Reviews by Vivienne Dunstan

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 7 May 2025.

This is a curious parser piece, where you ostensibly put together different motifs to create art works (with the art works explained in text format), and aim to fill an art gallery with 8 different art works. I got 4/8 endings, and couldn’t unlock all 8. I gather from other reviews that this work reuses the poetry of Sylvia Plath, but I’m too unfamiliar with that to connect with it.

I don’t think I was the ideal audience for this piece. I think there’s a lot more depth to it than I was feeling. But I struggled to engage with it. Which isn’t any fault of the author. Just some things click for some folks and not others. I’m also one of those folks who tends not to get on with more abstract works, and prefers things spelled out simply.

I also struggled a little with the parser interface on my low resolution enormous font laptop screen. The game text kept filling the screen and I’d have to constantly tap to show more, but then with my hand control problems I risked entering the wrong next option, which was rather crucial to get right. So it was a rather fraught playing experience for me.

But again that may well have been just me.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 7 May 2025.

This is a charming short Twine-based piece, where you have a fire to tend, and dreams to explore.

It’s episodic, with light puzzles at each stage. In addition you need to keep that fire burning …

The writing is strong and richly imaginative, and I felt thoroughly engrossed and charmed in the world.

I played for about half an hour.

Thank you to the authors.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 6 May 2025.

Pleased to get at least one more game review in. I was playing this one for about half an hour. It’s a choice-based art/fantasy/horror mystery story. And it’s another with a most excellent cat in it. Which I greatly approve of.

I really enjoyed playing this story right through. The player character can enter paintings and take keepsakes from them. And in the process discovers a much more dangerous threat which they have to face.

It was constantly a very tense playing experience. I often felt that I needed to read the text and make my next choice quickly before I ran out of time. I’m not sure that was a real concern, but the writing definitely added to the tension.

I was very happy with the ending I reached, though I expect there may be less positive outcomes to discover too.

Really good stuff. Thank you to the author.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 2 May 2025.

Ok onto this parser game now. And the first thing I want to say is probably a bit provocative, but the blurb

"You’ve been wandering for a while now, searching for something worthy of your blade."

really didn’t encourage me to play the game! It feels so unfinished, and “so what”. But I’m playing it despite that.

And it’s delightful. A rather trippy series of episodic fantastic moments, where you have a sword that you can use, and the question is what to do with it. Each of the sections are short, some shorter than others, but evocatively written. I especially enjoyed the Jack Vance like encounter in a forest.

On the downside I had quite a lot of fight the parser moments. If you have a reduced parser like this, it probably needs more playtesting to smoothe things. I see there were a lot of testers, but I wonder if even more might have helped. I’m going to list some bits I had issues with in a section for the author at the end of this.

But other than that I really enjoyed it. Yes it needed smoothing in quite a few places, but overall it was a magical experience to play through. And I loved the fantastical descriptive storytelling throughout. I played for about an hour.

Highly recommended.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 2 May 2025.

This is an atmospheric Twine-based piece, where you are a professional spirit exterminator investigating a haunted circus, and trying to solve the mysteries of unsettled spirits.

I liked a lot about this. The circus is a richly developed setting for a game world, and I enjoyed learning about the various characters involved with the circus. There’s a lot to uncover and a lot of depth.

On the downside I found the physical navigation around the circus somewhat problematic. I would often move from, say, location A to location B, but not be offered the chance to return to A directly. There is a “reorient yourself” option in the left side of the user interface, which I used a lot. This keeps a record of the locations you’ve visited, and how often you’ve visited each one, and lets you jump straight back to any one of them. Plus it includes hints of locations still left to discover. In this game it is often worth returning to a location you’ve visited before, and the “reorient yourself” list was handy for noting those places I hadn’t investigated too many times.

I found the number of characters and the secrets revealed for them overwhelming, but equally not enough clarity for me personally to rule most out as guilty or innocent of the crime I was investigating. There’s a “notes” section you can access, where you can make notes about guilty or innocent against a character. I just did not feel confident enough about that for the vast majority of cases. Equally there’s an “assignment details” button to reveal more witness statements. It took me a very long time to even notice that let alone use it. I kept on being puzzled when the game would refer to a witness statement, but I didn’t seem able to look at it and read it …

However, I worked my way through, had lots of fun, and managed to identify a key guilty party at the first go (extremely satisfying!). Which then opened up the option of investigating the circus further, or leaving the site. I chose to stay, and bring the game to a satisfying ultimate resolution. Though I had to take a brute force approach to this bit ((Spoiler - click to show)luckily you can try multiple options for how X was killed by Y with Z!).

I did notice a few small typos the author may want to fix. But generally the writing was very strong. Only one expression threw me and I had to google its meaning ((Spoiler - click to show)“bleacher seating” - I knew immediately what that was after googling!).

Nicely done. I was playing for about 70 minutes. Oh and I loved the art. And not done with AI. Well done!

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 29 April 2025.

This is a charming cat-themed adventure, where you play Marbles the cat, who has to help her person, while investigating a mysterious theatre. It’s set in a vaguely fantastical world, but the game’s action is located firmly within the geography of a theatre, so is easy to visualise for contemporary audiences.

I had so much fun doing cat things especially. The parser implementation was very responsive. Though I didn’t manage to (Spoiler - click to show)knock something off or over, which was a disappointment! I may have missed an opportunity there.

As Marbles the cat you alert your person to items of interest by meowing at the items. Which is delightful in itself, but also makes the game extremely newbie friendly. There are also sporadic “CAT NEWS NETWORK” snippets, telling you more about how to play the game, which is all very well handled.

There were only a few places where I struggled with the parser, unable to get the message across, sometimes not trying the right thing at the right time, or in the right place, or both ((Spoiler - click to show)the ladder and the door combination were a particular challenge). But the built in HELP command responses are comprehensive, with well-written multi-step clues to reveal.

As a player I appreciated the episodic nature of the game, built around a series of short acts. With this structure I felt like I was making progress, and it also helped break up the story.

Best thing though was the implementation of Marbles the cat. Who clearly adores her person. I had so much fun exploring the many cat things she can do, and increasing my score of them. I was proud of my final “Outstanding” cat report!

Thanks to the author for the end of game additions to the HELP command. It’s nice to read more about the game development process. Including some Inform coding tips!

Highly recommended.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 29 April 2025.

On to this alternative history simulation of 1917 Russia, and the political machinations between Menshevik, Socialist-Revolutionary, Kadet and Bolshevik parties. Note I’m going into this with very little knowledge of the period. Also I have not played the Social Democracy game from 2024.

I played for about 40 minutes, right through, in easy mode. I chose to control the Socialist-Revolutionary party, and pushed for agricultural reform and an end to the war. That strategy did not ultimately go well, though it was fascinating to follow, week by week, as the multitude of factors interacted. Not towards a good end for my goals.

Not being familiar enough with the different Russian political parties then, I found it hard to differentiate between them clearly as I played and made decisions. I focused on the single party I was personally controlling, the party of the peasants, and tried to keep a clear idea in my head of what I wanted to achieve. But I was still rather overwhelmed by the other factions manoeuvring. And felt out of control. Which is probably not unrealistic for the situation being simulated.

The interface was nice. Even worked on my low resolution massive font view on the browser. On the left panel I had stats appearing (rising inflation aarrgghh!). Then on the mid/right area the game text would appear as I interacted. In addition I could draw cards, seemingly at random, for each organisation or institution I controlled, which would then let me choose what to interact with. The randomness of the cards - or seeming randomness anyway! - was fun, and added unpredictability. But it also made things frustrating. For example I’d want to change the food policy, or taxation, and it seemed to be pot luck whether those cards would appear.

It’s not a game I would want to replay soon, but I think I may well come back to it in 6 months or a year. And I would very much like to play its precursor game from last year.

The game has prompted me to want to learn more about the period though. I know quite a lot about the Romanov side of things, but less about the various political parties and their activities in this period of Russian history. And I would like to read more about that. It might have been nice to see a recommended reading list at the end from the author, or tips about useful resources to go to.

I’m an academic historian but this absolutely isn’t my historical period or context. So I’m totally unqualified to judge or assess the game’s accuracy in historical terms, or how good a simulation it is. But as a player I found it captivating to play through, albeit somewhat overwhelming.

Definitely recommended.

Postscript: Just had another play through of Social Democracy: Petrograd 1917, and discovered a few more options. Further down the screen - off my screen, with my huge font and low resolution - there were extra advisor options I could select. So more to do. But still as unsuccessful an outcome as before!

It is a fascinating game though. I really look forward to reading any post mortem / after competition thoughts from the author.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 24 April 2025.

"The world is ending. Will you be awake to see it?"

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play this. Things are bleak enough in the real world in many respects right now! But it’s called me in, so here goes.

First up I turned the sound off. it’s very atmospheric and brooding, but distracted me too much from reading the text. which is my core focus.

In the game you’re one of the last survivors of a virus, seeking sanctuary with your two children. And above all to survive you have to stay awake, and keep your children awake too. And then you meet the mysterious man.

It’s an episodic day by day adventure, where if you can keep going you can play for longer. I got to (Spoiler - click to show)day 11, and then had no viable option but to (Spoiler - click to show)go to sleep. But at least it felt like a satisfying ending.

However it’s a difficult game emotionally. And a lot of the more interesting discussions are uncovered by talking to the old man, which increases the risk of your children dying. Which left me really not knowing what to feel for much of the time.

Helplessness I suppose. It did not leave me in a happy place emotionally! Though that’s thanks to the quality and emotiveness of the writing. I did hang on at one point to the core idea and importance of (Spoiler - click to show)love though.

It’s definitely a game that deserves replaying, though like me you may get to the point where you can’t get further. I liked how it invited you to name your character and your children. And also how this was remembered when you replayed, if you wanted, so you didn’t need to reenter the details every time.

But it is extremely bleak, and will be too much for some players.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 24 April 2025.

This is a short multimedia Twine piece about past memories and loss.

It’s quite evocative, and well written, though not too interactive. There are some key choices to make, and also some sections where you’re asked to type an answer or word into a box. Which can be challenging, though hints are given.

There is music, but fortunately for me it was instrumental, so unusually for me I kept playing it while I read the text. Often audio tracks for multimedia IF distract me too much from reading. The visuals got a little muddled at times, making text harder to read. But generally the interface was pretty clean.

A short piece, but well worth playing through. It only took 10 minutes of my time, but I found it very engrossing.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 18 April 2025.

Now trying this collaborative piece where you’re haunted by the past, and uncovering old demons, as you explore your apartment, and try to find something to eat.

I liked the graphics, though turned off the sound, which distracted me too much from reading. Thanks to the authors for the ability to turn off text delays, and also for the comprehensive content warnings at the start of the game.

As you play through you uncover old takeaway food menus from the past, just as you are getting hungrier and hungrier ironically. I think the idea is to explore the various dishes on there, and revisit past memories as a result. I’m afraid that I didn’t really want to explore all the menu options. They were often too painful, and I just wanted to search the apartment for food (I can be extremely straight-line thinking at times!).

In the end although I found some rice and cleaned the kitchen and put some spiced water cooking on the hob, and something vanilla in the microwave oven (I also cleaned elsewhere) I still couldn’t find food to eat. So didn’t reach a totally satisfactory ending. Though my character was able to work through a lot of their demons.