Reviews by HereticMole

Originally posted on intfiction. Minor edits were made.

Love that opening passage, the stark truth of the first sentence, the proceeding sentences written like zooming in birds-eye-view style on this random little mouse. The writing continues to be simple and short, emphasizing the animal senses and traits without making them overbearing, and I could visualize what it could feel like to be in this viewpoint.

The mouse is hungry. So is are its predators. Its life can end in many ways, the moments thankfully brief and not drawn-out. There is no back button and every death means starting from the beginning. Each playthrough is very short, so I personally didn’t find this to be an issue.

A excellent vignette of nature observation rather than a character study, one worth your time. It reminded me of the short chapter book pamphlets I read when I was a child that talked about the basic facts of the animal with diagrams and photos included.

Originally posted on intfiction. Some edits were made.

I played a previous Senica Thing anthology, Deep Dark Wood, when looking at past Spring Thing games. I found it a delightful, cozy yet gruesome experience. So I was excited to experience stories by (mostly) young new authors, and each of them brought a smile to my face.

A Swarm of Spiders, by DiBa

With no time to waste, author DiBa understands that showing off what your title is about from the beginning is a tried-and-true technique to catch interest. Many of the endings are some variation of “You decide not to investigate, so you go to bed and the rest of the night was uneventful,” but the ending that rewards a true explorer’s spirit was unexpectedly funny in a good way. This best captured being a sleepless kid at night, wondering what creepy-crawlies are out there, and entertaining the “what if I snuck out” fantasy.

WHAT A MESS, by T.H.K.

We start with a classic “Once upon a time,” but only a few possibilities resemble a fairy tale. Most of the choices are a word or two describing an event or an object, but how the object figures into the next passage is a mystery until you pick it. Instead of roleplaying as the couple Emma and James, this game is like having random refrigerator magnets, trying to put them in a readable order, and imagining what happens. Because of this, the story can go in wildly different directions (though paths and endings can converge), some funny, some deadly. This approach made me eagerly hit the restart button to see the different possibilities of our main couple.

Join Le Swarm, by Neural

It starts with a mysterious text message received in the dead of night. It could end in communication. This game utilizes text effects and colors, including shaky/vibrating text. The text effects combined with the sentence structure and rhythm made for quite the creepy mood. The choices will take you to varying paths culminating in four endings, all satisfying in different ways. This best captured atmosphere, making risky life-threatening decisions when you don’t know the consequences, and (Spoiler - click to show)becoming part of a hive mind.

Dystopia, by Creator

Author Creator goes for something probably familiar to many game developers in triple-A companies in this IF where you’re a game developer signing a metaphorical deal with the devil. Corporate horror, with the author’s own earnestness about development unbound from commercial demand ensues. The villains are over the top and very punchable which could have been exhausting, but I didn't feel so because the game is honest about its message from the beginning.

As with Join Le Swarm there is copious use of colored and animated text, though unlike that game, Dystopia uses text effects as a sort of character tag so you know which character is talking to you, and has a couple of illustrations to go with the descriptions. However, there are a few instances of text being colored so dark it was impossible to read without highlighting, all related to when you’re talking to the receptionist. She only has about three lines in the story so it’s not too big an issue but it was a little stumbling block.

I think this story has the longest individual playthrough length, if you play from the start to a definitive happy ending. (Spoiler - click to show)Compared to the other games in this collection, there are hidden passages and a hidden ending, though I found the endings you get "normally" more satisfying. There's nothing very groundbreaking but I appreciate their presence.

Swarm of Thieves, by SKIT

One of two stories in this collection that were written by someone with prior IF experience. Author SKIT previously released A Bottle from the Future for last year’s Spring Thing.

You play as TRUTH (most proper nouns in this story are written in all caps), a rebel leading a swarm of thieves to combat a King and his swarm of Kleptocracy. The writing makes it abundantly clear that this is an allegory for advancing equality for the 99% as an alternative for the stifling self-interest of the oligarchs, the 1%. This is more stylized than the previous games with a background image and text in colored boxes rather than default dark mode Harlowe. There are six short endings that determine the success of the rebellion and the King’s fate, three you can get from having TRUTH escape the authorities and three from being captured.

There were a few pronoun mismatches for TRUTH, though all in the first few passages (the rest of the game refers to TRUTH with female pronouns, so I assume all instances of he/his/himself are typos), and some other typos within the text, though they do not diminish the quality of the message.

John the Swan, by Vitalii Blinov

This is also a story written by someone with prior IF experience. The author previously released One Way Ticket in IFComp 2022, and other works that are written in Russian.

The story is unique compared to the others as its events are esoteric, it’s written in poetry form, and uses timed text to progress line by line. Additionally, when you click on a piece of text that confirms an ending, it begins to shake and the lines of the poem all disappear gradually one-by-one. This could be annoying if the game length or the timer was longer, but text appeared right when I finished reading an individual line, and as playthroughs are short you can still collect all endings in a few minutes. I found the timed text format to work with short-form poetry, it forces you to digest each line and the different possibilities for John (or Swan).

The Underground Dungeon, by A.S.M.

A tasty appetizer with a dark, moody undertone, like blackcurrant flavor. This is the game with the shortest individual playthrough length (though John the Swan without timers would match it), where the protagonist, a royal chef, really wants to break into the castle’s underground dungeon. Interestingly, in the “perfect” playthrough (Spoiler - click to show)you never even encounter a hint of anything swarm-related (unless the dinner guests count). I love how the game, when presenting a locked door, immediately throws the player into (Spoiler - click to show)deciding between attempting to steal the key or flat-out assassinating the king. That escalated quickly, and made me think: Is the king a bad ruler and the assassination also an attempt at trying to end his tyrannical reign? Are we a rogue chef who only cares about the castle’s secrets, even if that means slaying a good or passable king? Somewhere in between? A motivation for taking such a drastic action would be the perfect sauce to go with this dish.

Join the Swarm, by SAT

A mysterious nighttime occurrence awakens a swarm of voices in your head, with a little bit of (Spoiler - click to show)Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde going on. Though the description says to turn the volume up, I didn’t hear anything when I played the entire game with headphones plugged in, and I was worried that I’d suddenly be flashbanged with a really loud noise. After looking at the source, the audio link unfortunately goes to a 404 page. Individual paths are lengthy but almost all lead to a single passage where you make the final choice that determines your ending. My favorite route was where you (Spoiler - click to show)follow a persuasive voice all the way and feel the tension of power, of doing what you want, the consequences be damned.

It’s Here, by Chaos

‘Let’s explore nature! Let’s look at a mass of animal movement!’

That’s basically the entire plot of It’s Here, but the depth of detail in describing the swarm’s behavior (this game is pretty much 90% descriptive text) makes the story stand out. I wanted to study and visualize what was going on, and the way sentences are laid out made it easy to do so. Unlike every other game in this collection, death is not a possibility at all, and there is only a single ending though you can meander through passages endlessly if you wish. There is the occasional text font or color change, mostly done tastefully, though some of the sentences had a gradient background, or were in very dark blue that made it hard to read without highlighting the text. This felt like being on a wildlife tour (well, one where you can touch the animals, which I don’t think exists) and recording your observations on paper.

Yellow Swarm, by HOT

Surprisingly, the only game in this collection with an actual bee swarm. You are a badass agent sent to stop a biotech experiment gone wrong. You explore an infested building, shoot ‘zombies’ and drop a quippy one-liner every so often. This entry stands out for having a full custom stylesheet, and its aesthetic resembling a CRT screen was a good match for and enhanced the game’s setting while being readable. There are three endings with various levels of success, although it’s not hard getting the perfect ending if that is your goal. To me, this was the most nostalgic entry, reminiscent of an action-horror flick but fast-forwarded to all the good parts.

Originally posted on intfiction.

This is a demo for a longer game in development. It takes place in the future but close-enough to our world with immortality through mind uploading and some shuffling of geopolitical borders going on.

The very first choice is the biggest, as it decides the person you play the rest of the demo as, either a doctor about to administer a mind operation, or a billionaire who is the intended patient of said operation. Both characters have distinct arcs and it’s well worth doing a repeat playthrough from the other perspective (easily doable, the currently released content is not very long). There are some mismatches between first-person and second-person pronouns in the billionaire’s segment that I’m not certain were intentional or not.

I’m looking forward to how these two perspectives will collide in future installments!

Originally written on the intfiction forums. Minor edits were made.

You’re a dastardly villain in a suitably moody mansion, whose antics are limited to threatening the heroes by making quips, attempted blackmail, or, perhaps the most effective, glaring menacingly at them until they faint. You are given a choice between two random rooms to go into (which eventually repeat after eight or so turns), and in each room, decide whether to confront the heroes using your gaze or hopefully cutting words, use or scavenge for items or silently observe your opponents. Your chances of success are up to random chance, though the effectiveness of your gaze, the location, and the weather can help or hinder you.

There are two ways to win, either by making the heroes faint enough or getting enough plot points. I thought it was pretty easy racking up the required number of faints, but I never found a consistent way of getting enough plot points. The first few times I chose to look for items, I didn’t get any so I stopped picking that option altogether. If you attempt to use an item you already have, the game will automatically pick one appropriate for the current situation or tell you it’s no use and waste a turn. Getting a considerable amount of failed gaze checks lowers their effectiveness, but some smart use of picking locations with appropriate weather should override that - if the RNG favors you. Eventually, I ended up finding the game structure and descriptions to be repetitive when I had two more faints left to go, and continuously spammed Gaze while only skimming the results text.

Frustrations aside, having a stare so powerful that people faint from it is the energy I wish I could have. With some more text variety and clarity on the stat checks, I would feel more comfortable recommending The Perilous Plot to a wider audience, beyond those who are intimately familiar with authors like Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Gregory Lewis.

Originally written on the intfiction forums. Edited to remove a bug report that no longer applies to current versions.

I wanted to save this entry as a treat, since I’ve had a good time with the author’s 4x4 games and the Rosalinda series. The game is a lot more like the latter than the former, with its wild hijinks and smartly designed gameplay elements similar to a puzzly parser game or point-and-click. This includes some solutions that seem whacky based off item combinations but aren’t, because most everything is hinted well. (Except maybe (Spoiler - click to show)the acid pool/spacesuit, but the way to solve it did make sense once I read it, I just figured I’ve already opened the crate so I don’t need to do anything more with it.)

The premise states you’re a worker building and training the machine that will replace you. This is not a contemporary drama set in the 2020s, it’s in the far future on a space station, and the story is generally lighthearted but knows when to be serious. There are a variety of different endings whether you do as expected, subvert/technically comply with the request, or give up. I got every ending thanks to the hint thread (Spoiler - click to show)including the secret one after save-scumming four times - pretty tiring for my mouse-clicking finger but the ending itself is worth it. I cheered in the endings where we show up upper management, raged whenever Hex didn’t survive or gets put in a worse situation, and felt really shitty reading that one ending (Spoiler - click to show)where you throw your friend Sniffy under the bus to ensure you won’t get terminated.

I had a lot of fun going through the game and its different endings!

Originally written on the intfiction forums. Minor edits were made.

Clover, your childhood friend turned crush is moving. You and her have several things to say (or not say) in seven days…including, perhaps, a confession of love. What could’ve been a frustrating will-they-won’t-they is alleviated by the brisk pacing, a down-to-earth tone instead of melodrama, and some pokes from a third friend who injects some needed levity and pointed observations to the mix.

I got all the endings, three on a first playthrough, reloading before the final choice. I started a second playthrough (Spoiler - click to show)intentionally taking all the options that distance you from Clover which changes the endings for confessing/saying you’ll miss her to get the last two. I found the choices mostly clear on whether they signaled denialism, attempting to meet the issue head on, or simply deepening your relationship. The writing style did a good job communicating the fragile atmosphere and the characters’ emotions. Still, I was left wondering: what specifically about Clover makes her the object of the protagonist’s affection (and vice versa)? This doesn’t really get an answer, so despite my appreciation of each individual element I still felt like I was being kept at a distance from these characters.

As an aside that will probably mean nothing to the Ren’Py-unaware, every other Ren’Py game I’ve played (with the exception of very short games) has had an options menu on the title or pause screen. The lack of one did weird me out a bit, but I’ve never tried developing anything in that system so I’m not sure if that’s a built-in thing you can choose to leave out or a thing that you opt in to. This is not a mark against the game, but the only thing I really wanted was making the “skip read text” toggle option go faster and a volume slider (the BGM is very quiet), but I could adjust to not having these options.

I would recommend Before the Snow Melts if you are fine experiencing a “subtle v i b e s” snapshot of the “will-they-won’t-they to confession” stage (which is very much signposted in the blurb and author’s comment) and not a full-blown romance arc.

Originally written on the intfiction forums. Some edits were made.

The emphasis on “perfectly normal mystery” is a dead sign that we are not, in fact, dealing with the mundane here. Something, or rather, some things are missing when the protagonist ventures inside City Hall. It was at this moment when I knew for a fact that the initial premise was mainly an excuse to go through the building and deal with item puzzles rather than do some social deduction with city officials. I had to use the walkthrough for many puzzles I considered unintuitive. I am also, admittedly, Bad At Puzzles, but most people were in the same boat from comments made on intfiction and the Neo Interactives Discord.

Functions such as ABOUT/CREDITS, UNDO, and TALK TO are unimplemented. While there are some grammatical errors around objects that I assume, to my Inform-illiterate mind, are related to how items are created and treated by the development system, I did not find any other typos nor did I find anything that was outright bugged.

Finishing a game, especially your first, is a milestone to be celebrated and I am glad to sample the content and the thought put into it. If the author makes more creations with the lessons they learned from The Missing City Council, I’d love to experience them.

(the following paragraph spoils a puzzle solution)

Originally written on the intfiction forums. Minor edits were made.

You are Anna Pointed, a detective on her first case - the disappearance of a baking contest participant’s ingredients. Talk to five quirky individuals, learn their alibis, remember details of noteworthy items and scenery, confront people on their lies, and uncover the truth (and some personally embarrassing secrets)!

The system appears to be a custom one made by the author. It sort of resembles the way default Ink games look. The game doesn’t force you to memorize details, as you can scroll through previous text, all the way back to the beginning if you so desire. You’ll need it, as you’ll be quizzed on small details dating back to before you started talking to the suspects and victim, through completing sentences using available evidence from dropdown menus. The game is forgiving and will let you guess as many times as you want without penalty. Realistically, the person who hired a detective would probably tell her to get out after seeing her fumble her accusations fruitlessly for eight turns straight, but that would be tremendously unfun.

In the beginning, exposing contradictions was not too troublesome, but in the end, it starts to become a chore as the amount of past text increases. This can compound if you’re me and banged your head against one of the puzzles for quite some time before finally resorting to looking at the walkthrough. By late game I had to CTRL + F the whole text log for people’s names, pieces of evidence, etc. Additionally, the dropdown method led to some frustration in two cases where I had the right idea but didn’t pass due to having to fit my idea into a specific sentence structure and unclear evidence naming (could be alleviated by, for example, using (Spoiler - click to show)“Dorian’s costume” and “Barnaby’s uniform” instead of just “costume” and “uniform”).

Other than that, the plot made sense with fun writing and it was personally fun having my starting theory be proven half-right as I approached the final segments. Definitely take your own notes for this one.

Originally written on the intfiction forums. Minor edits were made.

I was a bit peeved at myself for not playing Warden: a (bug)folk horror until after EctoComp 2025 had passed, because it wormed its way into my heart with its approachability and worldbuilding. Strings takes place in the same world but is much more light-hearted (though that’s not to say there’s absolutely no scary elements at all). You are Pik, a bard gathering a band for the performance of a lifetime - impressing your lover, the moon.

To get a musician to join, you need to do a task for them - some are as simple as figuring out how to get to the musician in the first place (and being astute enough to note a certain word is common across some interactable objects), while one is a semi-elaborate “figure out where you are in a maze, (Spoiler - click to show)search for a lost baby, and also try not to die” endeavor. Most of your puzzle-solving is done through custom commands related to playing an instrument, and the implementation is smooth. This structure didn’t feel repetitive at all thanks to the short length of the game and the varied situations you have to deal with to get to (or help) each character.

The game has achievements! Some are easy to guess from the name, some are a bit harder and I haven’t gotten all of them when I wrote this review, but I got the cutest achievement on the first playthrough so it doesn’t matter to this completionist (purely for story and not difficulty achievements) here. (Spoiler - click to show)Seriously, once Pik encounters the pupa, most of my internal thought was “AHHHHHHHH CUTE BABYYYYY” the whole time.

Strings, like Warden before it, is greater than the sum of its parts thanks to its writing capturing the imagination and giving a breath of life to this big world of little critters. Sign me up for more (bug)folk stories, or other works from Tabitha and baezil!

Originally written on the intfiction forums. Minor edits were made.

You are a Mysterious Creature Researcher, on a Mysterious Creature Hunt after a totally-not-nefarious-front hires you to do so. To facilitate this, you’re given the location of a small town with a history of strange animals, a convenient stealth suit and a list of three such Mysterious Cryptids to catch.

You are given a choice of six set locations to go to. Each location has the same cryptid, but the list of required ones is randomized each playthrough. Once you go to a location, you encounter an unusual creature, and must cross-reference the initial description (that can be expanded with further observation and taking photos) against the traits written in the list (which is a convenient choice click away). You can back out and come back later if you’re not sure, which is advisable since you’ll most likely find at least two cryptids with overlapping traits in the required list. You also have a notebook that lets you write your own text, which is a nice feature but I didn’t feel the need to utilize it in my playthroughs.

The game is reasonably paced and not too long. A first playthrough will probably take fifteen to thirty-five minutes depending on how thorough you are. You’re graded on how many of the correct cryptids you caught. If you got all of them right, you have a further choice between three different end states. If you get less than that, the game basically goes “womp womp try again.” The endings themselves run the gamut on (Spoiler - click to show)how much you care about the cryptids’ wellbeing. They’re short and close the game off well while also being open-ended enough to give the viewer room to imagine what could happen next.

The writing accomplishes the tasks of creating diverse creatures (I appreciated the intentionally-low quality black-and-white photos) and a setting with history - I liked the info about the town’s locations and wanted to know more. I only noted two typos (“Your” should be “You’re” in the blurb, one section reads “it’s two hooves”). The creature in the well was my favorite, (Spoiler - click to show)a freaky being who can imitate voices and lure people into wells. I got the cave worm in both my playthroughs so I also have a soft spot for it (sorry for the (Spoiler - click to show)whole “sawing the body off” trick, but hopefully you will be fine after I let you go…but does that mean there are two of them running around that cave? Did the halves join back together? Desperately need to know the answer).

Cryptid Hunter is a pleasant little pattern matcher, especially for the people who cared about filling out those Pokedex entries, though I would say one complete playthrough where you capture all three assigned cryptids is enough.