Ratings and Reviews by Vivienne Dunstan

This is a time-limited parser game where you have to escape from a very dangerous situation. It is briskly written, with lots of atmosphere, scares and tension. However I found that I was often fighting the parser. The experience could have been smoother. I don’t know if it being in PunyInform was a factor, but e.g. if I had a key for something that it obviously fitted UNLOCK X wouldn’t smoothly work. I had to type UNLOCK X WITH Y KEY. There’s also quite a bit of juggling tools, where again you need just the right command. So I think this could have benefited from deeper playtesting. However it was exciting to play, and the concept is strong. I got a good ending but also had a look at what happened when time runs out. So good stuff, but playtest more, and if possible smooth the player experience.

Wow. I’m not quite sure what to say about this. It’s a parser piece, which can be played to an extent as a traditional parser game, episodic in this case. But it’s also metatextual, highly experimental, and in places for me was profoundly affecting.

The metatextual side is perhaps the least spoilery I can go into. It adds a guide you can interact with, that expands, and provides hints. You can also read in game footnotes. This is reminiscent of some discussion on this forum a while back about how old games could be effectively bundled up in a wider package, providing extra contextualisation etc. It’s really neatly done here.

The traditional parser/puzzle side is arguably the least interesting element. But it’s well done. And uses a neat mechanism throughout, that I won’t spoil.

There is also something very interesting about the narrative structure that the game does. But again I don’t want to spoil it!

But it was how the game affected me that I found most impactful. This relates to something that happened in my own life almost a year ago (spoiler: (Spoiler - click to show)my dad died). And I feel quite shocked after playing the game to be honest. But in a good way.

Kudos to the author for a powerful and innovative piece.

P.S. As I said to Drew elsewhere I could have written so much more about this in my review. I sort of wish I had. But I feel very strongly that this is a game best discovered by each player afresh. And I absolutely didn’t want to spoil things. If anything my review underplays how good it was. There are many more things I could have acknowledged. But that way lies spoilers. And I wanted to avoid them! Try it out anyway folks!

This is a set of 4 game books by students in a creative writing event in Slovakia. In this quick review I’m treating each one separately, as well as giving overall thoughts at the end.

Lilian Lalonder

This starts compellingly with a strange mirror, and then takes you into another place, and some really bizarre and creatively written outcomes. It’s good. And the English is strong. I played all the endings, and was glad I could see them all. This was probably my favourite of all the pieces.

Mihi

This doesn’t use the theme “mirror” so immediately, and it comes later, and is used in a very clever way. It’s rather a neat tale of how you handle unexpected news. However it resists the player following certain paths through, which left me feeling a bit cheated. I wanted to see the outcomes of those decisions, even the ones I doubted were wise. I replayed several times to try to explore different routes. The core idea is really strong, well done to the author, but let us play through things. Don’t steamroller.

James

This is a multi part story, and feels more like a Twine version of a parser game than the others, which are more traditional Twine interactive stories. You start in a room with various objects you can examine, quite minimally described. And then see where you can get to. It’s quite a short piece, multiple branching narratives, but a quick fun explore, and an intriguing world. It also left me pondering at the end, which is good! And I was keen to replay, and explore different choices. Original use of mirror. Thanks!

Dr John

This one starts in all capitals, which was a bit of a shock to me. A mix of lower and upper case is generally friendlier for readers to read. It seems to be set in a strange world of reflections and observers, and stuff that is hidden. However I struggled to get a good outcome. At one point the game suggests you click randomly on every bit of blue text. I was exploring lots of options for ages, then suddenly had an idea of something to try. And got to a good outcome! So phew. It was very hard though. The scifi like setting was a nice contrast with the other three works.

This was an interesting set of micro short Twine stories. Each was unique in its approach, and together they showed a variety of ways the system can be used. Two of the games included input boxes asking you to type text in, and this was nicely used, especially in one of the games. And I liked the different approaches and genres e.g. fantasy, real world, slice of life, horror, sci-fi and also branching narrative versus geographical world model versus philosophical puzzle. So thank you all! I hope that there might be more from Senica Thing in the 2024 Spring Thing. New voices in IF are always welcome!

This is a Twine piece where you try to escape from a cult. It feels more like a parser game than Twine generally does, with geographical locations, and objects that you can manipulate, and verb and noun pairings. Plus inventory management. Oh and it’s partially point and click. It’s an intriguing combination, and works well with the puzzles of the game.

However I found quite a lot of problems. There are a number of typos, and also I ran into a runtime error. I replayed several times, but couldn’t get past (Spoiler - click to show)the room below the swaying cultists. I had pulled the lever 4 times, rating “Psychopath”! Also I am very much not a fan of slow timed text, which happened in the opening of this game. I read very very quickly. I do not like text playing out very very slowly.

However the story and puzzles were intriguing, and fun, and I’d be interested in seeing more works using the game engine.

This is a short and beginner friendly parser game, set in a quasi fantasy world, with a very cute cat that you have to get to know better. It’s really charming, and I enjoyed playing through the light puzzles. There are in game hints if you get stuck. You can get the game into an unwinnable state. I recommend saving frequently.

There are a few things that could be polished more to make the playing experience smoother.

And make sure you read the ABOUT text info about the background to the game. It is quite charming.

This is a curious parser/Twine combo. I admire the author’s bravery for trying to implement a parser in Twine. Though I found it more often than not somewhat frustrating.

For example there’s a point where you are asked your name. Rather than just type that into the entry box you have to type e.g. “name Viv”. Which felt unintuitive.

Often I would struggle to get the game to respond. Not helped by the screen also often not scrolling down to show me when new text had appeared if I did type something recognised, so there were frequently times when it felt like I’d had no response but I just didn’t always see it before trying other commands.

There is a crucial choice moment where again I was running into a parser brickwall. I tried something different, and got an interesting outcome. Then replayed and managed to get a bit further through the choice, to get another ending. Then tried one last time and got a third ending. But I did not want to replay further. And ran into a bug when I tried to use BACK at the very end to go back to a previous choice.

The underlying story is interesting, intriguing scifi-esque, but I think this game might have been better if written as a more conventional Twine piece. Often I would be repeatedly typing C or CONTINUE to move the story on, which felt like little more than clicking “next” or “continue” in normal Twine. And then when I needed to use the parser I would struggle.

This is a short Twine game with multiple endings. I liked the intro explaining (especially for newcomers to Twine) how the interactive story and clickable links work. And I really appreciated the option in the game to go back to the last checkpoint if you reach an ending, rather than go back to the very start every time.

The writing is amusing, but I was initially wondering if I would explore too far, if things got too repetitive. But in the end I played through to see all the different endings. It’s a branching narrative, so they’re not too hard to reach, but it just takes time. The writing is a good reward though. Lots of amusing scenes played out, multiple genres, neatly written.

As an insomniac I could also relate to so much of this, albeit with more amusement than tossing and turning. Thanks to the author!

This was a delightful parser game, where you, a witch’s crow familiar, have to save your mistress. There’s a light touch to the writing, and it’s friendly to beginner parser players. The reduced parser helps, though I struggled with it in a few places. The fantasy worldbuilding is strong, and a series of fetch quests takes you through the story, plus extremely well written and nicely implemented conversations with various characters. Things got really frightening at times. In a good way. I’m still feeling relieved that I got a good ending and not a bad one as things played out! I was also grateful to the author for including a walkthrough (two versions). Oh and the artwork throughout is gorgeous.

This is a Twine piece with branching narratives where you are a legendary elf hero, tasked with saving a kingdom.

The writing is amusing, and I replayed quite a lot to see different endings. I never got a successful outcome one. However I ran into a bug. After (Spoiler - click to show)facing the ogre single handed I got a mostly blank screen, just the red background, then two horizontal lines. The game had totally seized up.

I was also frustrated that at least in my Safari on my Mac I never saw the stats (e.g. HP, EXP etc.) on screen again after the opening. Given I was doing things to affect them I really really wanted to see them! That may just be me though.

But it was an amusing fantasy piece. Nicely short too. I’d just like to see it polished a bit more.

This is a combined parser/click game, where you can interact with elements of the text as well as type in parser commands. The game is set in Ancient Greece, and sees you try to uncover what is going on, including a journey into Hades. I definitely recommend playing it online because you will get images there. The images don’t appear - or at least didn’t for me - using the downloaded game file and an offline interpreter.

There’s a lot to like. There’s a lyricalness to the storytelling. However being relatively unfamiliar with the setting and the ancient Greek myths I found things quite incomprehensible in places. I also had difficulty understanding the geography and the directions. For example early on I was trying every direction to move things on, even though the game suggested I was following a clue character. This repeated trying west/north/east/south broke the immersion for me. I think clearer clueing would help.

I got to an ending where I think (Spoiler - click to show)my character died, after dreaming of his wife for many years. Which was satisfying, but overly abrupt. I’d like to see that smoothed. I would also have liked to see some after game notes that you could read after finishing. There are also a lot of unimplemented scenery objects that are mentioned in the text but don’t respond to EXAMINE X. A fuller and richer implementation covering those would be well worthwhile