here is figuring out what words would fit into the given spaces. Fortunately, it's based on (Spoiler - click to show)a classic type of adventure puzzle. I only figured that out by looking at the comments of other reviews.
-Polish: The game could certainly have commited harder by implementing more error messages and nouns.
+Descriptiveness: The whole puzzle depends on the way the descriptions are written.
-Interactivity: There could have been a lot more meat here.
+Emotional impact: I found the idea fun.
-Would I play again? No.
A beautiful short game where you play as a plant, September 13, 2021This is a lovely little game by Caleb Wilson, one of many games of his involving magical plants.
In this one, you are at the bottom of a well with a piece of nearby sunlight. You want to grow but you just aren't strong enough.
This game is brief but with excellent characterization and strong writing, reminding me a bit of Out by Sobol, although less metaphorical. There are nice bits of world-building as well.
A cute little birthday game written by a kid, August 2, 2021This game was co-written by an 8-year-old girl and her father. Having a kid around that age that I've made IF games with, I completely enjoyed this game and thought it was cute.
I never had any problems with the parser, and I think the young author's fresh perspective allowed some surprising responses that weren't in the norm.
The 'puzzles' were simple to follow and interactivity flowed well.
Overall, a very pleasant little game. Very small, and very fun; what a nice experience for a family team.
A tiny parser game in AdvSys, August 1, 2021The author has said elsewhere that this is just a small game that will be more polished later on.
It uses the AdvSys language, which is capable of making very powerful games but requires a lot of work to get going. Unfortunately, this game doesn't have all that work.
It is very small, with only one real puzzle, all of whose steps are clear, but it's hard to type them in. Here are my attempts at one of the most important steps:
(Spoiler - click to show)
>pour water
I don't understand.
>water flower
I don't understand.
>empty bottle
I don't know the word 'empty'.
>put water on flower
I don't know the word 'put'.
>pour bottle
Nothing happens.
>give water
I don't understand.
>give bottle
Nothing happens.
>open bottle
I don't know the word 'open'.
>put water
I don't know the word 'put'.
The real answer was (Spoiler - click to show)'pour flower'.
My score of a 1 reflects the games lack of polish and verbs and general unfinished state. I 100% believe that with more time the author could make something marvelous.
A tiny game with some fun twists, May 17, 2021This game is perhaps the shortest in the PunyInform jam, and it isn't perfect, but it has a lot of distinct advantage over its competitors:
-it has an overarching narrative
-it fits several twists into a 3-move game
-most objects are implemented more than the other games implement their objects
As surprise is the main feature of the game, I suppose I won't say much more. You start in a pub broom closet with a knife holding a note onto the wall.
A raw quest file that is in no way finished, April 16, 2021This is a raw, uncompiled Quest file with a few locations and items. Many actions are built in to the descriptions and the only properties that seem to be used here are descriptions, locations, items being portable or not, and containers. For instance, the front door is a location you can enter and it contains a lock.
There is no ending, but there is a suggestion of an ending given in the description printed when trying to take some items.
This is essentially an outline for a game.
A short branching twine game about an animal in the forest, April 14, 2021This nice-looking Twine game is by Ralfe Rich, an author I've seen a few games by in recent years.
It's a peaceful tale where you play a kind of wild creature (I imagined a moose or deer) wandering about, choosing whether to be solitary or part of a group, etc.
The branching structure has some early endings and some later endings, allows for some customization of personality but little strategy, as endings generally come as a surprise.
The writing is pretty but vague, so vague that it loses some of its charm. I think it could have been grounded more somehow, with more specificity or data from the senses. For instance:
"You are not sure what to make of such things. You have been fixed in what you know and believe for so long. Such thoughts dance in your mind as you question if your being is taking on a metamorphosis. Changing what you value, what you hold dear.
"
I think this is poetic, but these words could apply to almost every character in every story in every genre. I could use a little more about this story, now. There's some of that later on.
The opening chapter of a family-and-memory ink game, April 13, 2021The Back Garden of Spring Thing this year strongly resembles Introcomp. Many of these games are just excerpts or intros into longer games.
Sam Kabo Ashwell has done a lot of introcomp reviews in the past, and one thing he mentions a lot (though I can't find a direct link) is how intros are most interesting when they depict what the main gameplay will be like. In my experience, too, it's good to have the first chapter of your game set the expectation for what the main game will be like.
In this game, though, I get the impression that the rest of the game will be nothing like the intro at all, neither in setting, nor tone, nor mechanics. So it's very hard to get an idea if the finished game will be enjoyable or not.
As for the game itself, you play as a woman invited to a family reunion with people she hasn't seen in 12 years (as well as others she has, like her father). The game lets you choose what kind of attitude to have towards your family as the main interaction. Then there is a twist.
The overall writing was descriptive and had a distinct voice. I often felt like my choices didn't make too much of a difference or allow me to characterize myself consistently, and I would have liked that.
A short uncompiled Quest file about stealing stuff, April 12, 2021This is a short Quest game about theft in a very unpolished state.
The game is a raw quest file. There are a few objects scattered around a big map, with descriptions, and some are take-able and some are not. There is a single condition you have to meet to win.
Your character is a woman who has frequently lusty reactions to things around her.
I think I saw this was a school project. As a school project, I think it's great; I've taught game design courses before and having something like this that is both winnable and has things mostly described is actually pretty great.
But under my usual rating system, I would consider this unpolished, with uninspiring interactivity, little emotional impact and not one I plan on revisiting.
A charming short Twine game with many endings, April 6, 2021This game is short but has a lot of different branches. It's not really a time cave, since some branches come together, so it's interesting.
There's a girl at your school who is icy-cold and intimidates teachers to keep them from saying her name. Therefore, no one knows it, so you take a bet to find out.
There are a lot of paths, most resembling cute high school movie tropes.
I liked the game; the writing was cute, the characters charming. The backstory seems a bit sad but relatable. I always felt that writing a game is like sharing a bit of your soul with others, and reading/playing that game is a way of honoring and accepting that.
I guess my main drawback for the game is that it mostly amounts to guessing what each action will do, and I wish there was a way to puzzle it out more; but that's just me and not everyone may feel that way.
A short demo of a 'birth to death' game in Ink, written in French, February 16, 2021This game has a cute concept but needs a lot more work.
Right now, it starts when you are born and stop right when you get to school.
It will detail an event in your life, possibly unlocking a new skill. Then you can use a new skill, continue, or pick from different baby language like 'gaga' or 'ouuiiiinnn' ('whaaaahhhhhh').
Choosing to use your special skills generally seemed to have no effect except possibly on one occasion. The baby language was confusing, and the game ended very quickly.
It definitely has promise and possibility, but needs far more work before it is complete.
-Polish: The game is not finished
+Descriptive: The text is fairly generic, but it's engaging enough that I would have kept reading.
-Interactivity: Hard to know what options do, many similar choices
-Emotional impact: It was hard to engage due to all of the above.
+Would I play again? If it were finished. And I would definitely increase the score then!
A short Twine game in French about passing the challenges of the Gods, January 31, 2021This game is part of the French comp. In it, you and a bunch of other students accidentally summon the Gods who give you two tasks to complete. Once you do so, you earn a special secret from the Gods.
I thought the idea was generally entertaining, but the game could have used more 'something'. More options, or more details, or more focus.
Here is my overall rating:
-Polish: There were various typos at different times.
-Interactivity: It felt pretty constrained most of the time. The best part was when it opened up to a whole island, but most options there had the same results.
+Emotional impact: I felt like it was a fun, silly game.
+Descriptiveness: I thought the author had some enthusiastic and fun descriptions.
-Would I play again? It's pretty much the same each playthrough.
A B-minus game with a strong sense of place, December 25, 2020B-minus makes surreal poetic games where you have to puzzle out the meaning, if there is any fixed meaning.
Some of those games work really well for me and others not as well.
This one from a few years ago has a navigable 'map'. It's made in raconteur, and gives an effect similar to Twine.
The map is a house with three wings, each with two rooms, each with an object inside.
If there's any way to combine the objects, I haven't found it. The hint of a coherent structure paired with incoherent elements confused me more than if there weren't any structure at all, kind of like the famous 'Cow Tools' Far Side cartoon.
+Polish: Worked great, looks good.
+Descriptive: Very well-written.
-Interactivity: Not sure what's going on.
+Emotional impact: Some good parts in here, I liked the grave dirt and the opening.
-Would I play again? I'm not sure what to look for here.
A horror Twine item-trading game with complex code, December 14, 2020This game is polished and well-done, but I think I admire the coding more than the game itself.
You play as an executioner of some sort in a dark castle. This castle seems to me like a prototype of the one in Eat Me, with a similar cast of bizarre creatures and vaguely reminiscent layouts. But castles in games tend to be similar, so it's probably in my head.
You're required to find a head for your master in this game, so you have to explore the castle, finding what you can and trading it for better things.
The complexity comes from two things: the styling (boxes around progress links, none around 'aside' links, glowing words to represent runes), and the way that each character has a unique reaction to each item you carry.
+Polish: Very complex and smooth.
+Descriptive: Rich writing
-Interactivity: While there are some clues, it felt mostly like searching over and over for the right person to talk to.
+Emotional impact: It was unsettling
-Would I play again? It was good for a short game, but I think once is enough.
A game about the wayward paths of children, December 11, 2020This game is thought-provoking, and I don't know quite how I feel about it one way or another.
At its core, it's a character generator with 10 options per choice. It's very short, with more than half the play time (for me) dedicated to the achingly slow text in the opening few screens.
It's posited as a generator for the Lost Boys from Peter Pan. However, it always ends up with a darker twist:
(Spoiler - click to show)you are actually creating white supremacists.. The game ends with a scene from your character's childhood, now with a different shade of meaning from the opening scenes.
Production-wise, this is excellent styling, music and css animations, the kind you'd expect from the author of Babyface.
Content-wise, I'm torn. On the one hand, the feeling I get from the game is that (Spoiler - click to show)it 'others' the white supremacists by making them seem like creatures very different from us, the reader, someone with with we have no connection and no relation. I worry that that hides the deeper issues, as I feel like most white supremacy is hidden inside otherwise-normal looking people, and by relegating it to the 'frightening other' in media we neglect looking within ourselves. On the other hand, the narrative is designed in a way to humanize its characters and track their journey, so maybe I'm wrong.
The other issue I think about is the way some things are lumped together. For instance, I know (Spoiler - click to show)many white supremacists, if not the majority, use religion as a pretext. But not all people espousing Christian values are supremacists or terrorists; in fact, white people are less likely to be Christian than either black or hispanic people in the US.
Both of my objections are framed from my own perspective and stem from my own interpretation of the piece, so I can't say it's anything related to the author's intent. Still, it was interesting.
+Polish: It was very polished.
+Descriptive: The text is well-written.
-Interactivity: The slower opening was a bit offputting, and the many menus made me feel like I somehow had less freedom from so many indistinguishable options.
+Emotional impact: It made me feel a lot of different things.
-Would I play again? Technically I did play again once, just to remind myself before writing the review, but I think this is more or less a one-shot game.
Gruesome poetry in triplicate, November 16, 2020Like most of B-minus's work, this is a shortish surreal Twine game with haunting descriptions and poetic use of choices.
In particular, this game features several choices in a row, on one page, where for each one you can pick RED, FAST, or BENT.
I originally was going to give this 3 stars, but the layout and format are so nice looking, especially for a game made in 4 hours or less.
I wasn't big on B-minus when I first read their work, but Chandler Groover has always expressed a lot of appreciation and interest in B-minus games, and it made me look at them with more appreciation. I wonder how much of my own reviewing is tangled up in my own experiences and history that I bring to the game. Earlier today I gave a higher rating to an Among Us-based IF game and rated it higher because I liked Among Us. It's weird to think about.
Anyway, I thought this was pretty good.
A short graphics-intensive musing on humanity with rats, November 16, 2020At first, I thought this game was just a link to BBC (which for some reason didn't work for me when I clicked on it but worked when I manually entered it into the search bar).
Then it turned out I could scroll down. It's a multimedia page and it has some interesting features (for instance, you can either scroll down to read more text or click links instead, with some interaction between the two).
The non-working initial link and the abrupt, buggy-looking ending put me off the game a little bit. The writing is vivid and imaginative, though, and the visuals are compelling.
A short replayable escape game in Choicescript, November 16, 2020I debated back and forth on what score to give this game, so I'm going to break it down by points.
This is a short choicescript game where you have to defeat an evil spirit in a test involving an ever-shortening candle.
It has a cool yellow bar representing the candle, and its structure allows for quick replay.
When I saw the timer, I felt nervous, so the game was able to impact me emotionally. I played through to two different endings.
Very impressive for four hours. I know its silly, but I think the yellow bar is what bumped it up from 3 stars to 4 for me, it's just cool to me as a Choicescript author.
A short parser game about the end of the world, November 16, 2020This game is surprisingly complex for a 4-hour game. There's conversation (although only ASK X ABOUT COMET works in general), many locations, a vehicle, rope.
There are a lot of grisly details. As a content warning, this game has frequent references to suicide. That part was a bit too dark for me.
I only found one ending, on a cliff. I'm sure there are other endings (I think other reviewers have found them).
A short story based on Among Us, November 16, 2020This is a very short story about the game Among Us. I feel like I'm giving all the La Petite Mort games 3 stars (which, I figure is what you'd expect most speed-IF to be at most). This game is very short, but I love playing Among Us with my son, so it was fun.
And it surprised me twice. The first one I feel very dumb for not thinking of, given how obvious it is, but the second thing that surprised me is how customized the text is based on the order of your choices.
Short fun.
A short but vivid one-verb game, November 15, 2020This game is directly modeled on Lime Ergot and Toby's Nose, where the main action is found by examining something over and over again, including things mentioned in the description.
It's more rough than those two, with some typos and less direction for the player, but the worldbuilding was intriguing to me and the descriptiveness well-done.
It's a brief game, but I played through it twice and feel there's still more for me to discover.
Monster party shenanigans, November 15, 2020This is a short, styled twine game about having a party with monsters and you having to find some gourds.
It has a world-model, various characters that can interact with each other, and some items.
Everything's just small. There's very little of interest in the conversational options that don't advance the story, and only a few options do anything.
But this was made in 4 hours, and I'm honestly impressed at how much they packed in in that time. And some of the characters are described very well (especially Orlok and Lycan).
A short and straightforward game about battling death, November 15, 2020This is pretty good for a 4-hour-or-less game. You meet death in some sort of spiritual limbo, and you get the chance to redeem your soul through playing chess.
Instead of placing ships on a grid, your position is pre-selected and your guesses come from a menu. I won the first time I played, but I don't know if it was rigged to always win or if it was just random chance.
There are some interesting thoughts on the freedom of the soul, but I feel like the whole thing could use some more fresh takes. But that's hard to do in 4 hours, so I'm overall pretty happy with this game.
A short choicescript game with elaborate character creation, November 15, 2020This is an interesting short game. You have to create a character to run through a short horror story.
But the narrator, Pallas, wants your creation to be incredibly detailed. While each choice has narrow options (as commented on by the narrator), there are many options to be had before the impending disaster.
I liked it. Near the middle, I started clicking fast through several similar/repetitive options, but I think that's part of the experience.
The game overall seems well polished for something made in less than 4 hours. The emotional moments didn't 100% land for me, but it was good overall.
A tiny tale of terror told in a totally typical timeline, November 13, 2020This game is essentially a small snippet of a horror story told over 4-6 pages. Like the blurb suggests, it's 175 words.
It's completely linear, but I think the interactivity actually works for it here, as it paces the story well and allows for surprise more than would be feasible in a static format.
My rating system is designed to accomodate micro games, so I'm giving it stars for emotional impact, interactivity and descriptiveness but not for polish (there are typos which, in a 175 word game, should really be easy to fix using grammarly or something similar) or replayability. Even with the typos fixed, I would still give 3 stars, as the interactivity is only okay, not great. But fun little game.
A gory Choicescript game made for Ectocomp, November 9, 2020This is a Choicescript game made for the Grand Guignol division of Ectocomp. It's a bloody and violent game about a confrontation in a forest.
I think that every game has different elements that contribute to the overall strength of it. Here's my take on five elements I usually look at in games:
-Polish. This is where the game struggles the most. There are numerous typos and misstatements scattered throughout the text. As an author, and especially as a Choicescript author, I am no stranger to making a ton of typos (I think I had to fix 'its' vs 'it's' 1000 times in my Choicescript game). But websites like grammarly can really help out here, which is what I use, or asking people to look over the text.
+Descriptiveness. This is the game's strongest point. The writing is detailed and vivid. For me, I found it violent and gory in an unpleasant way, but it was only unpleasant because it was so detailed.
-Interactivity: I personally like Choicescript best when it lets you customize who are you in detail or lets you plan out strategies. In this game, choices can be completely arbitrary (like 'go left, go right, go straight') or represent a forced choice where all options are essentially the same (that's not always bad, but in this case you get the same forced choice over and over again).
+Emotional impact: I felt disturbed by the game, which is not an emotion I like or seek out but which succeeds in its goal.
-Would I play again? Due to the content and the polish, I wouldn't do so right now.
Contains strong profanity and gore.
A gripping supernatural tale about the Spanish Civil War, November 4, 2020I went back and forth on this story. At first, I thought it was one of the best stories I've read in a long time, but I think the second half isn't quite as good as the first, and there were a few minor errors (like an uncapitalized 'la' at the beginning of a sentence).
This game is set in the 1936 Spanish Civil War, and you're ordered to bombard a city that is supposedly harboring refugees. Chaos ensues, as well as supernatural shenanigans.
The characterization was amazingly good, and the detail made me feel like I was there. For me, the realistic parts were the strongest, while the supernatural elements, while polished and well-done, were less compelling to me. Definitely felt happy to read this.
A poetic and imaginative Texture game about Japanese spirits, November 3, 2020This game was entered in Ectocomp 2020.
This is a Texture game, and it presented a double language barrier to me, as it is in Spanish and contains numerous Japanese words as well. So I may have missed out on some of the nuances, but I found it charming and well-written.
The story is about a scholar who is seeking inspiration for a story and so engages in Japanese calligraphy. There are several objects around that can serve as inspiration, each inspiring a sort of reverie or dream that always ends up disturbed by a yokai or Japanese spirit.
I laughed at some parts of it, and was intrigued by others. Parts reminded me of Alice and Wonderland. The multimedia use was lovely. Definitely worth checking out for a chill, relaxing time.
Discrimination on Mars, October 20, 2020This is a short game with two choices, each one being ‘support protestors’ vs ‘don’t support protestors’ (with a middle-of-the-road option in some playthroughs).
You play as someone on Mars who is in a relationship with someone who is either marginalized or very socially active.
I believe that all people are equal before God and I believe that racism is abhorrent. I believer that I am a beneficiary of a system that benefits white people over other races, and that change is necessary and requires personal effort from privileged peoples to stop practices that harm other races and foster those that strengthen them.
But i don’t believe the choice structure in this game is an effective way to communicate any of those messages.
As a final note, the game was polished and well-written.
+Polish: The game is thoroughly polished.
+Descriptiveness: It was well-written.
-Interactivity: See my thoughts above.
+Emotional impact: It certainly got a reaction out of me.
-Would I play again? I don't plan on it.
A short contemplative Twine game, October 19, 2020This is a game seemingly designed to be inscrutable. The prose is dense and hard to comprehend, and the structure in the opening sequence is a series of almost randomly highlighted words that lead to musings on those words or the reason you selected them.
Overall, I’m not quite sure if the author succeeded in their goal. Was it contemplation about our place in the universe and its effects? Was it poetry? Was it a meditation on life? I’m not really sure.
And what effect did the Thief have on others? Make them believe only the Thief mattered/existed? I’m not sure what that means.
+Polish: I didn't see any errors.
-Descriptiveness: I found the text vague and imprecise.
-Interactivity: In the first section, it's hard to know what to pick; in the latter portion, there's only one thing to pick.
-Emotional impact: This game didn't land for me.
+Would I play again? I might take it for another spin in the future to get more impressions.
Short RPG maker game about genre conventions, October 19, 2020This is an RPG Maker game. Its goal seems to be to take genre conventions and turn them on their head.
I guess the real question is, does it succeed? I’m not too concerned about the format, as very little happens in the game outside of the text boxes and the player’s choices. At least in my playthroughs, it always ended after one specific action.
I feel like this is old ground. I swear Zelda games have made the same kind of point going back to the first Game Boy game, and so have many other RPGs (I swear the Soul Blazer trilogy does this at least once). The concluding segment reminded me (in a good way of Chrono Trigger).
It just seems a bit silly. And there are tons of pop culture references, including to Adventure Time and Lord of the Rings. So I just consider it a bit of fun. If anyone finds a ‘correct path’ that doesn’t lead to the main bad ending, let me know!
+Polish: I didn't find any errors.
+Descriptiveness: There were several funny lines.
-Interactivity: I didn't enjoy slowly clicking through interactions with tons of items, but I also didn't want to miss anything.
-Emotional impact: I kept waiting for the payoff.
+Would I play again? I am interested in finding a better ending.
An effective short story about an uncomfortable work situation, October 18, 2020I had a bizarre moment when starting up this game because it seemed 100% familiar. I thought that I must have beta-tested it and forgot, or somehow seen it earlier.
Then I realized that I had seen it earlier, but in a blog (I assume it's okay to link, as the author links to their blog in the end-credits):
https://annwords.wordpress.com/2020/06/23/what-happened-on-the-12th-of-july-2018/
I remember at the time finding it a traumatic story.
This game is very well-done. It's not aspiring to be an epic game or a involved interactive experience. Instead, its a game that tells a specific short story and it does so very, very well.
You play as a teen who was recently hired at a store in the mall. Work is a little bit frightening (you're young and neurodivergent, as is hinted at), and things start to go off the rails pretty soon.
The interaction is generally a 'continue' link, a choice between two similar options, or links which 'aren't allowed'. Usually, this makes for poor interaction, but in this game, it's entirely the point: feeling constrained, or helpless, or swept up by events.
Multimedia use is subtle and effective. Slight changes in the background color, inconspicuous music. I was thrown off for a second by the fact that all links are approximately the default color for already-visited links (which increased my sense of Deja-Vu) but that was just a small thing.
Overall, great game, 100% effective (for me) in what it was trying to do. Crappy experience, though.
+Polished: Very nice effects, everything worked.
+Descriptiveness: I felt like I was there.
+Interactivity: It contributed to the game's message
+Emotional impact: Definitely!
+Would I play again? Yes, and recommend it to others.
A creepy Twine game with excellent visual effects, October 16, 2020I enjoyed playing this game after hearing about it from many others.
A shortish Twine story, its main strengths are in its well-wrought writing and its numerous special effects, which include responsive graphics, elaborate text animations (especially the title screen!) and sound. I especially like how it integrated the sound test.
As a story, I was frightened enough by this game that I considered stopping playing (it was close to midnight). As it was, though, I’m glad I’m finished.
A few people talked about the ending not being as strong as the rest. I’m not so sure; horror generally has two endings (hopeful and victorious but at what cost? vs defeat snatched from the jaws of victory), and while this game kind of mixes the two, I don’t see that as a bad thing. It’s a game I could definitely recommend to horror fans.
+Polish: Great effects
+Descriptiveness: Very vivid writing
+Interactivity: I loved how responsive the game was to your actions
+Emotional impact: Felt some fear!
+Would I play again? I plan on it.
A parser implementation of a classic puzzle, October 15, 2020This game is based on the famous puzzle of trying to bring a carnivore, an herbivore and some plant across a river where you only have enough room for one at a time.
It isn’t the first time this classic puzzle has been entered in IFComp. In 2007 Chris Conroy entered an Inform implementation called Fox, Fowl and Feed. That game featured several surprises when you tried to implement the classic solution.
This game plays it straight, albeit with some funny messages (like picking up the bear, which is also something you can do in the 1970’s game ADVENTURE). There is one small puzzle beyond the main one, I should add.
My guess is the author wanted to make a game and decided to code it up and enter. And they succeeded in that. The question is, what’s next?
+Polish: The game is generally well-implemented for what's in it.
-Descriptiveness: The descriptions are very plain.
+Interactivity: I was able to carry out my desired solution pretty quickly.
-Emotional impact: I wasn't invested in the game.
-Would I play again? Once was enough.
An interesting experiment with single-action puzzles in Twine, October 15, 2020This was actually pretty fun, but only because somebody gave me a clue about (Spoiler - click to show)looking at the icon at the top of the screen.
This is a short game consisting of around 10 choices, but the choice is always the same: Move On. In a way, this makes it like the single-action games in the parser world like Lime Ergot, Take, or Eat Me.
But how do you do puzzles in Twine with just a single option? The answer is ingenious: (Spoiler - click to show)there is a moving motorcycle on the top. Clicking before it reaches the end gives you one action, while waiting until it stops gives another. And that's all there is. I love it.
+Polish: The game is smooth and works well.
-Descriptiveness: The text was pretty generic.
+Interactivity: I had fun with the mechanic.
+Emotional impact: I felt excitement.
-Would I play again? I don't think this mechanic would provide a second replay as fun as the first.
A short linear Inform game about physicists and time travel, October 13, 2020So this is an interesting game. Basically, it’s a time travel plot involving two of the great physicists in history.
The implementation generally worked well, although it seemed to kind of push me around a lot, especially when entering or leaving the cottage, almost like no direction I went mattered, the game would send me where it wanted.
The writing goes back and forth between very plain and more elaborate. The story is full of grand ideas, but I think it could have used a little more spacing between big reveals.
Overall, though, it was a quick and simple parser game with an interesting concept. At first, I was skeptical that things would have played out the way suggested in the game, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that we don’t really know how great discoveries and scientific innovation are pushed forward, and it’s difficult to understand why there has been such an acceleration in technical innovation in the last few hundred years.
+Polish: I didn't find any real bugs.
-Descriptivenss: The game was plain in some parts, especially the library.
+Interactivity: While I felt like I was being pushed around, it ended up working out smoothly.
-Emotional impact: I don't think the big reveals 'landed' for me.
+Would I play again? Maybe; it's interesting to see the past tense and third person, and to consider the way it pushes you forward.
A very brief game about an odd encounter with a pinecone and a goat, October 13, 2020Like many have said, this is quite similar to The Turnip. It's by the same author, they're both the same length, have the same styling, have the same setup. They also feature large and puzzling agricultural specimens and kindness to animals.
Is there some kind of meta puzzle here? I don't think so, judging by opening up the code and peeking at a few of the boxes. In any case, this is fun writing, and slightly more interactive than the other piece. It reminds me of Sub-Q Magazine's pieces before they stopped printing, albeit a little shorter. I'm glad to have it in the comp; it's not the kind of thing that I'd seek out normally, but it's so short and well-done that I happy to see it.
+Polish: Very polished.
+Descriptiveness: I think the writing is very well-done here.
+Interactivity: There's not much, but it's interesting and a little puzzle.
+Emotional impact: I liked it.
-Would I play it again? I think once is enough.
A short, poetic story in Twine format, October 13, 2020I suppose this game achieves exactly what it wanted to achieve. It took a fairly funny story (in the way that Kafka would write a comedy if the mood ever struck him), added some interactivity and a lot of polish, and turned it into a short game.
The writing is good, the game is short, and there’s not much to do but read it and contemplate. What does it mean? Besides my Kafka comparison, it also reminds me of Regina Spektor’s song lyrics.
+Polish: Impeccably polished.
+Descriptiveness: Some of the better writing of the last few years.
-Interactivity: It wasn't trying to achieve it, and it failed successfully.
+Emotional impact: It was thoughtful.
-Would I play again? Not unless I forget it.
A short Twine game about communication, October 12, 2020This is a short, mostly linear Twine game with some interesting text effects and, to me, an inscrutable story.
You seem to be some sort of supervisor in an authoritarian system. You are monitoring a woman named Orange who describes the different job placements she has had. She has a stutter.
The story seems almost dreamlike (I think another reviewer mentioned that?) and the very ending used simple twine macros to produce an unusual text effect that provides never-ending interaction.
+Polish: It seems completely polished.
-Descriptiveness: Everything was very vague.
+Interactivity: Although there weren't many real choices, I felt intrigued by the ending.
-Emotional impact: I wasn't able to reach any deeper meaning.
-Would I play again? I don't intend to at this time.
A short and sweet story about home, October 12, 2020This is a truly lovely game. It’s written in Twine, and is basically a heartwarming short story told with interactivity, animation and sound.
You play as someone raised in Hong Kong now living in the UK. You are sick and wish more than anything you could have some congee.
The choices are more about roleplaying than about strategy, and that works well for me. Visually, the game is gorgeous, with animated line drawings, animated color scenes, and beautiful faux text messages.
I identified with the message of the game as well, even though I’ve never experienced it to that degree. I lived in Manhattan’s Chinatown and the Bronx in New York for 2 years after growing up in suburban Utah, and it was a real culture shock. Even now, I live in Texas without anyone nearby, as a single dad. And probably the thing I miss the most was our Sunday Roasts lol. I even cooked one for myself last week in the crockpot and ate the leftovers the whole week.
So, very lovely. It might not place in top 10 due to its short length,but I’d be happy to nominate it for an XYZZY or two next year.
+Polish: Incredibly well-polished.
+Descriptiveness: I could almost smell the food.
+Interactivity: It gives either choice or the illusion of choice, and both are good.
+Emotional impact: A lot, for me
+Would I play again: Definitely, if I ever get down.
A short branching Twine game about the Tarot, October 11, 2020My only real experience with the Tarot deck is from the Deck of Many Things in AD&D and also Stardust Crusaders, so games featuring Tarot symbology significantly always mystify me somewhat.
In this game, you play as a deck of Tarot cards brought to life. You help design your own life story, then make several predictions for others.
There’s a lot of metafiction here about how we construct our own narratives. It reminds me of the 2015 game A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood as well as SCP-3939, both of which make the shape of the story an integral part of the narrative.
The graphics here look good. The writing is interesting. I felt it hard to either strategize with choices or roleplay as a character, which are my usual two ways of interacting with a game. This game definitely shows a lot of craft, though, and I respect the one who wrote it!
+Polish: It looks and plays great.
+Descriptiveness: The writing is vivid.
-Emotional impact: I wasn't invested in the character, perhaps due to my unfamiliarity with the tarot
+Interactivity: Despite my struggles, the self-referential nature of the game validated my actions.
-Would I play again? Not at this time.
A promising Twine game about a stranded motorist, October 11, 2020I taught a summer camp in Twine a few months ago. We spent about a week going over adding multimedia, setting variables, beta testing, etc. They liked it and kept working on games even after the camp, some which were pretty cool and impressive.
This game reminds me of that, the game of someone who has recently learned twine and puts in 10-20 hours of work making a fairly complex game. It has a soundtrack, custom styling, and non-linear puzzles.
It reaches for a few things without quite making it. I vividly remember when I entered my first IFComp game, one of the most famous people in IF made a comment about my game:
"I found *Ether* least effective when it explicitly went for pathos in the writing, because it was asking me to empathize[...]and it hadn’t put in the time to build up that empathy."
I was hurt by that at the time, but it's true, and it's true about this game, too. The violence and the blood in the snow aren't as frightening because there wasn't enough buildup. The game is asking us to be afraid or to be disturbed by the death of others, but we know nothing about them.
It wouldn't take a lot to fix that. The difference between an okay story and an awesome story is usually just a few tweaks. In my experience, the best thing to do is just try something, see how people react, and change it if it doesn't work, then repeat. That's why I usually have 10+ beta testers, it lets me work out all the questionable parts of a story before I release it. In this case, if I had to suggest anything specific, I'd give our character some more personality: maybe this is their first cross-country road trip as an adult and they're a little lost and terrified of how dark it is. Maybe they run out of the room at the first sight of blood. If you say something is scary, the reader isn't usually scared. If you say the character is scared, though, then a lot of times the reader will empathize with them.
The puzzle parts of this game weren't too bad. There are a lot of unfair deaths you can't undo, but the game is short enough that you can try over and over again. I still would have liked a few more hints at what works and what doesn't, and maybe expand the story and game a little longer. Overall, I definitely think the author should keep writing; I'll keep an eye out for any future games.
+Polish: I didn't notice any bugs, and the multimedia aspects worked well.
-Descriptiveness: Like I mentioned above, I think the story could use some work.
-Emotional impact: Same as above.
+Interactivity: The puzzle structure wasn't too bad.
-Would I play again? Not at this time, but I would play another game by this author!
A fun short game about pirate literature, October 11, 2020I was surprised to see this game has no relation to the classic Captain Verdeterre's Plunder, but it's a good name style so it makes sense it would come up more than once.
This is a short Twine game with one big idea and it does it well. You are a pirate captain who has been forced to retire to his library. You have only one plan left: (Spoiler - click to show)to reconstruct a pirate crew and ship from the texts of classic books.
It's a nice concept and the books involved are fun to learn about or to remember. The game is over very quickly, so it's worth playing through while the comp is running just to enjoy some of the fun. This review is brief because there's not much to say that doesn't spoil it.
+Polish: The game looks great and plays well.
+Descriptiveness: Yes; some from the source texts and some from the author.
+Interactivity: It's short but has several interesting options.
-Emotional impact: It was interesting but I didn't really feel invested.
-Would I play again? It's a good game, but I think I've seen enough of it.
A non-linear storytelling game with lots of visual polish, October 10, 2020I tested this game.
Pseudavid has really turned out to be a Twine master in the last few comps, placing in the top 10 each time and making technically proficient games.
This game is more understated than the other games, but still complex and thoughtful. You, a night guard at a soon-to-be-abandoned housing complex, gets into a fast and stormy relationship with a remarkable woman.
The story takes place over three days simultaneously, with your choices in each day affecting the others (so a choice in the future can be a flashback with affects the choice in the past).
The effects in this game aren't as obvious as in Pseudavid's other games, but the ending I got was very nice. If this game has faults, they lie in it being somewhat opaque or dense, leaving the player to sort through several narrative threads at the same time. But taking that away would fundamentally change the nature of the game, so I'm not sure it's a bad thing.
+Polish: This is what Pseudavid is known for. At least to me.
+Descriptiveness: The characters were so vivid it hurt a little.
-Interactivity: It was hard to figure out what's going on at times. I was a tester, so I had a leg up, but still it was a bit rough for me. Like I said, I wouldn't recommend changing that.
+Emotional impact: I felt very invested in the character I was playing as.
+Would I play again? I'd like to explore other paths.
A short but compelling dialogue between immigrant mother and daughter, October 10, 2020This game had a ton of buzz on Twitter and received a lot of early reviews, so I was interested in playing it.
It turns out to be really good. Raban seems to have a firm grasp of storywriting and interactivity. This is a perfectly well-crafted game, limited only by its relatively small size. I imagine, though, that many judges will be happy to find a quick and enjoyable game with excellent handicraft.
In this game, you are texting with your mother. You come from a family of immigrants, and your mother decides to try and teach you Tagalog over the phone. She quizzes you on your life and choices while trying to introduce you to various grammatical rules which, of course, you could never absorb in a single sitting, but which she seems determined to impart.
This game uses slow text to good effect, which is really rare. I think the keys are having a very short game with well-defined parameters. Here, we know we're in a text message conversation which can't last too long, and the game is advertised as short. The delays are realistic and not too long.
I think the best part of the game is showing the tension between a mother (especially a southeast asian mother), her desires for her American-raised children and the children's own personality and feelings. I think this is great.
+Polish: Very polished.
+Descriptive: The characters really came alive.
+Interactivity: I felt like my choices really mattered.
+Emotional impact: Felt some tension. Worried I'd say the wrong things.
+Would I play again? Sure!
A shortish multimedia Twine game about demons attacking, October 9, 2020This is a fairly short game, and the author’s first game. Because they mentioned trying to learn things, I’ll keep that in mind.
This is a multimedia-heavy game, and it encourages you to use headphones while you play and uses timed text, sometimes fast and sometimes slow.
The game is translated from Spanish, but I didn’t notice for a while because it’s a fairly good translation. But it needs some more work; when running around the room, for instance, one of the links was ‘pedizquierda’.
The story is about being creeped out and attacked by a demon at night. Interaction-wise, you have a sort of maze (that’s not really a maze), a couple of ‘guess the right option’ things and some battles.
Knowing your audience is important. A couple of things to keep in mind about IFComp are:
1.The winning games are often very polished, having been worked on for dozens or hundreds of hours. Not every game does this, but
2. Having your games tested is a plus. Having it tested by people who’ve done IFComp before is an even bigger plus. Having it tested by a lot of experience people, responding to their feedback, and improving your game over months is best.
3.Making fun of the player isn’t as popular as it once was. For instance, if you choose the wrong thing, the game has the demon say:
I think you’re too stupid for me to feel like playing with you.It was the worst decision you have ever made, but thanks for being so stupid.
As a player, that’s not super fun to read. It’s not horribly bad, and I know it’s about the person in the game, but it was my decision, and saying I’m stupid is kind of frustrating.
4. Multimedia and timed text can make a game look a lot cooler, but if you think about, why are people even interested in a text competition? Some people like it because the games are easy to make. Others are blind and use text to speech readers. Some (like me) like having games you can play as fast or as slow as you want, take breaks, play without sound while taking a break at work or at home. So having a lot of your game dependent on keeping up with the text or having to listen intently to the sounds can be hard. That’s why games like Limerick Quest that have timed text have options to turn it off.
Overall, I think this game shows cool programming and a fun writing voice. It’s okay that it has some faults, because it’s your first game. Nothing would be more depressing than having your first game be your best game, because it’s all downhill from there. I think of Victor Ojuel and Ruber Eaglenest who both entered IFComp for the first time with games that were heavily criticized. They listened to the feedback, tried again and both placed in the top 10 with excellent games (and Victor has a job as a narrative designer now).
+Polish: There are bugs and typos, but the sound effects and art are fancy.
+Descriptiveness: The game makes its world come alive.
-Interactivity: I was frustrated by having to choose exactly the right option.
-Emotional impact: This game didn't really impact me.
-Would I play again? As it currently is no.
A unity game with 3d cards similar to the Tarot, October 8, 2020This unity game is more of a reimagining of a tarot deck than anything else, like the text describes.
It’s a 3d game with responsive physics. You can pick up a card, place it in the correct spot (or just slop it around), flip it over, flip it over part way.
Cards can be placed in four different positions, and then the game will register the full reading for you.
It’s an impressive use of the 3d engine and the art is great. As a purely narrative game, I didn’t feel a strong emotional connection to the cards or the readings. But this will almost certainly be the most technically impressive game I play in this comp
+Polish: Immensely polished.
-Descriptive: I found the card meanings and descriptions fairly vague.
+Interactivity: Smooth and nice 3d interactions.
-Emotional Impact: I felt distanced from the messages of the cards.
-Would I play again? I'm not sure what I could find in it more than I have. Although to be fair I was always leery of Tarot, which this resembles.
A tiny Odyssey game running in an in-browser C64 emulator, October 6, 2020Nick Montfort wrote Ad Verbum, a great wordplay game that predates both Andrew Schultz and Emily Short’s wordplay games (but not Nord nor Bert), and has since then done a lot with the intersection between text and software.
I had heard a lot about this game, mostly consternation and mystery.
I’m happy to take this game at face-value. Without digging deeper, this reminds me of ASCII and the Argonauts, but slightly less complex.
In this game, you are presented with yes/no options on what kind of interactions to have with a scrambled group of towns. It seems that there is a pattern on what to do (and I was able to be right more than half of the time, so either there is a pattern or the game is good at making you feel there is a pattern, which there’s not really much of a difference there).
I’ve always had a fondness for little games done well. I came up with my current star-rating system on IFDB just so I could feel consistent giving the tiny micro-game ‘Creak, Creak’ and ‘Counterfeit Monkey’ both 5/5.
So, yeah, this is cool. Not what I expected from Nick Montfort, but then again I didn’t know what to expect, and this definitely fits his recent work. If more about the game is uncovered, that’s fine, but I kind of like its meditative simplicity.
+Polish: It does exactly what it sets out to do.
+Descriptiveness: I found that it packed in meaning in small chunks.
+Interactivity: I liked discovering the pattern.
+Emotional impact: I'm still pondering on sacrificing to Gods of a dusty planet.
+Would I play again? Yeah, I think I'll take another look at it.
A small, thoughtful fantasy cave crawl turned into a meditation, October 2, 2020When I clicked on Neil Aitken’s website, I saw that he is an accomplished poet, with testimonials by other poets including some state Poet Laureates.
So I was interested to see how the game panned out. Games by static fiction authors are often different from games by programmers-turned authors. (Edit: apparently he was also a programmer before too, which explains the smoothness of the game!)
So this game is a cyclical kind of twine game where you wander around a maze of rooms (different on both of my playthroughs, with about half the rooms the same and the other half different). It’s a cave and it’s influenced by standard fatnasy tropes (treasure, magic runes, lizard people, magic pools, etc.) and you can gather various items and use them as well as gathering things like ‘incomprehensible wisdom’ which I thought was a nice touch.
Visually, the game uses neon-style text for important nouns, kind of like the neon in Cactus Blue Motel. I found it visually appealing.
This game was polished: no bugs, no typos that I found. Usually first-time game creators tend to have a few unfinished ends here and there (blank passages, macros typed incorrectly), so that was pleasing.
Overall, I would say that the line by line writing was excellent. I’ve found over time in the comp that a lot of people who try to create poetry in IF fail to inspire me, but I was genuinely into the writing here. As an overall story and as a series of interactions, it didn’t excel to me; it was competent, but I feel it could have been more ambitious. The same could absolutely be said about my own game in this competition. I would definitely consider this a game for the author to be proud of.
+Polish: The color highlighting around important words is nice, and this game had no bugs or typos that I found.
+Descriptiveness: Lovely writing, very nice.
+Interactivity: The overall structure didn't stand out to me, but the variation and the many ways the inventory can be used was fun.
+Would I play again? Definitely.
+Emotional impact: Yes, a kind of meditative, chill emotion.
A short game about the big consequences of small actions, October 2, 2020Equal-Librium is a short, replayable Twine game about how our daily choices affect our lives in deep ways, and interesting topic that I had actually been reading about before the comp began.
The game uses complicated styling, like shaking text and some timed delivery (which didn't really annoy me here as it was fairly fast and the game was short). It emulates e-mail systems.
The story is about being a CEO of a company and receiving a bribe offer with ecological consequences. There are several endings with a suggestion to replay.
I found some typos and a broken macro, but the story was interesting.
-Polish: The effects were fancy, but there were too many typos and errors for my liking.
+Descriptiveness: I found the writing vivid and interesting.
+Interactivity: Branches a lot but is short enough to make replaying feasible.
-Emotional Impact: I got where it was coming from, but for some reason or another the message didn't sink in.
+Would I play again? Wouldn't mind giving it another spin to find more endings (already found 2).
A short branching Twine game about a ritual and your child, August 4, 2020This is a fairly-well put together Twine game with background sounds. You are driving down a road late at night, and you need to abandon your child in the woods.
The writing was descriptive and the game was fairly polished, but it felt a little short for the heavy themes being developed, and many choices lead to early deaths, making it more of a gauntlet structure.
As a small, self-contained Twine game, though, I think it's successful. Maybe I just wanted a longer and more involved version of the same story?
A clever speed IF about resisting standard parser tropes, July 18, 2020This game, made for a Speed-IF and never fully developed, reverses standard tropes. It may not even work as a longer game; as it is, could just use a little polish.
You play as one of/a series of young boys applying to be a household servant. As a 'test', you must resist several things tempting to an adventurer: a key in its lock, a partially-open door, a covered dish, etc.
It's cute and short. There are some bugs and it is not polished, but I enjoyed it.
A well-put together Speed IF with a surprising amount of detail, June 23, 2020MTW, the author of this short speed IF, has always had a talent for putting together locations and NPCs. Speed-IFs are usually very sketchy, but this game manages to have a large map, responsive items, good error messages, and even a conversation (which I know from experience is difficult to implement in a short time).
It involves the Voodoo or Voudon religion. While one part of it revolves around the use of (Spoiler - click to show)Voodoo dolls, which just tonight I discover actually originated in European druidism, most of it seems to represent Voodoo beliefs in a fairly accurate and respectful way, the kind of accuracy you'd expect in a game where you visit the Christian heaven.
I think Speed-IFs would be much more enjoyable to play if more of them were this well put-together. I'm not giving 5 stars, though, because even as a speed-IF it still has to compare to longer games.
A short but effective horror game, June 12, 2020This game is centered around a survey and uses various literary and programming techniques to establish a creepy atmosphere.
I found it inventive and effective. My ratings are adjusted to the length of a game, so I consider this a 5-star game for a short, under 15-minute work.
Otherwise, I don't want to give away too much. Very fun!
A short fantasy tale with good worldbuilding and the promise of sequels, June 6, 2020I rate games on a five point scale. This is a shortish but broad Twine game where you are being hunted by something magical and must use your equipment to survive. It branches heavily, enhancing replayability.
Polish--The art is good, the game seems well-thought out and designed. Pretty good.
Descriptiveness--Very good. I could picture it all in my mind vividly.
Interactivity--It's hard to play without learning by death, so I struggled a bit with this one. And widely branching games are a bit frustrating at times because you have to replay the beginning over and over to see all the different ends, but it's totally a valid stylistic choice.
Emotional impact--I felt moved by the story. I like fantasy, especially TTRPG-adjacent fantasy like this.
Would I play again?--I've already played it a few times, so yes.
An unusual experiment in place and time; horror, June 1, 2020This game was interesting.
In initial appearance, you are in a house and have several options for exploring it, with no option allowed twice in a row but otherwise full freedom.
Over time, the game changes in both subtle and overt ways.
It works well technically, and the idea is good, there's just not much of it, and I feel like the concept needed a bit more time to come to fruition.
In any case, the author is clearly good at both writing and programming, so I'd be interested in further games.
A polished and stylish Night Vale-style game with investigation and danger, May 28, 2020I grade games on a scale of 5 stars, in the following criteria:
*Polish. This game is very polished, with custom sounds, varying backgrounds and images, complex menus and text input.
*Descriptiveness. This game nails the Night Vale voice and has vivid non-descriptions of real things and real descriptions of non-things.
*Interactivity. I felt like my choices mattered and had consequences. The game wasn't quite linear and not quite lawn-mowery, and I felt good.
*Emotional impact. I felt amused.
*Would I play again? I think I would.
This is a game in which you have to track down The News, a wild beast which has escaped in Night Vale, a town where every conspiracy theory is true.
A '2-command' game in texturewriter, April 16, 2020This is an odd game. I was excited to see it used texture writer, a system that often produces unusual games.
In texture, you slide 'action' blocks onto 'noun' blocks. This game switches that around a bit, more just sliding one of two nouns (eye, shoulder) onto adjectives and nouns.
It took me a while to figure out the functionality (which is (Spoiler - click to show)'eye' provides a description using several adjectives while 'shoulder' adds the word to a sentence, except at the very end where you get one or more endings.
I didn't really know what to make of it all, but it worked for me, the discovery of the use of the nouns providing the same kind of feel that solving a puzzle does.
My favorite insight was realizing (possibly incorrectly) that the game provides insight into the author's feelings about themself.
A kind of confusing Twine game about gangsters and...stuff, April 8, 2020This seems like a first-time Twine author's game, with at least no broken links.
The writing is rushed and seems untested. Here's a sample:
"He pulls out a big rotten fish and throws at you, it hits at at the head and knocks you unconcious."
There is some funny humor, but a lot of it didn't make sense even as nonsensical humor.
I think this just needs to be heavily revised. At its best, it could end up like the madcap game Escape the Crazy Place, but at its worst it still represents a step forward for the author.
A very short Twine story with allusive worldbuilding and implied relationships, April 7, 2020This short Twine game about some disaster making people not want to go out (at first seeming like Covid, later not so much).
It satisfies my 5 requirements for stars:
-Polished. This has great understated use of color and is organized neatly, with an interesting mechanic at the end.
-Descriptive: The house, people, and items and even mood were palpable to me as I read.
-Emotional impact: I could really feel the emotions the game was pushing out, maybe just because of my quarantine experiences.
-Interactivity: The card game was a nice change, and I felt like my choices in general had some kind of impact, if nothing else than in my roleplaying.
-Would I play it again? I already did. I like the feel of it. Might play it again.
Classic B-Minus. A short, surreal poem in Twine format, April 5, 2020B Minus makes what I would describe as anti-games. Just like Ryan Veeder likes to do counter-culture things like making very elaborate set pieces that are useless in the game or giving anti-climactic climaxes, B-minus likes to have functionality that's not all that functional.
In this case, it seems like the links might have some kind of strategy or purpose, but instead it's more like file folders, with the game ending if you get too deep.
The writing is opaque and symbolic, with elaborate language and constructions. I learned the word "aubade", a poem appropriate for dawn or morning.
B-Minus is an author that either pleases you or puzzles you, but I feel pleased.
A madcap baby-mecha twine game, April 4, 2020This game consists of the following elements:
-Custom graphics and animations
-Custom sounds
-4th-wall breaking goofy storyline
-A baby in a robot suit destroying things
These elements are all good in themselves, but this could have used a few more pass-throughs. The sound is loud and has no visible controls. The choices imply freedom without granting it or even, after choosing, the illusion of freedom. It implies strategization while taking it away.
The concept is funny, and I laughed, though, which is what the author wanted. So I believe that the author has been entirely successful in their goals.
A short, pleasantly surprising short zombie Twine game, April 3, 2020This short Twine game has you play as a young character surviving alone after some time of zombie-style apocalypse. You have to make some critical decisions regarding an old acquaintance.
I thought at first that this was just a heavy-handed riff on the coronavirus, but then it took a turn which pleasantly surprised me and which I'd like to see more of in Twine. Thoroughly enjoyable.
The author's conent warnings include profanity and a non-consensual kiss.
A short fantasy love story about invention and angels, April 3, 2020This is a shortish Twine game by Els White, author of the popular Twine game To the Wolves and writer/designer under Spider Lily Studios.
This game isn't meant to be epic, just a simple love story, but it has fairly heavy world-building done through implications. I felt like it explored class politics, transitioning, gay relationships, theology, etc. all in ten minutes.
There are some nice visual effects that add to the play (you literally assemble a visual angel), and I enjoyed the time I spent playing.
A charming and chilling story of nature, photography and love, April 3, 2020This is a Ren'Py story that uses beautiful photography with a mostly linear story broken up by binary choices.
These binary choices always have an immediate effect, but I don't know if their influence lingers later on.
I love the type of story. It's almost like a romantic version of the Turn of the Screw. The hero is confused, foggy--possibly non-neurotypical. They have someone at home--sister? caretaker? spouse? And they encounter someone in the woods. But who and what are they?
The answers are never fully revealed, but gradually hinted at more and more. I found it effective.
An amusing French twine game of unintended consequences, February 23, 2020In this game, which has beautiful graphics, you have risen to the throne after your mother was accidentally poisoned by a drunk witch.
You have numerous binary options, and one (or both) options will have humorous, unintended consequences.
It's not too long, but it is polished, descriptive, and amusing. However, I found its interactivity a bit frustrating at times, but I could see my self playing again.
A cute, funny French game about dreams and fairies, February 7, 2020I've long enjoyed games about fairies, other worlds, and dreams. This game doesn't branch much, but provides plenty of humor and child-like fantasy.
You play an insomniac who is visited by the dream fairy. The dream fairy attempts to diagnose your insomnia, taking you from person to person to try and find someone who can help.
A short choicescript game with horror elements and moral choices, November 24, 2019This is a Choicescript game written in less than 4 hours for Ectocomp 2019.
I had a lot of fun with this one despite its size. The author managed to cram a lot in. There's a 'build your monster' segment followed by a series of moral choices. It provided a feeling of agency beyond its substance and had solid writing.
Loved it! If you want more monster stories from this author, they also wrote Each-Uisge from IFComp 2019.
The very beginning of a Halloween game, November 23, 2019I'm pretty sure this game is the result of someone opening up Quest for the first time, putting in some rooms and an object, and sending it out. Probably a younger person as well.
There's nothing wrong with doing that, but it's not really a game. It's three locations and an item and nothing else. In addition, it's released as the code for the game instead of the finished game itself.
I'm glad the author figured out how to use Quest, and if they want to make longer stuff, more power to them.
A limerick-styled short horror game, November 20, 2019Another Smith limerick game
But this isn't more of the same.
Instead of a jolly
heist or other folly
You're seeking to kill or to maim.
Who then is your target, your foe?
A vampire's the one who must go.
Or 'wampire' I mean
(since that's what my screen
displays as the name of the foe.)
But to my surprise there's a twist!
I had guessed the genre, and missed.
It's truly perturbing
This game is disturbing
So keep it right off your kids' list.
If you liked the Heist game, here's more
That also deserves a good score.
The writing's well done
I found it quite fun
So I'll give this short game a 4.
(Edit: improved with suggestions from A. Schultz).
A story about a terrifying small town, November 19, 2019This game has you travelling to live in a small village where electronics are banned, church is every night and the rules must be enforced.
This is a common theme in horror (like Midsommar), and this pursues a lot of those tropes.
I found the story interesting and exciting. The formatting threw me off, since the paragraphs sort of ran together. All in all, though, it was a fun short horror experience.
A short speed-IF twine game with a surprising amount of worldbuilding, November 18, 2019This game is very small, smaller than almost all the Twine games in IFComp. Made in 4 hours for the speed competition known as Ectocomp, it seems the author spent most of the time working on polished writing and world building.
I think it was very successful. I found myself repeatedly surprised as I read, each time realizing how the surprise connected with proceeding material. The author does an excellent job of choosing what to reveal and what to imply. I'd give more details, but it's better to just play it yourself!
There's some violence and brief strong profanity.
A charming short creating tale with a difficult puzzle in it, November 16, 2019This Portuguese game is a nice, compact Twine game about creating something when you are an omnipresent, solipistic being. There are a lot of options, and the consequences of them can be unexpectedly amusing and spot-on.
Many options lead to a sort of puzzle, which gives you more and more hints. I had difficulty with this, especially due to the language barrier.
Overall, the writing and the interactivity was very satisfying.
A bloody and violent short Twine game, November 14, 2019In this game, you are a maniac who shoots all of their enemies with a shotgun at a party.
Half of the game is devoted to saying why you hate people, and the other half is devoted to gruesomely describing the blood and guts that come out when you shoot them.
Their are numerous typos and errors. Given its poor taste, I cannot recommend this game. Even if it's somehow a parody, a non-American's perception of Americans, I think it could have been done less offensively.
A short Twine depiciting a near-future Brexit scenario, November 12, 2019Katie Benson has a specific genre of games she makes that work pretty well. They are Twine games with some light styling and multiple endings, with a branch-and-bottleneck structure.
Structurally, they're all very similar, but Benson has done a lot of exploration of controversial topics, innovating in the subject matter portrayed rather than in the mechanics.
This game is a sequel, and has the player working in a food kitchen in a version of Britain where the British Jobs Act has given subsidies to companies hiring British citizens (I think).
I found two different endings. There was one encounter that occurred twice in the game with identical language (Spoiler - click to show)(talking to the cop), but it was otherwise a smooth experience.
A short Lovecraftian Halloween tale, November 12, 2019I've rated this game on my 5 point scale:
Polish: The red color on the choices is a nice effect, but typos and grammar problems drag this point down.
Descriptiveness: Very good! Lots of vivid images here.
Interactivity: The available choices felt pretty satisfying, especially for such a short game!
Emotional Impact: The shortness and over-the-top-ness limited the emotional impact for me.
Would I play again?: I tried all the options, and I think I've seen everything I need to here.
Edit: Overall, I would say that all of the problems could be fixed by having more time. As a Speed-IF, this is good!
A bilingual javascript game with some inventory management and conversation, November 11, 2019This one was a hard one to score. One of its main features is language. It's bilingual, and part of a project that produces multilingual games, which is something I support.
This means that many of its language errors come from incomplete translation, which means I'm more inclined to go easy on them. The most egregious error I saw was an entire passage in Spanish included in the English version (I'm sorry, I don't remember which passage it was!) There are other errors as well.
The system is interesting. Functionally, it's very similar to Ink: text continually scrolls downward, instead of replacing like Twine, and you either click a 'more' button or select from a menu of choices.
However, it's not actually Ink, I think, and seems to be a custom system that needs some work. Ink and Twine have me used to lovely little transitions between text (not slow fade-ins, but quick scrolling animations and so on). This game just adjoins the new text quickly.
Similarly, punctuation (like ---) are used for line breaks instead of nice horizontal lines. These are all things that can be added to over time.
Storywise, there's an interesting plot about abducted Russian scientists and bizarre experiments. But I was so caught up in the new system and multilingual aspect that I didn't have a chance to immerse myself in it as much as I'd like.
A space horror tale with great elements that don't blend well, November 10, 2019I've played this game 4 or 5 times now, trying to find if I've missed something important (and if I have I'll update this review!)
You are in space, having a family dinner on Halloween through a videocall. You can guide the conversation as your family clashes with each other over things like religion and politics.
Then something happens, and the game takes a more linear turn, then ends.
The twist involves several elements, and I just don't see how they all connect together. I'm a fan of leaving the most frightening parts of horror as mere suggestions, but we have so many things here: (Spoiler - click to show)a time loop, suggestions of being an android, government conspiracy, mind control taken from Bioshock. Each part is great, and the writing is good, but how does it all tie together? The simplest explanation is that (Spoiler - click to show)you are an android and your 'family' has always been fake, and your programming gets reset. But then why change the clocks? Isn't accurate timekeeping important in space? And why have the elaborate video call setup at all?
A short Ectocomp game about a heart warming cooking blog, November 10, 2019This Twine game has an interesting accretive feature: you build a blog post paragraph by paragraph by making different selections (such as for the name, etc.).
It's all fairly mild stuff, but the fact this game has content warnings should let you know it can't last forever.
Presentation is nice and smooth. Good for a quick bite.
An amusing short mythology game with a couple of errors, October 11, 2019This is a fun little game. You're dead, and you essentially have the option to pick your own punishment.
It draws heavily on Greek mythology with a little swerve into mathematical history. I laughed. I cried. It was fun.
The implementation could be a bit better. (Spoiler - click to show)X LIST or X CHECKLIST didn't work, but X CLIPBOARD did (which I know was highlighted, but LIST is a reasonable synonym). When I did X NOTE as Tantalus, it said 'Do you mean the nothingred post-it note or the blue post-it note?'. POUR WATER INTO BASIN didn't work as Danaid (although again, it was a different command than the note suggested).
Some interesting ideas but not really sure where it's going., October 9, 2019This game has a retro-looking font. A button on the lower right titled 'messages' tells you that it was found on some old floppy disks.
The idea is that you're supposed to be able to click on certain words related to grammar lessons in the text on the lefthand side of the screen. I opened up the game in twinery to verify this, and there is code there for it, but it didn't work for me on Chrome.
Essentially, there are 6 'grammar lessons' but they are just an excuse for the creator of the software (in-game) to publish chunks of her novel.
Overall, it's interesting, but it's short, and it just kind of peters out. The chrome bug made the interactivity and polish just not there for me.
The one thing I did like was the writing in the actual novel. It was descriptive and interesting.
A charming little game that takes an idea and runs with out., October 7, 2019This game meets my criteria for five stars:
Polish: I found no bugs, and everything ran smoothly. The game logic was sound.
Descriptiveness: I learned new things. I was intrigued by the game in ways that bled into real life.
Interactivity: This game explores parser space in a way that (Spoiler - click to show)Take, The North-North Passage, and Lime Ergot did. These games take the player-parser interaction and do 'variations on a theme' like composers.
Emotion: I felt a warm glow.
Play again: Sure!
Sobol's been reviewing games for at least 5 years, it's high time he post one of his own. This is a lovely game.
A slightly buggy but compelling Twine game about a surreal horror, October 7, 2019This game is currently broken. I don't think it will always be that way, and I'd be happy to change my review if that changes.
You play as a character who experiences a life-changing event that results in the implantation of an alien presence. You shift back and forth between a real world and an alien, and between linear parts and puzzle parts.
There is some strong language. I'm loving the storyline here and would love to see this fixed.
Edit:
The author has made several improvements, although it's not perfect. I completed all three chapters this time, and I really felt a connection with the author. The feeling of impending doom that cannot be escape is truly a relatable feeling after I faced a difficult job search this year.
I love dark, psychological/surreal settings, and this story called to me. Some small things still need tweaking, however.
Rescue the cats!, October 7, 2019This polished but small Ink game has you trying to rescue 7 cats from a cruel breeder.
You have three different places you can go to earn 'coals', the currency in the game. Each cat costs 3 coals.
There are many ways to get money, including some dark paths, some scientific. While the game is very short, it has 10 different endings, and is worth replaying a few times.
I may have given an extra star just because I love cats. But what's wrong with that?
Majora's Mask fan fiction with timed Twine events and friendship, October 7, 2019This is one of two clear fan-fiction games this comp (the other being one set at Hogwarts).
This game is based on the Zelda game Majora's Mask. You and your buds are NPCs in that game, and since the moon is going to kill everyone, you sit on a hill drinking beer, shouting at the moon and waiting for the world to end.
It has some good animations, and some interesting text effects (such as giving you a five minutes time limit). It has some strong profanity. I found it descriptive and enjoyable.
A great story with no interactivity and some typos, October 7, 2019This is a mid-length story, kind of between a creepypasta and fable in tone, presented as a completely linear story with a single link on each Twine page.
It has a few typos: wading instead of fading, for instance.
So the interactivity, polish, and replay value are low here.
But I liked the descriptions. Not everyone will like this story, but I have a very specific niche that I like, which is games/stories where you are transported to a dark shadow world and must conquer it with the power of light. (Eidolon, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Twilight Princess).
This seems like it's drawn from some game design, though. It mentions stuff like 'a ladder 30' above you', 'a 10' monster', 'a 10' globe of light'. The character (in this completely static story) collects globes of light to upgrade their weapon.
So, it's interesting, and weird, but I enjoyed the story.
A powerful game about destruction and catharsis, October 7, 2019There are some things that definitely need trigger warnings, and the warning for this game is self-harm.
(Spoiler - click to show)This game uses bare styling in Twine, but it's text layout, pacing and link structure are very polished. The writing is descriptive, with some profanity appropriate to the situation you're in. I felt strong emotions during this, first feelings that drew me in and helped me identify with the character, and then feelings of horror as I chose the 'bad' choices later involving self-harm. I didn't know it would be that bad, which perhaps is how the protagonist feels.
A powerful game.
A sweet little tale re-doing Rip van Winkle, October 7, 2019This game is fairly straightforward design-wise and writing-wise. You are a kid that witnesses a modern-day Rip van Winkle fall asleep.
Instead of focusing on the dramatic event, the game talks about the repercussions over the years, the effect it has on the community.
It's a little too short to become involved with the characters, but I found the whole idea charming and a good reminder of the effects we can have on each other.
An illustrated, short game dealing with the moral choices in Hansel and Gretel, October 6, 2019This is an interesting game. It has custom art and animations in the Godot engine. You play as three characters (well, four characters, but two are at the same time) as you go through the story.
It is very short, with just a few screens and one choice per screen.
It's a philosophical game. In the beginning (which I now realize presaged the end), you are asked to abandon the characters as soon as the game is over (hence the name).
I realize now as I write this that (in regards to that ending) (Spoiler - click to show)I was surprised and annoyed that the game just stops in the middle. I wanted to know more. But isn't that the whole point? That I had promised to not care?
So it is clever, but it left me feeling frustrated. Also, I feel like it could do better in its choices; for a few options, none of them were things I'd like to do.
Immerse yourself in a world of poetry users, and maybe find a special one, October 4, 2019In this game, you play as a new user on a poetry forum. You select from 3 usernames of varying respectability (and they all get commented on). You can then join 4 or so different chat workshops.
Each one has different characters, all reminding me of real-life forum members: the rude ones, the funny ones, the cute ones.
I got the Kanojo ending, which I enjoyed. The game's not too long, but it's replayable and its length suits its purpose.
I didn't feel strongly emotionally invested, but it's polished, descriptive, has good interactivity and I would (and did) play it more than once.
A funny game about giant slugs that ends too soon for me, October 4, 2019This is a game that I like, but which I feel could have been quite a bit longer.
It's got fun illustrations, an enjoyable premise (giant slugs attack everything), and the beginnings of inventory- and location-based puzzles.
But then it's over so quickly. It's 10,000 words, and you don't see most of those because it branches a lot.
In a way, it's kind of like Dungeon Detective 1 last year. I liked that game, too, but it was also too short, and the author made a bigger sequel (Dungeon Detective 2) this year that was much longer, and I loved it.
If anything, I just want more of this. Would love to play more games by this author.
A micro-game about an important moment in life, October 3, 2019This game reminds me of one I've looked for for years. In 2015, when I started playing IF, I played a parser game where you've just had a fight with your husband, and you eventually find (Spoiler - click to show)a used pregancy test in the trash. It was very short, and it comes to my mind often.
This game is a choice game, but has a similar theme. With only a few links in the game, it manages to be pretty tricky at times to advance the story. The styling has been modified somewhat, most notably by some timed text which is pretty appropriately used here.
It's hard to get emotionally involved in such a small game, though, and there is a tug of war between the puzzly link interaction and the heartfelt story. I feel like the interactivity doesn't pair well with the drama.
In any case, as a person I can identify with this moment and the feelings involved, and it brought back vivid real-life memories. I wish them the best!
A short conversation augmented by expressive eyes, October 2, 2019The concept of this game is clever. You're having a conversation with a friend, and every emotion of the NPC is expressed by a photo of eyes. It's the same person, same pose, but with anger, happiness, sadness, etc. in the eyes.
It's very effective, kind of how emojis help express emotion in texts.
The one drawback in the interactivity and emotion of it is that it all seems a bit shallow. The story is toothless, a frivolous problem with hints at relationship issues. This same technique with a deeper story (not necessarily longer) would be splendid. As it is, it's presented in a very polished and well-done manner.
A terse, symbolic dark Speed IF game, August 26, 2019Sam Ashwell's games always seem to be from a parallel universe where IF developed in wildly different directions. They don't 'fit in' with usual IF tropes.
In this game which quotes (and reminds me of) T.S. Eliot, you are pursuing a wounded troll across a desert while being pursued by Yellow Dog.
The feel is sort of like a mix between Stephen Kings's Dark Tower and mythology. You encounter a series of obstacles, characters you deal with through menus (reminding me of De Baron. This game reminds me of a lot of things!)
Pure symbolic obscurism can be pretentious or effective. But I'm a sucker for it, so it definitely is 'effective' here for me.
Achieves its aim: to be a small game depicting a cat's life, August 22, 2019This game was one of the author's first games, and it is small and simple.
However, it matches my ratings system well. It achieves emotional impact in that it makes you think of being a cat very well. It puts you in the mindset of the cat and all the actions are things my cat does.
It's polished in its smallness, and the interactivity work well, as it doesn't feel like lawnmowering to play and the links are placed well, better than many longer works.
It's also descriptive, and that's 4 of my 5 stars right there.
A short mermaid story with layers of duality, July 2, 2019This game only lasts for about 1000 words, so it's a quick read.
It was made for MerMay, so it makes sense it would be about mermaids. But the title has multiple meanings, and the game itself deals with ambiguity and feeling.
This is a slight snack of a game, but it left a good feeling. It reminded me of my time living in Hawaii, in many ways, although I imagine it more as a cold Atlantic ocean than the Pacific.
A will that can change in real-time. Short choice game, June 27, 2019This game features an old man who made a fortune in the Congo. It's set in the near-future, with a variety of corporations mentioned.
It is a short game, with the bulk of interactions taking place near the end of the game. Basically, you can pick which character you are, and raid the shares of the others.
It reacts quite pleasingly. But I noticed that the interactivity was fairly opaque, and the story hard to grasp. Marino's later games feature detailed and exciting stories with clear interactivity, which is a development I'm very happy with!
Munchies simulator, June 26, 2019This game portrays two stoners with a friendly relationship grabbing food to eat. There are four aisles in the grocery store, and most of the game involves selecting different foods and seeing what comes out.
It's weird, it's short, but it works. Scattered strong profanity.
A simple CYOA with now-gone graphics, June 26, 2019I played the archive.org version of this game, which now lacks the original graphics, which I understand were simple 3D graphics.
All that's left is the choice structure, which is meager. You are in a 3d area, and you can turn left and right and go up stairs. I played another game recently using Unity that had similar mechanics, but I can't find it now. (Maybe from Introcomp 2019?)
The game ends after a few moves. Pretty disappointing.
Short and stupid, both on purpose, June 26, 2019Sometimes I find purposely bad games charming, and others have found this one so in the past, but I think it's just dumb. Especially since you have to open a window in the first room to make a later exit work, for no reason at all!
All you do is explore a lab to find and kill Slan Xorax (an alias for Jonathan Berman). Not much else here.
More fun than I thought it would be, June 26, 2019Wumpus is an old game, and Andrew Plotkin had long since done an amazing remake of it by this point (Hunter, In Darkness). But this Adrift game was surprisingly fun.
You wander through a pretty bad maze (although you can find a nice, hand-drawn map), avoid obstacles, and try to kill the wumpus and escape.
I won on the second try after about fifteen minutes or so.
A regular old Panks game with the same old stuff in it, June 26, 2019Paul Panks made one pretty cool game, and then made a ton of little games which are all very similar.
When I started this up, I thought, "I wonder if I'll be in a village with a 2-floor tavern and a church." Lo and behold, I started in a two floor tavern next to a church. Is my first enemy a hellhound? Yep. Then I fought a dragon. That was new. But the game was over after that.
Not much here, but at least it all works together as long as you're familiar with Panks' style (GET, not TAKE, and WIELD weapons and WEAR armor).
Fails at being a horrible game, June 22, 2019In the PTBAD series, which is generally an ill-conceived series of intentionally terrible games, this one manages not to be too terrible. It has generally smoothish implementation, not-too-hard main puzzle, and a poem that has crosses the line from awful to sublime.
Uses Adrift 4.0.
Brief, unusual existential horror, June 20, 2019I played the French version of this game before. I like this game, it calls to my exact sort of tastes in games. But it may not call out to everybody. It's like Cannery Vale, which is one of my top 10 games of all time but which didn't win IFComp, or Creak, Creak, a tiny game by Chandler Groover.
In this game, you wake up in the middle of the night to strange sounds in the garden. You can explore your house, but everything seems off.
Great for fans of existential horror. Very short parser game.
A short self-referential narrative describing an anomaly, June 13, 2019This game is short but satisfies all of my requirements for 5 stars:
Polish: This game has a custom format with well-designed buttons and overall CSS and layout.
Descriptiveness: There are several characters who are described in exquisite detail (or not, with good reason), and the location and item descriptions were evocative.
Emotional Impact: I could really identify with the researcher and the anomaly. The final description complemented the main narrative in an excellent way.
Interactivity: This game allows quite a few paths, but is self-deprecative. It says: (Spoiler - click to show)This may be a multiple-choice story, but there's no multiple endings. If you pick the wrong options, the story has to pretty much drag you to me so we can have this little chat. You see, fundamentally, this just isn't a good multiple choice story. That's not what it is. It was never supposed to be that. A good multiple choice story has decisions, it has character development, it's got different pathways to get to different goals and most importantly it's got replayability. There just has to be at least one ending where you die. It's a game, and there's a different way to play every time. This is not a game. These are special containment procedures. And these procedures make a very bad game, but they do a very good job of containing me.
Coincidentally, I disagree with the game's self-identification as a bad game and with its overall design philosophy. The material in the spoiler is only one way of doing things.
Replay: I enjoyed this both times I replayed it.
A violent and sexual metaphor-ridden game centered on glam and Kesha, June 13, 2019This is one of Porpentine's games that highlights one fact of her games (especially her early games) more than any other work of hers: intense, destructive femininity. This is explored in other works, especially Cyberqueen and With Those we Love Alive, and, well, all of the other works, but it is the lifeblood of the game.
This game centers on being Kesha, infused with powerful glitter and mascara, driving vehicles named after genitals and destroying hater-men in a techno-cyber-surreal-sephora mashup.
It's more gruesome and sexual than I like, and Porpentine herself seems more toned down now. But the production values are really excellent. Few people, perhaps none, have managed to extract as much presentation value out of Twine's basic features.
A short twine game about a train, amnesia, and identity, June 13, 2019There is a curious sub-genre in interactive fiction about surreal games on a train. There is something about the train as both metaphor and as a constrained, linear, isolated space that makes it ideal as both a narrative setting and a game setting.
Combined, then, these make for a perfect combination when it comes to interactive fiction.
As a standalone game, this one is short and trope-reliant but well-paced and compelling. You wake up with amnesia, opposite an old woman on a train. The game doesn't last long, but choices you make matter.
An interesting short read on a lunch break.
Procedural generation, loss, and relationships, June 13, 2019This game would be a 3 star game if not for the highlighting.
Visually, it's presented beautifully, with background images, multiple textured text boxes, and UI options.
Structurally, as a standard choice game, it leaves a lot to be desired. You have a menu of people and a menu of places, and take turns picking one then the other. For each pairing, you have a binary option or two. There is a lot of text per choice.
But with the highlighting on, you can see the trick of this game: some of the game is procedurally generated. Not in the sense that the game uses predetermined text replacement based on your choices, but in the sense that there is some kind of corpus generating new sentences.
Is this useful for the game? It's cool to see your choices produce new things. But a hand-written sentence would likely be just as good or better, which is the perpetual problem of procedural generation.
Still, the highlighting gave me a sense of involvement, and the overall story was dramatic and touching.
A polished fantasy/mythology twine game with extreme branching, June 12, 2019I saw this game a few months ago, and I was pretty impressed. It has a beautiful story to tell.
The format is large pages of text with 2 choices at the bottom. The choices split quickly, so you get very little of the game in each playthrough. However, replay is quick and enjoyable. I've seen 3 endings.
The idea is that 4 siblings are chosen every few decades to become demigods corresponding to the seasons. You can choose summer and winter, love or war, peace or sadness.
I do wish their was less extreme branching, with more of the main story in each playthrough, and that it was easier to make decisions based on a strategy, but this is a stylistic choice.
A great superhero game divided into many small branches, June 9, 2019This game could have been more accessible and/or popular with some design changes. It suffers strongly from “Time Cave” effect. Instead of having an overarching narrative, it’s made of a dozen or more distinct threads with very little in common. It branches wildly.
Each playthrough is, to me, a 3-star game. But the whole story is pretty cool. I discovered stuff on my 4th and 5th playthroughs that changes the whole story (although I am ever an enemy to slow-text in IF games ).
I could see this game having been made slightly more coherent, with some of the best scenes always occurring.
But this could all be down to author’s choice. Did the author want most of the game to be hidden away as a reward for the careful reader? That’s a valid design choice, limiting the number of people who enjoy the game but increasing the joy in those who do. Hanon Ondricek has many games in that style in the past, but he’s now done stuff in many styles.
Anyway, this is a pretty cool superhero story.
A short, intense twine game about a relationship over time, June 1, 2019This game is fairly short, and can be completed in 4-6 clicks. Each page has some ‘asides’ that take you into a few paragraphs from your past, and one ‘real link’ that takes you to the next page. The shortness, combined with the absence of strong choices, are why I’m taking a point off. The styling is spare, but color transitions and positioning of various link types show signs of careful thought and polish.
Otherwise, this is an emotional short story about a school crush and a chance to meet them after many years, one complicated by gender preferences.
It’s hard to go into more detail, because there’s just not that much there.
A slight game with a heavy message about discrimination, May 27, 2019This game is short and mostly linear. Many choices that are presented, in fact all, it seems, either don't actually work (your character can't choose them) or has no effect.
Within that short time and constrained play system, though, the author manages to build up an entire world and vividly describe a wide variety of characters. I felt emotionally invested in the game.
I'm not sure that this game would be better serviced by being longer. It has a short tale to tell with a clearly defined narrative arc.
The general idea of this is bigotry, and features a world where magic blends with the era of British sailing ships and naval domination.
I'm taking off two stars, one for interactivity (I feel like the game could have at least remembered a bit of our earlier choices, like the way we handle the bigoted crewman), and one because it has little replay value. It's been over a year since I played, and I remembered the entire game when I just replayed it, finding nothing new. Perhaps this is actually a good thing, a story so vivid it's seared into your brain? But 3 stars is where I'm leaving it for now.
A small series of dream vignettes , April 21, 2019This game is fairly simple, but a pleasant way to pass the time.
You are given warnings about how what you do before bed affects your dreams. Then you fall asleep.
You experience 3 dream vignettes, one with a puzzle, one with little agency, and one with a few moral choices. The order you experience these vignettes in depends on your earlier actions.
This game would be good for an interactive fiction class to analyse, because it has some delayed branching, a variety in choice structures, and is small enough to digest.
However, the game itself isn't strongly polished. I had the impression of grammar mistakes at times, and the visual presentation could be developed more.
A brief demonstration of an innovative method for changing a story, April 20, 2019Liza Daly has come up with quite a few ways of presenting stories in the past, including complex parser games, the precursor-to-Twine game First Draft of the Revolution (in tandem with Emily Short), and the Windrift engine.
This game builds on that earlier material. It is very short, finishable in 5 minutes (unless I missed something major!).
Basically, there is a sequence of choices in the story, each of which can be revisited at any time. There is a bit of hysteresis, a term Emily Short has used before to describe how doing and undoing choices doesn't just put you back where you started, but has lingering effects.
A partially-random walk in the forest, April 20, 2019This was an interesting game. Perhaps the most interesting part was the author's afterword.
The idea is that you set off to several journeys that are procedurally generated. Along the path, you can control how surreal the messages are by staying on the path or wandering away.
Much of the conversations at the end of each journey were repetitive, which the author states is a bug. It gave an interesting effect, though, almost like a dream, a ghost conversation, or a fading memory.
An intriguing experiment that is at times confusing, April 14, 2019This game is a sort of meta-commentary on writing and the nature of writing, technology, and maybe a bit of Sci-Fi.
It's format is essentially that of a cited and annotated series of paragraphs, each on separate pages. The presentation is slick, handling different browser sizes adeptly.
There is an extra layer to the game allowing you to access a command prompt with a few actions.
This game constantly hints at their being more, but I felt like that promise never materialized. That may be part of the point, but I feel that somehow just a couple of small tweaks here and there could have made everything gel for me.
A deconstruction of Hamlet in Ink, April 14, 2019More than any other piece of Western literature, Hamlet has been mangled up and mashed and transformed, from Hamletmachine to Lion King. But it makes sense, because it's a compelling story.
This version is a mashup between The Maltese Falcon and Hamlet. It borrows heavily from noir tropes, to the point of parody, but it also features heavy elements of surrealism.
This is a short, linear game that maintains an illusion of slightly less linearity.
It's an interesting concept. Some of the surreality was hard to distinguish from bugs at first, and this created a kind of disconnect between me and the interaction.
A short Twine game about identity and depression., April 8, 2019This short Spring Thing game is in the genre of text games that take a major issue confronting humanity and explore it through a player's story. In this case, it reflects depression.
You wake up in the dark, forced to rely on sense besides sight to discover more about yourself.
This game is dark, literally and metaphorically. It allows you to do anything you set your mind to.
I felt like the game's mild puzzles contributed to a sense of agency. But somehow I felt an emotional distance from the game, perhaps because of my personal feelings regarding the subject matter.
A short contemplative metaphor game based on the new Elm Narrative Engine, April 7, 2019This game is designed to showcase the Elm Narrative engine. Although it's not the first game written in the engine, it's the first I've seen.
This engine is based on the Elm programming language. From what I've seen of the engine, it features less emphasis on branching and more on context-sensitive choices (which would be useful for inventories and such).
In-game, the same link can have multiple effects depending on when you click them. Because the links can scroll out of view, there is a handy top bar listing all active links. This gives an experience somewhere between Twine and Robin Johnson's Versificator engine (which the author praises in an early dev blog).
There was one critical issue that cause me trouble. Due to the large font size, I usually had to rely on the bar, and the bar wasn't always there. I had to tap the up arrow to make it appear. This was the case in both Chrome and Firefox. I know this is just an option in the engine, as the other sample games use a constant menu bar.
Everything else about the engine was smooth and enjoyable. I could see this engine gaining wider adoption.
As for the game itself, it is a metaphorical game about the pursuit of light and darkness. It's short, contemplative, and even melodic at times. I had difficulty making an emotional connection, though, which may be related to my interface frustration.
A contemplative game about the role of words vs expressions in conversation, April 7, 2019This game joins the growing sub-genre of twine games where you express yourself with emojis (including 10pm, a recent French IFComp game, and parts of Known Unknowns).
The author speaks about being a quiet person and the game forcing you to consider the effects of that. That's an angle I really haven't seen explored before, and it was telling.
I found the game frustrating, because I couldn't guess the effects of my choices. But maybe that's the point? Intentional frustration for the player, depicting the problems quiet people unwittingly cause? If so, it's quite clever.
A short, thoughtful and polished take on dystopia, April 6, 2019This game is a take on dystopia in the well-trodden vein of Kafka and Orwell, but I think it does well, mostly due to pacing and attention to graphical detail.
This game is more of dynamic fiction than puzzle. The interactivity is there to draw your participation in the story, and it does a good job of that.
A short game about kissing with great design obscured by the execution, March 12, 2019This is a simple game. It's a random kissing simulator. Input gender, then make some atmospheric real-time twine choices about your feelings, then kiss. Over in 5 minutes.
Reading the documentation and looking at the game structure, though, it's clear there's a bit more here. The game does some state tracking and the best endings are hard to find. Reading the source code, I find the worst endings (found by (Spoiler - click to show)Making choices that increase anxiety) highly amusing.
But finding these endings isn't even possible sometimes due to RNG, and the game doesn't do a stellar job of giving you feedback on your choices.
But perhaps this is an intentional choice? A way to model the inherent uncertainty in romantic relationships?
In any case, this is a fun game to poke around with, especially if you look under the hood. Good styling, too.
A twisted Texture tale. Short and obscure, a sci fi story, March 12, 2019This was a controversial IFComp game. Chandler Groover, known for writing well-received games with dense, descriptive writing, released a short and cryptic game for IFComp.
After listening to the author talk, and playing it myself, I now think I know what it's all about.
The clear part is that there is a fortune telling machine. People are 'added', which summons them to the machine. There, they are either equalized or multiplied.
After finding the easter egg, I realized on my most recent playthrough:
(Spoiler - click to show)The fortune telling machine is the engine for a spaceship/planet. Each person who is 'multiplied' is erased from existence. The energy from erasing them is used to rewrite the timeline to one where the planet is in another space. Movement by not moving, just changing the timestream.
Figuring this out made me like it more, otherwise I'd give it a 3. Nice presentation and good use of the Texture format.
I still don't know what being Equalized means.
A minimal heist game in Twine with strong characterization, February 18, 2019This is a shortish replayable twine game where you assemble a team for a heist. You choose people for different roles, such as getaway driver, then see what happens.
It seems like a very branchy game, but a big chunk of branches are eliminated early on by one choice, making it smaller than it seems. The styling is non-existent, using the standard Twine design and formatting.
The characters are memorable, though. It's pretty intense for a humor game, and I played it several times.
A short and emotional tale about partners in a futuristic organization, February 13, 2019This is a fairly stripped-down parser game, mostly involving linear conversations and simple tasks where you follow orders. The emotions are on-the-nose, and the descriptions are small.
But I liked the game. For my personal, somewhat cheesy style, this game was a great fit. I've played it a couple of times, and I enjoy the relationship it develops.
An illustrated parser game with multiple independent tracks, February 1, 2019This French IFComp game was written using Vorple, allowing it to have a dozen illustrations.
In stark contrast to the freedom of parser or the generally linear Twine games, this game has twelve different screens you can pay attention to, each of which has its own timeline. This makes it more like Varicella or Master of the Land, which implement similar parallel timelines.
However, just as with those games, I found it difficult to make and carry out plans.
I believe there may have been an error in the scoring. Despite receiving positive feedback on many of my police reports, and playing through a half-dozen times, my score only went down from 100 out of 1000, sometimes even becoming negative. My final scores were 100, -50, 80, and so on. I checked the walkthrough after and it seemed to say I was doing a good job, so I don't know.
An amusing take on alien-human interaction, January 31, 2019This game employs two common tropes but combines them in a fun way.
The first is communication using emojis. Like B.P. Hennessy's Known Unkown's and litrouke's 10 pm, you have an array of emojis you can pick from and combine into different emoji sentences.
The second trope is 'aliens communicate and we must decode it', like Contact, 2001, or Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind.
This particular game takes a humorous approach. I was faked out twice at the end, which I enjoyed. I used google translate, as there were many French words I was unfamiliar with.
It's a fairly short game, with 4 chapters and an epilogue, but each chapter being only a couple of choices.
I felt like the game respected my choices and made an effort to be interactive.
A partially illustrated futuristic sci-fi tale, January 28, 2019This is a French IFComp entry, and it worked pretty well for me.
You are a cybernetic soldier who has been massively damaged on the field of battle. You have a screen/HUD sort of thing that you can control (the theme of this year's comp is 'screens'). Clicking on different armor pieces gives you different options.
The storyline, dealing with the aftermath of war, goes in fairly standard directions for sci-fi, but I found the presentation charming and my mangled non-Francophone reading ability found the writing interesting. Slick game, and not too long, for any English speakers trying to get some mileage out of Google translate.
An incomplete puzzle Twine game from the French IF Competition, January 25, 2019This game presented a conundrum to me. As a non-native French reader, I couldn't tell if the lack of punctuation and capitalization was avant-garde or the result of less-than-perfect design processes. However, I reached a point where 2 out of 3 choices lead to death and the third said 'click anywhere to edit this node', so I believe that this is simply an incomplete game.
But the idea of it is fun. It hearkens back to more riddle-based gameplay than most narrative-focused Twine games. You're trapped, and there's a madman with a knife coming to get you. You must find six digits to unlock a door, each digit being given as a reward for a puzzle. Puzzles include logic puzzles, wordplay puzzles, etc.
I would have liked to see this finished and polished. But, in its incomplete state, I can't recommend it.
A short game about autonomy and robots with one big moment, January 7, 2019Zarf/Andrew Plotkin has said before that he thinks about a certain interaction he wants players to experience in a game, and then builds the game around that.
This game was built around one interaction at the end. It’s a cool interaction, but the rest of the game doesn’t do enough to build up to and support this special interaction at the level it deserves. It’s like having a small 1-tier cake with a huge crystal wedding topper that it can’t quite support.
The cards were a nice visual feature: this is set in a futuristic Vegas casino, and you can see the cards being dealt.
Overall, this shows a high level of craftsmanship, and I anticipate that a longer game by this author would be great.
A shortish, nice-looking Twine game about bisexuality, January 7, 2019Norbez has written quite a few games over the years now, including several IFComp games, and it’s clear that their style is progressing, adapting, and improving. This is the best Norbez game I’ve seen, and definitely one of the best “PSA” games I’ve seen. Just like Depression Quest for depression or Hana Feels for self-harm, Bi Lines is meant to help you consider what it’s like to be a bisexual man in an unacceptably society.
What made this piece work for me was the presentation. Nice chalk/like effects when you click on choices, smooth writing, and a supernatural setting with a reporter talking to ghosts make an excellent frame over the deeper charcterization choices and the central narrative.
This game takes place over three days, but is still fairly short. It contains some strong profanity in a scene or two. I recommend this game.
A campfire tale with randomly generated elements, November 24, 2018This game isn't bad in it's own category, it just happens not to be what satisfies my criteria for stars, which is why it got a low score from me.
This game uses randomization of elements taken from some sort of database (so that figurines might be of monkeys one playthrough or of dogs on another).
The player has some text input, and there are images, but overall it seems like you just get a story to read that you don't have much effect over or investment in.
The game shows a great level of skill, though.
An incomplete texture game about a surreal world, November 24, 2018In this game, you wake up in the world described in Talking Head's 'Once in a Lifetime' song. You have a beautiful house, a beautiful wife, and none of it makes sense.
This is a texture game, and has great promise. Unfortunately, it is not complete at all.
If you experiment with it, note that it has some sensuous scenes.
A demo for Glyffe, an engine where you physically move through text, November 19, 2018This was a game meant to show off a particularly interesting engine, but which may not have been the best choice to show it off.
Glyffe lets you navigate (using arrow keys) around a text on screen, with interactions happening when you run over something. There are interesting Glyffe 'worlds' with red FIRE and grey WALLS and DOORS that you can physically interact with.
But this game is just a long text, where running over a paragraph makes the next pop up. The text is interesting, but the interactivity of this example wasn't sold to me.
Part 1 of an AI sci-fi story, November 9, 2018This is a short, incomplete science fiction story.
This game has excellent worldbuilding, you can really get a feeling for the kind of place that you're in. It's a high-tech sci-fi scenario.
However, it feels more like a good first effort than anything else. Formatting is kind of off, with no spaces between paragraphs. The clinical tone isn't quite nailed, with first names being used for researchers (like Dr. Sarah and so on).
I believe a further game by this author, with practice and polish, will turn out great.
A short branching teenage camp horror game, November 6, 2018This game is in the Intudia system, which was also used for Addicott Manor in IFComp.
This game is quite short, as is appropriate for the Ectocomp competition. It's also a widely branching game. You are a counselor on a bus trip to a camp. You have about 2-5 choices on any branch.
The story is about murder, supernatural violence, etc. and relies on several stereotypes and tropes of teenage slasher films.
A Chinese literature-inspired short Halloween story, November 5, 2018This fairly short Twine story has us playing as a magistrate's assistant, reviewing three different accounts of ghosts by three different characters.
The characters are inspired by the Chinese novel Di Gong An.
I found the setting interesting and the writing well-done. The only real choice was the order of the stories, but there was a bit of a puzzle at the end which I was pleased with.
A promising first entry in the Ectocomp competition, November 4, 2018This is the second Ectocomp game I've played by howtophil, and I have to say that it's not as good as his other, and I actually think that's a compliment.
This current game was, as far as I know, the author's first completed work. I remember testing it in the forums. It implements several clever ideas/puzzles, one puzzle in each of four rooms.
However, it sort of attempts too much at once, not leaving enough time and space for careful implementation.
The author's second game in this competition, Wake Up, was written in less time but with more skill. It had a narrow focus, excellent implementation, and a great overall structure. It's clear the author is learning by leaps and bounds.
So I can't strongly recommend this game, but I can recommend Wake Up, and I believe the next games to come from this author will continue to increase in quality.
An entertaining short Twine story based on a classic kids' cartoon, November 3, 2018This is a feel-good game, which, as the author pointed out online, is very different from their last game, Bogeyman:
"my entry for ifcomp, which is genre-neutral: "extremely disturbing", "relentlessly horrible"
my entry for ectocomp, which is specifically halloween-themed: light-hearted family-friendly HIJINKS"
This game is based on a classic kids' cartoon, and it holds up well. You have a big, lawnmowery exploration phase looking for supplies before setting up a home alone-like defense.
The game feels slight and smallish, but polished; this makes it perfect for a casual competition like Ectocomp.
A Texture Halloween game with some great moments, November 3, 2018This game is a shortish Texture game with a Halloween theme. You are brought before a macabre group and forced to perform a ritual.
The Texture programming was more complex than I'm used to, which was a nice change. It felt like a real puzzle. At first, I thought it was similar to Moon Goon, with an altar containing 'assorted items', but the ending couldn't have been more different.
I loved the overall plot design in this game. Given its fun-to-length ratio, you should just go try it.
An interesting speed-IF that uses audio exclusively, November 2, 2018It was great to see something as complex as an audio game entered.
The controls are simple: 1 to say yes, 2 to say no. It uses Unity. I wished there were a pause button, but that would matter more in a longer piece.
The game is made using voice changers. The main 'scary' voice is highly distorted, but I was able to hear it most of the time. Your character's voice is like a chipmunk.
The story is that you've been kidnapped after signing a waiver, and you have to answer questions from a questionnaire. My game ended after two questions.
A messy game about a messy witch, October 31, 2018B Minus Seven writes games that are more surrealist poetry than anything else, and this is no different.
It's unabashed in its content, using profanity, brashness, confusion and vulnerability. It's also very short. You pick from three things in a cross between a recipe book and a shopping list, each one with 1-3 more options before returning.
It didn't really gel together for me, but for fans of B Minus Seven it is a great addition to the oeuvre.
A twisted slug-based horror story about modern information sources, October 31, 2018This is a political game by what I presume is a non-native English speaker who is very experienced in their own language, as there are numerous typos together with a very creative story.
The game also contains a great deal of offensive material, but it's difficult to tell who it's aimed at; I could see it being equally offensive to everyone, but curiously inoffensive at the same time.
The central storyline is that slugs have changed the world into a hyper-connected group of individuals that subsist on trashy news stories, including stories about Soros and Clinton.
Playing this game was certainly an experience.
A political slice of life game, October 31, 2018This is a speed-IF game, written in just 4 hours, but it has some pretty good heft; I've seen some IFComp games with less material, and it has nice styling.
It presents a scenario in which you've run out of biscuits, and the effects of Brexit have made it difficult to get enough food.
There are multiple paths, most of which have no choices (which makes sense for a Speed-IF), and the game encourages replay. Probably the best use I've seen of Twine in a Speed IF for creating the most material in the shortest amount of time. A nice game to add to Benson's growing portfolio.
A surreal blood world, caught in a moment of time, October 31, 2018This is a neat little puzzle/story written up in just a few hours.
You are in one of Caleb Wilson's bizarre worlds, a world of blood and ectoplasm and strange gods.
You are provided with a multitude of items and left to sort it out for yourself. Every object has a use, and in the end there are 7 ways to finish the game.
The best part of this game is the immersive worldbuilding.
A short nightmare speed-IF based on a real experience, October 31, 2018First, a note about my ratings. This game is very short and is necessarily unpolished (as a game written in just 4 hours). So I took off one star for that.
But I found it had emotional effectiveness, I would play it again, the interactivity worked for me, and the writing was descriptive.
You are having a terrible nightmare and feel paralzyed. There is only a small amount of time to help yourself.
It took me a couple of play-throughs to get through it, but I was impressed at the level of craftmanship in an Ectocomp game. Well done.
A moral lesson, experiment, or thoughtpiece as an Inform game, September 19, 2018I found this game to be touching. It's an online-only Inform game that asks you to make a certain moral choice.
It has a unique sort of interactivity that is only available in an online game. Due to the specific response I got, I'm not sure if this kind of interactivity is still operational.
It is short, and deals with the nature of story vs. game (among other things).
A twiny jam 300 word branching futurepunk story, May 23, 2018This is Pacian's only Twine game I know. Entered in the popular Twiny Jam competition for twine games of 300 words or less, this has a Time Cave type structure. You can see all endings by lawnmowering, but it might be more fun just to explore 4 or 5.
The story is grim and gritty. You are part of a jetbike gang, and the cops are coming. All of the branches are short, and they all paint out a dystopian world of grime and flame and bad relationships. It is a vivid world.
A help-desk for wearable emotion-manipulators. Fiction through bureaucracy., May 22, 2018This is a complex Twine-and-Javascript based game that reproduces the help-desk environment from IT. You are given a bunch of tickets or help requests to address. You can dismiss them, respond to them, rank their severity, etc.
But instead of normal IT, you're troubleshooting a device that creates impulses in others.
As you progress, your performance is evaluated, and others might respond to you. The story slowly splays out.
It's an odd story, too. Like Morayati's other works regarding technological dystopias (Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory, Take), the game explores uncomfortable parts of the human condition.
The game takes real-life issues (like the below-minimum-wage oppression of gig jobs like Mechanical Turk, having to buy cheap knock-offs of products that can harm you, workplace harassment, etc.) which people have gradually become numb too and puts them in a startling new light by applying them to new situations.
If you liked this work, I strongly recommend the two other games I mentioned earlier.
A silly short game involving replacing lineart with clipart, May 11, 2018This was from the Mystery House Taken Over competition, where IF authors were tasked with revamping the old, famous adventure game Mystery House.
As far as I can tell, this game only allows directional commands, and all that happens in each room is that a piece of original, poor quality line art is replaced with a piece of badly cropped clip art as a joke. I found it amusing, but the game is so small and light as to be hardly there.
If anyone finds additional content, let me know and I'll revise my review.
A well-polished Tarot simulator, April 28, 2018This game allows you to experience three different randomly generated tarot readings, complete with illustrations.
This is a polished game, and it incorporates information from a survey done about people's impressions of the cards. So it's almost like having a reading randomly selected from several dozen other people's readings.
It was impressed, but I saw it as an intellectual exercise without gut feeling.
An illustrated surreal Twine game with earnest writing, April 28, 2018This game starts you in a dark room with several voices talking to you. There are eight doors, some locked, and others not. Your goal is to escape.
The different voices seem to represent parts of your psyche, and the short game is a game of self-discovery. It is illustrated with hand-made colored pencil drawings.
The writing is littered with typos, and the storyline is somewhat confusing. It was descriptive, though, and good at evoking emotion.
A poetic exploration of four women's deaths and the cause thereof, April 28, 2018This is a fairly brief game written in free verse. It seems to draw on the writings of four famous women who died, mostly in controversial situations (including deaths that resonated in the trans and African-American communities).
The writing was interesting, but the free verse format made it hard for me to make an emotional connection to the writing. It was interesting looking up the four women in the story.
A brief slice of life in an anime-inspired techno future, April 28, 2018This Twine game uses appropriate styling and occasional graphics to tell a slice-of-life story in a world where cybernetic enhancements are common.
You have encounters with two different friends whose lives are different than most people's, and explore some unusual technology.
It feels like a brief vignette of a larger world, either a fan fiction, a taste of the author's own universe, or an introduction to a longer game.
A short, text-heavy twine game about a detective taking a case, April 27, 2018This is a short Twine game that leans heavily on standard detective tropes. You, a hard bitten male detective, have a female client come in with an extensive backstory that you explore through various links. A lot is made of her appearance, but more in a deductive way than a seductive way.
The woman's story is about suspected adultery. The story uses standard Twine styling and has a heavy amount of text per choice, making it more like a story with distinct branch points and less like a mechanics-driven game or visual art piece.
Overall, I would have preferred some more deviations from the noir formula or some more compelling mechanics, but what's here is done well.
A systematic monster creation system speed-IF game, April 22, 2018This game is pretty fun. You have a body on a table, with several items you can attach to them. Every single combination of attachments yields a different monster, which causes a different amount of mayhem. The game officially ends after several monsters you create do a certain amount of mayhem.
An interesting experiment with human-guided AI interaction, April 21, 2018This is an interesting game. It's a conversation between ELIZA and some human-mediated input that is taken from a collection of computer-generated speech.
The conversations at first are pure nonsense, but later evolve into partial nonsense, with recurring themes of frustration, curiosity, and romance.
There are sexual references in one portion. The overall feel is one of experimental poetry, very appropriate for the Spring Thing competition.
A short game using an rpg-maker that diagnoses your mental illness, April 11, 2018This interactive fiction game uses a unique engine: an RPG-maker.
There are no RPG elements, just dialog boxes. You have somewhere between 2-4 choices, and the game gives you a diagnosis of a mental illness.
There are some spelling mistakes, and the game is pretty short. But it's creative and uses images in an interesting way.
A clever parser take on memory and time with some unfinished corners, April 11, 2018This game reminds me of last year's spring thing game Niney, where you gathered up 'roles' and distributed them to other characters.
This game isn't similar in form or content, but it's similar in creativity. Your motions affect time, and there are hidden stats affecting what you are able to do.
My main interest in playing this game was piecing together the backstory, which was fun.
There were some unifinished corners here and there; many of the standard responses (like X ME) are left with their standard forms. But I enjoyed this.
A They Might Be Giants Nanobots tribute game with disappearing words, April 10, 2018This game is part of the They Might Be Giants Nanobots tribute album. This 'album' consists of Twine games inspired by the songs and their lyrics, and is a sequel to the Apollo 18 Tribute Album of parser games in 2012.
I passed over Nouns at first, as it's fairly minimal. I was learning Twine at the time and downloading games to look at the code, and Nouns had a tiny, tiny 'game map'. Then I realized it was all javascript.
The game consists of one passage, almost all of whose words are links. Clicking on each link transforms the game.
I thought it was random at first, but on subsequent playthroughs, I realized there was a specific pattern involved. I liked it.
I only took off one star because I didn't engage with the game on an emotional level. Otherwise, the game is polished, descriptive, with good interactivity and a nice overall experience.
A crisp and smooth small illustrated Windrift game, April 8, 2018This is the first game to use Liza Daly's windrift system besides her own.
I found the writing in this game to be sharp and evocative; I loved it, and might nominate this for best writing of 2018 when that time comes around.
It's very short, and the interactivity is quite limited, but the visuals are placed very well, and the styling and writing come together in a really pleasing way.
A gripping short creepy story about identity , April 8, 2018I found this short horror story compelling. You are someone, somewhere, intentionally vague, and you have a knack for finding faces on things.
The game is more than just that, of course, but I found it compelling, especially with the multimedia.
I don't want to say too much about it, because experiencing it all is the point. I wasn't satisfied with the conclusions of the piece though, even after experimentation. But that's something that's due to personal taste.
This has nothing to do with my rating or even something I think the author should do, but I wish the game had included a gallery of found faces. But I can satisfy that interest by my own searches. I like this game.
A short humorous horse relationship game, March 18, 2018This game is billed as just a demo for doing relationships in twine, which affected my perception of it (in the sense that I assumed it wasn’t a fully fleshed game), but it manages to have a lot of heart and some neat tricks.
It is based on a riding school with three different ponies/horses, who you interact with in a couple of branching choices. Each one has its own likes and dislikes, which affect the ending.
It succeeded in its goal of making twine seem more like choicescript, and made me laugh a few times. If it was going to be fleshed all of the way out, I wish it were longer and had better cluing as to the effects of the relationship choices and more endings. But as it is I like it.
An amusing and odd fantasy game involving a series of trolley problems, February 26, 2018This game is set in a fantastical alternate world with animate skeletons and talking pigs.
Supernatural trolleys and trolley lines connect different parts of the world together, and you are a harpooner on one such trolley.
Your task is to be confronted with several situations where the good of one is pitted against the good of many and you have to make a choice. This is the classical trolley problem, and also, in this game, a literal trolley problem as you decide who to run over.
There is also a side mystery uncovered by Club Floyd but which I was not aware of.
A branching horror story in a cave with a challenging puzzle, February 26, 2018This was an interesting game.
You find yourself in a cave in a branching sort of exploration/conversation.
On my first play through, I ended it fairly quickly, and I wasn't too impressed. It seemed like a faintly cheesy sort of Halloween story.
But on my second play through, I encountered much more text, and the game became much more developed, with compelling issues and questions together with a nice puzzle.
Overall, I recommend it for fans of horror.
A smooth, short sci-fi/AI game with fancy text effects, February 5, 2018This game, similar to Leinonen's earlier Ex Nihilo, is a short text-effects-heavy game about a powerful entity questioning its own existence.
This time, though, the game is linked to all of Wikipedia, and debates the worth of existence of an advanced system. Overall, though, like Ex Nihilo, this game feels like a demo for advanced graphics in a text setting. This isn't bad, but the game is very short.
Definitely worth checking out!
A fantasy one-move game about combat with an ancient vampire, February 3, 2018This game was part of the New Year's minicomp. I was pleased to see that it's a puzzly one-move game, and that the formatting was done well.
The setting is fairly standard fantasy, but it helps establish the setting quickly. You are a sort of paladin facing a 'Red Queen' vampire.
I'm very much into D&D inspired games, and one-move games. But some very basic things were not implemented, like 'pray' (when you're a paladin and the game mentions your orisons). But enough was implemented to be fun.
A polished, short modernist tale about a storm, January 20, 2018This game is firmly in the modernist tradition of the early 1900s, similar to works by Kafka or T.S. Eliot.
The tags on this game include 'existentialist' and 'absurd', and that's a good description.
The game is dream-like; you are in a lushly detailed house where nothing really matters, and the story drives you forward. It's like a Ryan Veeder game without the Ferris Bueller attitude.
Overall, I found it effective, especially because I forgot the french IF commands and had to look them up (on the french play-IF card http://ifiction.free.fr/fichiers/play-if-card_fr.pdf), so at first I was just typing room names. This gives you a description of the room, but doesn't take you there, and doesn't give you the same description as actually being there. This made the game very odd.
Overall, I liked it.
A short, meditative Twine game about a dual-culture paramedic , January 13, 2018This Twine game is intentionally short and linear, but it's not quite as linear as it advertises; basically, you are unwinding after a long day, and you get to pick what order to unwind in.
You seem to be a volunteer for a hospital, as well as a student. Actions like taking off your boots or untying your hair trigger memories from earlier in the day.
I found it fascinating as a glimpse into another, medical world, as well as portraying a character who seems to be a minority in their current situation.
An amusing little medieval/goofy farce, December 17, 2017I have to give a caveat about my score first; I think this game is really around a 5 out of 10 on the IFComp scale; it's short, silly, self-conscious. But, it satisfies all of my 5 star criteria:
1. Polished: I didn't encounter any errors, and the writing was consistent, and even the plain twine styling seemed to fit the story.
2. Descriptive: The game has a nice voice and inventive language (I chuckled at the word turdburglar, especially because I misread it at first).
3. Interactivity: The game presented me with exactly the kind of options I wanted at several points in the game. It was actually very effective at presenting options that made me go 'Yes! This is exactly what I want to do'.
4. Emotion. I smiled a lot.
5. Would I play it again? Yes, I'm interested in exploring the mechanics.
So this is technically a 5, but on the 'how much will the average IF player like it' scale, I'd give it a 2-3.
Play as a living dungeon in this short looping game, December 3, 2017I swear this game was different the first time I played it. In any case, what it is now is a living dungeon Twine game; you are a living dungeon, and adventurers come in in a cycle. You choose from a menu of 3 randomly generated options until either the adventurer dies, or succeeds.
I thought it was clever, and the graphic was helpful. But I felt like it could be further developed.
An exercise in futility, in Twine format, November 17, 2017In 2006, Theo Koutz entered an IFComp game called Sisyphus, where you roll a stone up a hill and it rolls down again. It was a troll game that was smooth and polished.
This is essentially the same game, but with shiny new polish. You have to open some doors, but you can't. Replaying this, though, I found that I actually enjoyed the writing, perhaps more than any other game in the comp.
So this was pretty fun, despite the author's intentions.
A game about conspiracy and aliens, November 17, 2017This game is centered around a spy drama, like the Bond movies. It is translated, with several errors.
The main characters is a chauvinist, who 'negs' women and is over macho. That really turned me off.
It does have a clever plot, involving a conspiracy (led by you) to manipulate the world.
A game about censorship, November 17, 2017You play a government censor in this game. You are given a series of incriminating documents which you have to censor; clicking on various sentences blacks them out.
You are graded on how you do. This doesn't matter quite as much as you'd think, but it does affect the final ending.
I loved the feel of this game, the feel of manipulating documents and being in control. I do wish it had been longer or the the censoring had been more closely integrated with the story.
A cute little Twine tale of kids on an island, November 17, 2017This is a cute little game. You play as two kids who are searching for their pet named Sicomore.
You pick the order to visit three locations, then finish off the last location. So there's not much interactivity.
What makes it charming is that it seems like it was designed around a series of characters drawn and named by children, which I liked. The illustrations are provided in the game.
A fancy symbol-sliding game, November 17, 2017This game has you speak completely in symbols.
You are bird, a child living with a single male named Ty. Ty has problems, and so do you.
You communicate with Ty completely in symbols. What this means in-game is never explained.
This story didn't grab me, but the presentation was slick, and it's a game worth replaying. Sometimes technical stuff is enough to impress me on its own; however, the author has a great knack for characterization as well.
A modern fable about a witch and her child, November 16, 2017This story is fairly linear, more like dynamic fiction than puzzle-based or branching cybertext.
In this game, you read the story of an old witch who, out of loneliness, creates a girl out of turnips.
This game has Megan Stevens' most imaginative writing of her IFComp games, and presents an interesting analogy between the witch/turnip girl and parents/millenials. It's short, and worth reading.
A short branching Twine game about routine and its interruptions, November 16, 2017This is a short Twine game entered into IFComp 2017.
It branches in a non-trivial, interesting way. You are lying in bed after an evening with some man and you realize you need to wash your hands. But it's dark, and you don't really want to.
This is a character whose life is centered around routines, and around keeping secrets. I found it interesting, but not compelling.
A gauntlet of kitty death in a witches story, November 16, 2017This short Twine game has you acting as a witch's assistant for fetching a magical flower.
Every choice that you make leads you either to instant death or further along the path.
The witch who owns you refers to other cats; could this be other lives, or do you play multiple protagonists? A careful reading can reveal more.
The writing was well done, but I would have preferred a different kind of interactivity.
A short space horror thriller in Twine, November 16, 2017This short Twine game uses specialized styling to give a retro sci-fi fi feel, and the story fits that vibe as well. You are visiting a base on the moon which has been terrorized by space animals. It borrows heavily from the feel of the Alien movies.
However, it is fairly short, and the writing has a few problems that could be remediated by some more careful revision and beta testing. Overall, though, the basic storyline was interesting.
My favorite of the 3 Chinese if comp 2017 games. A puppet horror story, November 16, 2017I beta tested this game.
This is a story that only branches twice, but does so in an effective way. You are the wife of a puppet master who performs across the country, but you have to make a difficult choice when he turns to dark means to support his work.
It's fairly short, and it uses type-writer effect text on light backgrounds with music/sound effects.
A short one-room game about a mad scientist, November 16, 2017This is a very short little game where you are trying to get your crazy future-telling device to work.
It's a one-room game, but very little is implemented. I had to decompile the game to figure out how to get the device to work. I had further difficulties with basic commands like going in doors.
The idea isn't bad, but it could be better developed.
A game about language and its intrinsic meaning, November 16, 2017This game is centered around a language or collection of languages that the protagonist is trying to study.
The central mechanic is that you are presented with 3-syllable words that you can alter.
The discussion centers on the idea that language influences our thoughts and actions, and vice-versa.
I liked this game, but it didn't draw me in emotionally.
An intentionally bad game with a few short pathways, November 16, 2017This game is a worthy sequel to Toiletworld, by Chet Rocketfrak (presumably the same as Chad Rocketman).
This game centers around Bilbert/Bolbert, who has something wrong with them. You can talk to Bilbert, or enter Bilbert.
There's not much more than that. I found it amusing, but the author is clearly aiming for a 1-star rating, and who am I to refuse?
A clever Infocom homage marred by implementation difficulties, November 16, 2017This game was fun and clever; I think a large chunk of judges found the concept fun and original.
You are a lurking grue, and you have to devour an adventurer.
Because it is completely dark, you have rely on your other senses.
I had difficulty getting helpful responses from going in different directions, and with the final verb.
Overall, if the feedback from comp judges is implemented, this would be a game that continues to get played for a long time.
A short poem or series of short poems in a dense, obscure style, November 16, 2017This is a shortish Twine game entered into the 2017 IFComp.
It consists of free verse, sometimes with poetic styling, and sometimes in a more conversational tone.
There is some profanity, in a sort of navel-gazing self-aware way. In general, I liked the poetry, though, and found it enjoyable even on a second or third read.
A brief, terror-filled moment in time, November 6, 2017This game reminded of another game, which I couldn't remember for a while, but now I recall is the author's 2016 game, Light Into Darkness. I liked that game, but this one is better.
It's a brief moment in time. The game definitely plays around with the typical speed of a parser game, where major events can occur in one command.
I hit on a good ending perhaps by chance, early on, and replayed to stretch it out as long as possible. If I hadn't guessed the command, I might not have liked it as much, but it was good.
A very original short gruesome story in an alt-historical universe, November 6, 2017This was a strange game. When I started it, I thought, 'Oh, so this is writing which might be something really good, or just fluff'. As I played through, it all sort of fell together, and I liked it.
It's bizarre; a sort of mix between 80's neon punk and Jack the Ripper's London. Plus some of ancient Rome thrown in.
I had a bit of trouble at first figuring out what to do, but I grasped it in the end. I think this was my favorite of La Petite Morte, and perhaps of the whole Ectocomp competition.
A lighthearted ghost story with you as the ghost, November 6, 2017This is a short Ectocomp game that branches strongly.
You play a recently deceased woman who has the chance to go back and haunt one of three different people: her daughter, her old flame, and her enemy.
The game is sort of a gauntlet, because many of the choices are wrong, but you don't always have to restart completely.
I found it charming, with some interesting mini-twists, but overall I had to replay a lot of different sections to see it all.
A short, thoughtful horror game about dreams, November 6, 2017This is one of those short games that is more like enacting a ritual than solving a puzzle. You find yourself inside a dream, with an unusual purpose.
Like another game which I enjoyed in this comp, your character is more nuanced than the typical interactive fiction protagonist.
It's a speed-IF, so it's fairly short, but it's well-polished. There weren't many surprises due to the foreshadowing, but the imagery was vivid.
A short spooky tale about going to sleep, November 6, 2017In this game, you play someone who's been reading too many scary stories alone in a house, and you're too scared to go upstairs.
This is a great, relatable setup. Things are sparsely implemented, as is to be expected in a speed-IF, but I found no bugs and it had a fun verb choice.
The ending felt abrupt, which was disappointing, but I understand that not much is possible with speed-IF. This had the most relatable PC, for me, of any game I've played this year.
A mysterious short horror story about a little, little...girl?, November 5, 2017This game is confusing; I played it through 3 times. But it's polished, with descriptive writing, had a haunting emotion, and I've already replayed it a few times. So I'm giving 4 stars.
Most of Groover's purposely opaque work is an allusion to some known fairy tale, which provides a framework for understanding the piece. His original stories tend to provide more in the way of explanations.
This piece is a hidden-object fetch quest, with a sort of standing-up-to-bullies theme that reminded me of Andrew Schultz's frequent theme of 'everyone told you you were worthless and now you'll show them'.
I enjoyed the meta-puzzle of trying to piece it all together. It never gelled for me, but that's okay; having some things left unresolved improves the atmosphere.
A short, linear RPG-inspired horror game, November 5, 2017This is a fairly clever game with no real choices, and quite long for an Ectocomp game in terms of text.
The idea is that you are part of an RPG party (feels more like MMORPG than pen-and-paper RPG), and everyone dies, but you linger on.
It dwells a lot on your existence as a ghost, and some parts of it were unique, even for fantasy-based ghost stories.
So, it's mostly a short story, but paced well by links, and its a good short story.
A short, intense horror game for Ectocomp, November 5, 2017This game had me on the edge, and toyed around with my emotions. I was kept in strong suspense, thinking 'This is either going to get 1 star or a high score'.
This was a translation, and it was translated well; it felt idiomatic to me. The writing in general was good.
Very short.
An obtuse, short word puzzle , November 5, 2017I generally like Andrew Schultz's wordplay games, but this one seems ill-conceived.
It has a concept that is very restrictive, and everything in the game is built up according to this scheme.
You are asked to find a friend and set a clock to a certain time. The issue is, there is no hinting as to the correct solution, yet the game only admits one solution. I thought of other solutions, afterwards; why not allow (Spoiler - click to show)5:04 as LIV? or 10:49 as MIL? I know there are time constraints, but the cluing is off here. On the other hand, Schultz's IFComp 2017 game is one of his most accessible, so I encourage you to try that one out.
A sci-fi twine game with many endings about a powerful AI, November 4, 2017This was a short Ectocomp game written in 3 hours or less.
In that time, the author provided nice background music and good text styling.
The game is fairly linear; all of your choices affect only the next paragraph, until the end, when your choices open up a few different ending options.
I wish I knew more about my choices so I could feel better immersed as the character. The storytelling was good; I could definitely see myself enjoying a longer game from this author, and I enjoyed this one.
Nothing is scarier than reality. Short Ink game, November 4, 2017This game was, in its way, the creepiest of the Grand Guignol games.
The actual horror elements are played down; you have 12 hours to work on your animation project. At each hour, you can work, explore (until you use up the storylets) or relax.
Creepy stuff can happen, but soon daylight comes, and all the supernatural elements seem not frightening at all. But as you go to your final exam, you begin to realize how horrifying real life can be (at least I felt that way).
A Twine story about vague hauntings and ghosts and war, November 4, 2017This game was entered for Ectocomp 2017.
Like the author's other entry, this game is written using big blocks of text. Unlike the other entry, this one had more typos and grammatical errors, and seems to have been checked a little less.
The story revolves around fellow soldiers Abe and Shep, a psychiatrist, and Mary Shepard, a young woman who seems to have passed away. I had trouble following the timeline and who the narrative character was.
The highlight of the game was the scattered bits of poetry, which I think worked out well.
A fun little creepy web-based game at a school with some text effects, November 4, 2017This is a shortish Ectocomp game with nice styling and some interesting text-hover effects.
You play as a schoolgirl who makes a bizarre discovery with her friends. The game branches quite a bit, with each branch fairly short.
I'd go into more detail, but the interest of the game lies entirely in the oddness of it all.
I found one small issue; the 'cockroach' link led to a page which was just a blank line; this was my first playthrough, and I had to restart. I ended up playing through 3 times.
A short example of dynamic fiction with a haunting feel, November 3, 2017The author is going for something very different here, something out of the norm. As they state on the Ectocomp page, this game is a short story with no choices.
It's a vaguely mysterious game, with hints of influences from Asia (parts of it reminded me of China, India, and Israel). The blending of different cultures was the most important part to me.
The formatting was very hard to read, though. Pararaphs weren't spaced out, and the text was presented in large blocks. The dialogue could do with some pruning; it had a lot of the quick back-and-forth nothings that real dialogue has, but which do little to improve narrative writing without careful implementation, which was lacking here.
I liked the ending. On a technical note which is not due to the author (I think), I couldn't scroll down, and had to zoom out to read the text.
A tangled web of memory's in a possibly alt-earth, November 3, 2017This is a purposely obscure short Twine game. It makes extensive use of color shifts and effects.
The story centers on a young (?) couple who have been forced into hiding while people like them are hunted down.
The first part was a lot like the diary of Anne Frank, so much that I thought that would be the final twist.
But it devolves into a dissociative mess near the end, in a pleasing way. The hard thing was that I didn't really know what sort of effects my choices would have, but that's unavoidable with the chosen subject matter.
A multiple-futures/presents Twine game involving mental illness, September 28, 2017Saving John is a Twine 1 game with the standard CSS and formatting. In it, you find yourself in a dangerous situation and have the opportunity to construct a backstory for what happened.
The backstories involves jealousy, betrayal, love, profanity, and so on. The game is fairly short, but can be replayed several times.
The writing was descriptive, and the interactivity worked, but the story just didn't click with me, and It didn't feel all the way polished.
A short, surreal horror game in Inklewriter, September 28, 2017This game placed low in IFComp 2016. It is in Inklewriter, a beautiful story-focused engine that is now being discontinued.
Snake's Game has several variants depending on the play through, but most seem to deal with a world where time and space can be warped at will, taking you to hell and a variety of other places.
It's fairly short, and the writing felt unpolished, but the other had a lot of heart, making this game more emotionally powerful than most low-ranking games, to me.
A one-room, essentially puzzleless horror game, September 28, 2017This game was coded in 2.5 days by a first time author with one beta tester. It requires what is generally an annoying way of interacting with a game. By all standards, it should be a fairly horrible game.
But it placed 19th out of 35, and wasn't really that bad. I like fairly campy, psychological horror, and this game provides it. It had great descriptions, and spookily changing descriptions.
This is a very short game. I liked it, in the end.
One of Porpentine's earliest twine experiments, September 17, 2017This game was created in 2012, and uploaded recently by someone besides Porpentine. It was created at least as early as March of that year, since it's mentioned in an AdventureCow forum.
It is the shortest of the early experiments (which include Myriad and a few others). However, it contains a lot of Porpentine's signature style, including body transformation and horror, protagonists which evoke multiple emotions simultaneously, and surrealism.
This is not the kind of game I imagine Porpentine would release today, but it's interesting as a historical insight.
A super short text story telling the background of Donkey Kong, September 15, 2017This game casts you as the main enemy in the original Donkey Kong game.
It paints you as a primeval sort of building, unfairly pitted against the mustachioed plumber
It has some fun non-standard responses, but overall, it's over quickly. I mostly like its unity of style.
A tasteless reworking of the classic arcade game, September 15, 2017I was surprised by this game, because I played it in the downloaded Arcade pack, and didn't have a chance to see the tags or genre.
It's essentially just a tasteless reworking of the original game Dig Dug, written by someone with the mind of a 12 year old male who has heard about women but never actually spoken with one.
An amusing text reworking of the classic arcade game, September 15, 2017The original arcade game night driver had you barreling down a road, swerving left and right down an endless field of white pegs.
This game has a text version, where you can speed, brake, and turn each turn. The conceit, though, is that you're a dad, late at night, and your wife and kids are having an endless conversation with you as you drive. The game eventually ends in a strange way.
A short game about a random NPC in an unlabeled arcade game, September 15, 2017This game has you wandering around in a certain unlabeled arcade game (when it was first released in the IF arcade pack, it was even titled Unlabeled).
It's just a joke game; once you realize what's going on, it's over really quickly. But it's fun while it lasts.
A short goofy game reworking the classic game Galaxian, September 15, 2017This game from the IF arcade pack is a reworking of the classic arcade game Galaxian.
It portrays what it would really be like for the main character in Galaxian. Considering that there are also two space invader clones in the IF arcade pack, this game actually was pretty well put together.
It's super short.
A short text game mimicking space invaders, September 15, 2017This game was in the IF arcade pack.
Unlike most other games in the IF arcade pack, this is pretty much just a straight-up implementation of space invaders in text. The invaders go left, and right, and so on, and you shoot. I feel like the 2 other invader-like ports had a better implementation.
An intriguing Space Invader text reworking with some loose ends, September 15, 2017This TADS game is part of the IF arcade pack, and is probably the most creative of the 3 reworkings of space-invader type games.
You are in a line of bunkers, and you can dodge left and right, in and out of them as you shoot the invaders.
There are intriguing hints of a storyline, but they seem to go nowhere.
An amusing reworking of the classic arcade game Joust, September 15, 2017This game was part of the IF arcade pack, most of whose games were sci-fi related. Just like the way the original game was unusual for taking a fantasy-based viewpoint, this game is unusual in the IF arcade pack for the same reason.
Wizards, trolls, pterodactyls; though this game is short, the setting is fun and inventive.
A text game spoofing the original Lode Runner, September 15, 2017This is essentially a joke game in the IF arcade pack spoofing Lode Runner.
It shows the logical result of assuming everything in the game is real, including the more unreasonable parts of the original game.
It's short, but I found it amusing.
A violent and disturbing image of what Pac-Man really is, September 15, 2017There is a famous alternate version of the pac-man story where pac-man is an astronaut who is having hallucinations about the ghosts of his compatriots, and the dots are pills.
This game is not the same, but it's fairly similar, and has some profanity and violence. Was this game the origin of that pac-man story, or is it parallel development, or do they have a common source?
In any case, an interesting game from a famous author who has disavowed all of their speed-IFs.
Pinball in text, September 15, 2017This game is in the IF arcade pack. It has you as a pinball, with very little control over your actions and destiny.
It has a strong narrative with a metaphor between the ball and the human soul.
As a game, I found Enlightened Master to be a better working of a text pinball game.
A tedious implementation of Pong with strange words, September 15, 2017This game is fairly tedious, but it's well done, and has some great writing. It paints you as the pong paddle, but with a very unusual view on the world itself. It also has some nice text styling.
But getting even 2 points takes just forever. I can't imagine playing to 15 points.
Aftermath of a famous arcade game, September 15, 2017This game shows you what it would be like if the classic arcade game Tapper was real.
You have to clean up and leave. It's not much, but it has a fun Wreck-it-Ralph behind the scenes feel. It has a more traditional IF style than the other IF arcade games, and is at least complete.
An occasionally list rated story of a father and son and expectations, September 15, 2017This game is about a father who is macho and masculine, and a son who has taken a different path and identity from their father.
You take turns playing as father, son, or, eventually, unicorn. The meaning of the unicorn is enigmatic to me, perhaps representing social pressure, but you'll have to play to see what you think.
There is some strong profanity, vague reference to sexual acts, and occasional violence.
A nice miniature twine game with a good twist, September 15, 2017This game mimics the parser format, with green-on-black text and parser-like writing.
It was part of the 300-word-limit Twiny Jam.
The twist makes this a worthwhile game. Most of the gameplay (in fact, all of it) consists of choosing from a large list the one item that will solve the current obstacle.
Creepy little ectocomp story, September 15, 2017This is a disturbingly creepy ectocomp story from one of the authors of One Eye Open. I knew pretty much exactly where it was going after a few turns, but that's the beauty: the dread of what's coming, not knowing how it's going to come.
Contains a high level of violence.
A simulationist speed-IF based on Metamorphoses and Not With Hands, September 15, 2017This is a short speed-IF game designed to show off a simulationist library involving the code of both Metamorphoses and peacock.z5 (known as Not With Hands). Emily Short said that her purpose in writing it was to use (quoting):
-- the same materials classes as Metamorphoses, plus some extras;
-- multiple kinds of blades to be used for cutting, efficacious on
different materials;
-- examples of diminution of size, division into pieces, and the
opening of containers based on said cutting;
-- routines for burning objects, taking into account their material
and contents;
-- smoke and carbon smearing (removable);(end quote)
A compelling sci fi horror game with good worldbuilding, September 15, 2017This is a speed-IF game from Ectocomp. Written in 3 hours, it has a nicely built up world with its own ecology.
The game is short, and learning about it is the main attraction, so I won't say more about the plot. I had some trouble with some of the interactions, though, but I enjoyed the writing.
A buggy adrift speed-IF about a creepy house, September 15, 2017This game was entered in Ectocomp 2011.
It is a speed-IF, so it has many of speed-IF's usual problems. in this case, I was unable to finish the game due to not knowing where to place an object. I also had difficulty finding things and guessing verbs.
A pretty funny 'horror' story about...the Death Shack!, September 15, 2017This game uses some of the more cinematic qualities of Adrift.
It's a speed-IF, so it was written in just 3 hours. But it has really fun animations and text effects. The death shack becomes a recurring character that destroys all in its path. I especially laughed at the hotel scene.
A completely broken Adrift horror game, September 15, 2017This game can't do anything past the first move. It was written for Ectocomp, but it seems not to have been tested at all.
In general, it seems like it would be a creepy game where you play a stalker, possibly having a humorous turn later.
A great speed-IF adrift game about Halloween origins, September 15, 2017This game is a sort of shaggy dog story that tells the origin of a certain Halloween tradition.
It's presented in a tragic way rather than a comedic way. You are a juggler in a medieval court where laughter is forbidden, and whose father was banished or killed because of that rule. It's worth trying out.
A commentary about choices, based on They Might Be Giants, September 15, 2017This is an ultrashort game, written for the nanobots They Might Be Giants tribute album.
The major idea of it is that (Spoiler - click to show)there is a single sentence
where every word is a link; each word that you click takes you to the same sentence, about decisions. It seems like a commentary/joke on the nature of choices.
A fun epidemic game where you are the epidemic, September 15, 2017This is one of the short Twine games for the nanobots They Might Be Giants tribute album.
You play as a slowly evolving hive mind created in MIT by accident. You have several choices as to how the hive mind will evolve and adapt.
It made me smile, and I found it fun.
A creepy short game experimenting with text output, August 17, 2017This game (whose cover art was nominated for an XYZZY award for best supplemental materials) uses randomization to change the description of the area you are in (a one-room game), and every turn it clears the screen before printing the description.
I found it a bit confusing, and I had to look up the club floyd transcript to finish it, but it was a fun experiment.
A slick, moody hyperlink game with sound and graphics on a train, August 15, 2017This is a SubQ magazine game that has a pleasing atmosphere. It has graphics and background noise.
You are on a train with your significant other. It's going through a long tunnel. There are a few other people on the train. It's a moody and introspective piece.
I could go into more detail, but playing the game does not take much longer than reading this review, so why not just try it?
Better than it could have been, August 12, 2017This is just a demo game, but I found it amusing in a sort of way. It is clearly just set up to show off features of glulx.
There are images (including in-line) and sounds, both background and controllable. Hearing what I assume is Plotkin's voice going 'whoosh whoosh' at increasingly loud levels is enjoyable, as is switching around background colors around a photograph of his face.
I'd love to see someone remake it with backstory and more interactivity, but keeping everything that's already in it.
Best experienced downloaded.
A short graphical tech demo, August 1, 2017This is a short demo of a system not unlike Comazombie's MCA adventures or Robin Johnson's systems; however, this one is fairly incomplete.
You play Sigmund, from the Ring cycle of stories, and it's all filled with numerous graphics. Before the game really begins, though, it's all over.
A short surreal game on a train with bugs, August 1, 2017This is a rather buggy surreal game set on a train.
It's hard to say much about it, because I get stuck on the second platform; whenever a train comes in, and I try to get on, the game says 'The train isn't here, idiot.', which is hardly encouraging.
In fact, the game in general is fairly insulting to the player (try typing YES repeatedely). I've decompiled it, but can't find much.
A small fantasy ship with three tasks, August 1, 2017This game has you explore a small ship full of fantasy creatures like faeries and goblins.
It has one oddly inappropriate part, but nothing else really in that nature.
By visiting the Faerie queen, you receive a variety of tasks, about 3 or 4 in total. Each is a simple fetch-type quest or single action.
The game ends fairly quickly.
A supershort zombie horror game set in a creepy hotel, August 1, 2017This is the third comazombie game I've played; the first was a tiny demo with little plot. The second was mostly in German.
This one is a complete, though tiny, game. You are in a room in a hotel with some pretty good colors and styling. It's a multiple choice game using a simplified version of comazombie's previous systems.
It throws in some needless profanity at one point which doesn't really fit, most likely due to the speaker having English as a second language.
A short demo game of a multiple choice system, August 1, 2017I found this system to actually be fairly impressive; you have multiple choice menus, but can check your inventory when you want to.
Unfortunately, this version is just a small demo, with little of the real action you might get in a full game.
Trap Cave, released the next year, had a larger game in the same system.
Ninja, plus a dragon, August 1, 2017This game is just Ninja I with an extra dragon added.
I don't see how this could possibly not be satire of some sort, especially as Panks released much longer and more detailed games.
It did somehow make me like Ninja I a bit more though...
A short game with a twist and good source code, July 22, 2017This review is for the Official Ryan Veeder Weekend Review Salon with Guaranteed Prize.
This Ryan Veeder game had me very confused, and then pleased, then more confused; then I read the source code, nodded, and understood.
You play a doctor trying to help a sick patient named Pauline. You are in a small hospital that is very... unusual, to say the least, in its geography.
The lack of cluing got to me, though, and the strong branching made each playthrough less memorable.
But the twist was pleasant.
A fairly well written faintly recalled memory of a fable by Poe, July 22, 2017This review is part of the Official Ryan Veeder Weekend Review Challenge with Guaranteed Prize.
In this game, our intrepid author programs an entire game without a single (actually, with A single) glance at the source material.
The source material was, from the recollection, somewhat disturbing, but the retelling is much more disturbing if approached in the right vein. Have you ever faintly recalled a movie, or story, or dream from your youth that deeply disturbed you? I have half-recollected versions of both It and Castle in the Sky that are much more haunting than the original.
That's what this game is; it condenses all of the most disturbing parts of the game. What's disturbing is not the game, but what it reveals about the human mind, about Veeder's mind, about the things that his brain decided to store up for the future.
A clever, short campfire or surreal tale using Twine, July 16, 2017This game makes excellent use of different text and background colors and fonts to provide an intriguing and creepy atmosphere.
You play as a groundskeeper for the queen who has been dismissed. You take a short tour through a fantastic and frightening landscape. The background darkens as the game progresses.
Overall, a great short gane.
A short Voodoo religion-based game for Ectocomp, July 16, 2017This game was entered in Ectocomp 2013. It has a short sequence based on the Voodoo religion, and includes a fairly clever puzzle.
Because it was a speed-IF, it has a bunch of rough edges. Also, the game has quite a bit of profanity. But the concept is much better developed than most ectocomp games.
A visual novel existential Speed-IF about death, July 16, 2017This is a very short game but with some nice graphics and interesting concept. You are dead, and you are on the internet. You talk to some old friends and check out some old haunts.
It's an Ectocomp game, so it's fairly short, and it takes a lot of files to get running. It has very few branching points.
A fun, tiny game where you customize your body, July 16, 2017In this game, you are a monster with a varying number of body parts that you can modify by taking different things out of buckets and baskets nearby, including tails, skins, eyes, and 'extra'.
Its short and fun, written quickly for Ectocomp. It doesn't have an ending or graphics, but it's whimsical and fun.
A haunting short story about a man, a woman, and a cat, July 16, 2017This is a SpeedIf made for Ectocomp. You play an old man who has experienced a loss, and who finds a dead cat on his lawn.
You have to clean up the cat, by finding various items about your house. As you do, a mysterious backstory is slowly unveiled.
While the final story didn't completely gel for me, I found this game fun and fascinating.
A short thriller about being Jack in Halloween, July 16, 2017This game has you starting as a confused Jack during Halloween, and quickly escalates from there.
The story is quite original for IF, though it resembles the plot of several non-IF media sources.
This is an ectocomp game, so it is short and buggy, but the concept is neat.
A bizarre short sequence with minimalist parser about Doom, July 16, 2017This is a violent and profanity-filled short little game with some graphics effects that has a bit of a parser in it (you can type 5 or 7 different commands) made for Ectocomp.
It seems like it was intricate to program in the 3 hours, but suffered from the lack of time.
A game that randomly assigns you candy, July 16, 2017This is a twine game with two buttons: one that randomly gives you a type of candy, and one that counts the candy you've gotten.
I don't know if there's anything hidden here. This is a speed IF, so its likely the author was just experimenting with Twine, in which case this is a neat little piece of programming.
A short horror game with an unusual narrative viewpoint, July 16, 2017This is an ectocomp game about a confined, frightening story with an unusual viewpoint suggested by the title of the story.
The game does a very good job at splitting up the parser-viewpoint and the player-viewpoint. It's also fairly grim. I enjoyed this game, but as a speed-IF, it had some spotty implementation.
An interesting social commentary entered into Ectocomp, July 16, 2017This game is about gentrification rather than zombification. A social commentary twine game designed to show the plight of those affected by gentrification.
This game had no ending that I could find, but upon restarting the game you can find access to more information about gentrification.
A wacky game about dying on Halloween, July 16, 2017This is a speed IF entered into Ectocomp. In this game, you are aware of your death, and you try to avoid it. It branches wildly, with a bunch of silly deaths.
Some of the branches are advertised as unfinished, but its all part of the fun. I liked it as a small snack.
A short, underimplemented but funny horror game, July 16, 2017In this short ectocomp game, you have to buy a newspaper and go into a diner, where events soon unfold in a dangerous way.
I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to do, so I had to textdump the game, but once I found the ending, I thought it was humorous. It definitely could use some more synonyms, though.
A Halloween movement game that was less than I thought, July 16, 2017In this game, you are on a 3x3 grid with 4 bad guys and 4 good guys.
I thought the point of the game was to use the elements listed on the rooms to have a sort of rock/paper/scissors battle where you throw bad guys at each other and so on.
Instead, you just move everyone around so that everyone is in the generally correct area. Its fun, but it could have been more. This was an ectocomp game, so what's been done is pretty good.
A short, creepy google simulator for halloween, July 16, 2017In this game, you have a 'brand new' google engine that's spooky: Boogle.
You find out that boogle is more than you expected, in a fairly funny and gruesome sort of way. The surprises are the best part, so I won't describe it much more. Good fun-to-time ratio.
A short hospital horror game, July 16, 2017This was a speed-IF for ectocomp, which generally means guess-the-verb issues and underimplementation.
That happens here, but not as much as I thought it would be. I didn't read the initial text, and that made the game harder for me, but once that was fixed, I was able to beat the game without a problem.
I found the horror effective. You are a late-night janitor mopping.
A wildly branching silly ectocomp game, July 16, 2017This game has you wandering around a spooky halloween town and branches a lot, like a time-cave structure.
It starts with a parody of adventure games (a room full of boring furniture), but gets better afterwards.
A fun game from a fish perspective, July 16, 2017There is a surprisingly large amount of interactive fiction where you play as a fish. This is one of them.
This game does a great job of showing how horrifying ice fishing is to the fish involved. There were some odd interactions, and the game was short, but it's a speed-IF ectocomp game, so I can't complain.
An experiment where you are the computer, typing in descriptions, July 16, 2017This is a completely freeform game. The computer gives you commands, which you respond to. It asks for items in the room, and then will try to TAKE or BREAK them, etc., as well as asking for exits and having you move around.
It was a lot of fun, but only for a short time.
An entertaining but tricky poem with some interactivity, July 16, 2017This game is a poem about a rich lord and the devil fighting. It uses colors and illustrations.
You get a big chunk of verses, and then most actions give you a sentence or two of prose, but the correct action advances the verses.
It was frankly enjoyable, the poem about the english lord and the devil brawling.
A compelling mostly linear sci fi story about god and vengeance, July 16, 2017In this game, you play a scientist who has been part of discovering suspended animation.
In the game, you discover the true implications of suspended animation, and what it meas for you, for God, and so on.
The game has some sensuality and participatory violence, which are both portrayed in a negative light.
The game is short, and has large text dumps.
A keyword-driven short philosophical game based on Minos' labyrinth, July 10, 2017This game displays some bold text at the top, and then you pick out keywords from that to type in, which then changes the text.
This is essentially a short twine game years before twine was developed. It has short but intriguing thoughts on the nature of IF games.
A tiny C++ game meant more as a programming demo, July 10, 2017This game has you pick a text speed, then color.
It has a parser that understands 10 verbs, most of them like save, quit, etc. It uses 'pickup' and 'use' along with directions.
There are 8 rooms in a grid missing its center. Each room has a key. One room has 8 keyholes.
The author claims this was intended as a simple demo.
A short but straightforward old alan game about getting to IFComp, July 5, 2017This is a fun little Alan game (requiring an older interpreter from ifarchive.org) about running to get to playing ifcomp games on time.
The game is well-hinted; I only had one guess-the-verb problem. You basically just hail a taxi and drive over to your friend's house.
The game is on a timer, but its so short that once you figure it out, its super easy to redo. It also has a clever ending.
A boredom simulator with some necromantic flavor , July 1, 2017This game consists almost entirely of a long, very repetitive sequence on board a spaceship where you choose from among the same 3 options for dozens of turns. The first turn has more variety.
So it's boring, but it's trying to be boring, and its polished and descriptive at its boring task, which is why I've given it 3 stars.
A short, buggy, and gross game, July 1, 2017Opening this game in the adrift 5 development tool, you can see it has 4 commands to win it, one of which is a strong profanity.
Virtually nothing is implemented, and the story is disjointed and bizarre.
But, as Billy Mays said, this is not the worst game I have ever played.
A short twine zombie game with graphics, July 1, 2017This is a zombie game with a fairly gruesome ending.
You play as someone caught in a zombie invasion. The game has a fairly clever gimmick of having your choices all be zombie-language, making the links a sort of maze to get out from. But overall, its short and underimplemented, which makes sense for a speed-IF.
A sorceror's apprentice makes a decision, July 1, 2017In this game, you play a sorceror's apprentice who works with potions and plants.
Something is off, though, and you're forced to make some important decisions. The game has some good dramatic timing that I think could really be emulated.
A short, dramatic game with some underimplementation, July 1, 2017This game has an original story, good writing and a nice sense of drama. You play a mom having a terrible dream, and the next day the events of the day are eerily similar.
This game is good, but it could have benefited from more plot development and better implementation. Because the author only had 3 hours, though, it's good in its sphere.
A glimpse into a creepy alternate world, July 1, 2017This is a short game about a creepy alternate world where there is a very different form of punishment for tasks.
I found the writing to be good/descriptive, and the setting was original and creative.
However, the ending, though cool, needed just a bit more of a hint or more setup. It felt abrupt.
A pseudo-historical witch story, July 1, 2017This was a speed-IF game for Ectocomp 2016 that is framed as a series of vignettes from historical documents about a witch.
I found the old-style writing charming; searching for one of the main characters (Ezola Midnight) has no hits besides this game, so I assume that this wasn't copied directly from source texts, and that some sort of fusion was going on.
Short, and interesting.
An interesting story that needs some more polish, July 1, 2017Marco Innocenti has come up with a good story here that reminds me of Walking Dead in good ways.
There is some sort of incident that prompts a destructive release of a virus, and you are being interrogated as to your role in its release.
This would be a 4 or 5 star game in Italian, but the 3 hour time limit made the translation more choppy, breaking up the flow of the story and distancing the reader from the game. I would actually like to play this in Italian.
A really fine tiny micro Twiny Jam game that's an RPG, July 1, 2017This is an entry in a minimalistic twine jam. It makes the smallest RPG possible. There is a village with an inn and one location to fight monsters, with maybe 2 or 3 kinds of monsters. You collect XP and gold to get to the boss, who is extremely strong.
I really enjoyed this, it encapsulates the essence of an RPG in a fun way.
A clever exploration of the creative process, July 1, 2017In this game, you create a story by choosing from menus. This game has a time cave structure, where every chance branches widely into more choices.
This usually is not effective, but the branches are short, the game meant to be replayed often, and you have a general idea of what effect your choices will have.
Options include choosing a setting for your short story, choosing characters, choosing motivations or objects, and so on.
A funny purposely bad game with a 'blob language' you have to deciphter, July 1, 2017This was a short ectocomp that was intended to bad, to help A. Snyder's game not be last (A. Snyder is Mike Snyder's kid). Neither game ended up being last.
This game has a lot of fake blob language with a grammar and everything. It's silly and purposely bad, and short, but it was fun learning blob grammar and exploring endings.
A short ectocomp game about a grim wedding, July 1, 2017This game has a great atmosphere. Its for ectocomp, so its really short, but it has well-clued actions for you to get ready for a wedding in a poor village.
Every item has a message attached to it, and the story has a nice buildup given how short it is. Great fun-to-time ration.
A short ectocomp game about a creepy mirror, July 1, 2017This is a short twine game about a creepy mirror. It's jumbled and not polished at all, but it had a sort of breathy earnestness that makes the game more fun, like certain creepy pastas.
There is a creepy mirror in your house, and something can be seen inside. What is it? Is it real?
A hyperlink simulation of a creepy search engine, July 1, 2017In this short ectocomp game, you are using a creepy search engine that understands your true intentions, which true intentions get darker and darker over time.
This was fun, but on replay it was easier to see the forcing that occurred. Still, its well done for an ectocomp game.
A short creepy story infused with East Asian culture, July 1, 2017This game describes a creepy summoning ritual that you are attempting to carry out as explore the remnants of a funeral for your grandfather that combines East Asian and Christian funeral traditions.
I found the cultural portions good, and the creature being summoned was creepy, but the game ended too abruptly I thought, and I wasn't all the way drawn in. But these are small problems for a SpeedIF entry.
A fun, short speedIF about finding your head, July 1, 2017In this game, you have to ride everywhere looking for your head.
It had good descriptions, and was humorous. It was voted as having some of the best cover art, because its cover is also its map.
Its so short that I can't say much without spoiling the game, but it's a fun way to spend 10 minutes.
An illegal code entered into IFComp as a text file, July 1, 2017This game had the code to crack some sort of copyright protection (maybe on DVDs?)
It was entered in IFComp to make some sort of message. It's not even intended to be IF.
An early, linear game about using e-mail, June 24, 2017This 1997 IFComp game shows to me how Twine didn't ruin parser games and IFComp; if this game had been entered in the 2010's, it would certainly have been a short twine game. I feel like authors are writing the same games, just on more appropriate platforms.
You spend most of the time typing well-clued commands and pressing enter a lot, and it's short. Its clear the author just wanted to write something short and fun. You play as a digital avatar near the digital highway, opening your digital mailbox for the first time.
A short haunting from ectocomp, June 11, 2017IN this game, you're trapped in a mirrored box as part of a Halloween stunt, carrying only a candle and some matches.
I couldn't get the game to do much, but it really had atmosphere. Just the act of lighting the matches, and the candle, and having the descriptions of your reflection described, were subtly creepy.
A short spoof of the troll game toiletworld, June 11, 2017This game spoofs Toiletworld, so you should probably make sure to play that first.
This game just has 3 under-implemented locations with some neat tricks involving Magician's Choice and movement of scenery, but otherwise it's pretty typical for a speed-IF ectocomp game. Not bad, though. This author has a longer, fun game called How to Win at Rock, Paper, Scissors.
A clever inversion of normal gameplay; a short halloween game, June 11, 2017This game is a clever inversion of usual goals. Playing normally as Dr. bonesaw, this is a short game; you get your vengeance.
The true gameplay, however, is more fun:
(Spoiler - click to show)You find the true ending by sabotaging yourself. It takes a few turns, but it's really pleasing to stop the unstoppable vengeance of Dr.
Bonesaw.
A very short QBasic game with some typos, June 11, 2017After playing another of DBT's games, I looked forward to this one, because it sounded cool.
However, it just has 9 rooms, all lined up one after another, with no items to find whatsoever. You just take the exits one at a time, and at the end, you see one character, whom you can't interact with, and there's exactly one thing you can type to end the game.
Looking at the code, there's really nothing there. It's 281 lines, more than half of which is standard code for every DBT game (the text header takes up about a fourth of the code). The doll itself is referred to as the 'cusred doll'.
I'm disappointed, because this game sounded cool, and the other DBT game I played wasn't that bad.
A character creation tool using Twine, August 21, 2016This isn't really something to try and beat as much as it is a tool to come up with characters. It chooses things like name, sex and appearance, but also personality types, astrological signs, concerns about body image, etc.
There is a message of sorts in what options are generated, but it seemed mostly just like a fun tool rather than a means to a greater end.
Edit:
I've just replayed this, and discovered the black text is links to mini-stories, many of which are really good. I recommend this game now. Some strong profanity. I've increased the rating from 3 stars to 5.
A gorgeous, well-written Undum game based on a Poe story, August 9, 2016This game is brief, and is based on (I believe) on the Masque of the Red Death.
The game is sub-q style, short and straightforward, but Bruno manages to make it interesting. The writing is heavy, like Devil's Food Cake. The game is an adaptation, but with enough early changes that I was intrigued to see where it would go storywise.
The game has good replay value due to a sequence of end actions wandering about a party and choosing what rooms to visit. I found at least two different interesting sequences.
I recommend this game as a short literary bite.
A fairytale story about escape from the mundane, April 29, 2016This game is about a young person who longs to be free from the mundane world. They try to escape, and begin to find the faery world.
The game has a variety of branches, picking from 2 sets of three big options and many smaller ones.
The game is very successful at creating and maintaining a wistful, deep atmosphere.
S. Woodson is a talented author, and it comes out in this brief game.
An evocative little piece that serves as a counterpoint to Feu de Joie, April 29, 2016Feu de Joie was a serial story released starting in 2015. It was about someone working for an online company who started getting weird messages from elsewhere.
This game is set from the other side, and manages to make powerful statements about war and world history. It's hard to go into more detail without exposing the plot.
It is very brief. I give it five stars for its polish and for its important place in the Feu de Joie series as a whole.
An innovative Twine game about a curious dream, April 24, 2016This game, one of the later entrants to the tiny utopia jam, has several unusual features. Fist, it uses neutral pronouns (ze, zir,..). I found that this helped with establishing the tone of the game and the allowing the player to identify with the protagonist.
The second unusual feature is in its branching structure. The game has an unusual structure in its branching that had me playing again and again. This is a strongly branching games but is short enough that replay is easy, similar to Porpentine's Myriad.
Unlike most strongly branching games this game's branches build on each other and create a unified story. Also, the author left little surprises and added variety in the branches.
A brief Twine game about a skull scraper with nice effects, April 20, 2016This game is a Tiny Utopia jam game, and Groover has picked an unusual vision for his utopia. You play a skull-scraper in a house of skulls, and you interact with the world in unusual ways.
This game has great production values, with combinations of advanced visuals, sound effects, etc. The setting is macabre but not gory, dark but not depressing.
The writing is well-paced, with a truly beautiful and almost-hidden turning point. Perhaps my favorite Tiny Utopias game.
A poetic meditation on court life and rivalry with simple command set, March 30, 2016This Sub-Q game is tightly focused and compact. You play as Fuwa Bansaku, a samurai based on a real-life Japanese swordsman. You are investigating an abandoned shrine that is rumored to be haunted.
This game uses a small number of directional commands and tightly-written poetry to achieve a compact and peaceful feel.
The story revolves around court drama and the story of the abandoned shrine.
An enjoyable, short piece.
A typing game; race to rhyme as many words as you can, February 15, 2016In this game, the doctors are testing to see if you have recovered from a mental illness. They test you by having you rhyme words that they say, but in an odd way and with a timer counting down quickly.
In no way is this an epic or life changing games but it satisfies all of my criteria for 5 stars, which is why I'm giving it that score.
An excellent one move, mostly puzzleless game with distinct branches, February 14, 2016This is my favorite Apollo 18 one move game so far. It is very simple; someone is chasing you, and you have one chance to escape them. There is a correct solution, but all endings are interesting (I found 11 or so).
This game really shines in its writing and creativity. It affected me emotionally in a mild, pleasant way.
There is some mild profanity right at the beginning.
A minimalist surreal horror/dread game, February 4, 2016This game is almost like westernized Haiku, with short, clipped, uncapitalized sentences, usually of two or three words.
It is minimalistic, with perhaps less than 50 words in the entire game, two rooms, etc.
It is essentially puzzleless, but I was stuck a bit at the very end. But with so many objects, it's easy to try.
The game attempts to be one of deep/shocking/horrifying at random, and somewhat succeeds.
A short and charming Vorple game about omnipotence and loneliness, February 4, 2016This beautiful web-based game (made with Vorple) tells the story of an omnipotent being who is alone and comes into contact with ordinary beings, before a more significant encounter.
The text shifts and changes on a white and black screen, with background decorations and smooth panning of screens.
The game, as others have said, seems to save the responses of previous players, and integrates them into the current game.
It's so short that you could play it 2 or 3 times in 15 minutes. Recommended.
An enjoyable moment at the end of the world for a dreamer, February 3, 2016I first saw this enjoyable shortish Twine game when another reviewer brought it to my attention. You visit your childhood village, where you explore the home of your own family and that of a childhood friend.
There is some kind of unspoken disaster about to occur, giving you a sense of urgency mixed with hopelessness. You discover that you and your friend had a highly unusual relationship.
The writing is evocative and breathless. The story is unfolded as you examine objects in burned-out shells of houses. I never really listen to music, but I had left the volume on as I played, and the music that came contributed significantly to the mood.
A short, interesting experiment on constraints, February 3, 2016In this game, you are in a room that seems incredibly detailed, with many NPCs. As you progress, there are interesting locations, exciting events, and complicated scenarios.
However, it is all for naught. The family curse has activated in you, so that any action besides GO NORTH will cause your death. Time and again, it seems like some other action is needed, but only GO NORTH is allowed.
This is amusing, and would not work nearly as well in a short story. This exact feeling of helplessness is unique to an interactive format, and it's a welcome effect.
Strongly recommended.
Short, atmospheric game with new lingo, tight plot, and good writing, February 3, 2016This game was written as part of a competition to extend the universe of Andromeda Awakening and Andromeda Apocalypse, two of the best sci fi games out there.
This game plays with constraints in a very effective way. As the game opens, you are strapped into a bunk, unable to move. The setting will make much more sense for those who have played the first Andromeda game.
The game is mostly conversation based. It has a Gostak or For a Change feel, where you have to try and decipher what other people are saying. This part was a lot of fun, developing a new slang.
The game is quite short; I finished without a walkthrough in less than twenty minutes. However, it is very well crafted. There are supposedly many endings, but I have only reached one, and it was a good one,
This possibly has the highest fun-to-time ratio of any game I have played, so I recommend it to everyone..
Great hallucinatory speed IF. Examine things that you then examine, etc., February 3, 2016I've heard many people talk about Lime Ergot, but I had no idea what it was about. It was an EctoComp 2014 game, so it had to be written in 3 hours, although it has since been updated.
The main thrust of the game is that you are standing with a general near a city, trying to make a Green Skull drink. Everything is vague and surreal. You 'move' by examining things, then examining more and examining more.
I had trouble getting started, but once I got started, it got easier and easier.
Strongly recommended for its fun-to-time ratio.
Short Twine game with Shakespearean influence, February 3, 2016This is a Twine game in which you play as the character of young Arthur from the Shakespearean play King John. The game is very short, but provides an interesting take on the character. It is helpful to read the play before or after the game for complete understanding, but not necessary.
Very short hyperlink game about a boy and his dog, February 3, 2016Short game with a few branching options but only one ending.
Seems like a fun little game a parent and child put together as a family project. No puzzles, inventory, or exploration.
Much better than anything I did as a seven year old. If you are reading this, I laughed, I liked the pictures, I cared about the dog, and only I wish it had lasted longer...
Very complex Twiny Jam game, August 6, 2015Twiny Jam is a competition requiring entries to have 300 words or less in the code. Many of these games are pretty spare. This game is one of the richest and complex I've seen within this word limit. It is a one-room escape game with numerous puzzles.
As a non-Twiny Jam game, it is only a short bit of fun. But as an example of what you can do in a constrained format, it is excellent.
Excellent microgame, May 11, 2015I learned that this is an entry for a micro-writing contest, where all entries must be 300 words or less. Given that my only issue was the length, I am giving this five stars for the format that it is intended for.
**Original review**
This is not so much a game as it is a way of presenting a short, scary story. It is very-well crafted while it lasts, but there are only one or two real choices in the game, and they don't make a large difference.
I want to be clear that the game is exceptionally well developed and put together--but I expect that most people playing interactive fiction are looking for something much longer than this.
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