Reviews by Christina Nordlander

A short piece of dynamic fiction about trying some ecological fresh-from-the-comb honey for the first time. There is a little bit of interactivity, but the main draw is in the perfectly gauged prose (I was particularly impressed by the author's way of describing flavours, something I always find difficult to put into words), and the glimpses of the PC's surroundings and backstory.

The hyperlinked words often have little connection with what comes next. Moving to a new page shows the previous paragraphs with the new paragraph added: not my favourite format, but that is a taste thing, and it prevents you from losing track of the narrative. While I'm on the subject of technical details, the use of yellow text for some words is a bit of a pain, since it's almost necessary to highlight it. However, it's rare enough not to be a big issue.

Fine slice of life with an elegiac edge. Read if you want to savour some exact prose, or enjoy honey.

(Disclaimer: I participated in EctoComp 2016.)

Going Home is a very sparse zombie horror story in Twine. The PC is attacked by zombies and turned into one of them in the opening scene. This scene, and the PC's ensuing disoriented attempt to go home, are written in a semi-comical fashion, with plentiful use of growls and zombie noises. While there is horror here, it is not really emphasised.

This is followed by (Spoiler - click to show)a rather restrained and tragic scene of the PC attacking and eating their little daughter.

The Petite Mort class of EctoComp is of course under extreme time pressure, and taking the limitations into account, this isn't a bad story, but neither does it rise to any great heights. The succinctness undermines the horror, and of course, reactions to the horror and emotive content are going to vary from person to person. There is a game-like maze element (in the "going home" segment, all your choices are represented by guttural noises). It's not long enough to get frustrating, and it's a cool idea in theory, but in practice there does not seem to be any way to solve it other than by trial and error.

To sum up: there are some good points, such as some black comedy and a fairly powerful ending, but by and large I found it unmemorable. Still, it's short enough that it's worth a try.

Here is the plot of Zero Sum Game: you are an adventurer who needs to go back and undo the puzzles you've solved, decreasing your score as you do so.

This is still an unusual conceit, and even more so in 1997. However, the puzzles are fairly traditional, without particularly relying on the "undo your actions" idea: finding keys to locked doors, killing or placating enemies who block your path.

Some reviewers have criticised the game for being violent. In my opinion, this is a bit exaggerated: it's hardly the IF equivalent of American Psycho, more like a fairly gory episode of Family Guy. That said, there is indeed (non-graphic) violence against innocents on the part of the PC and others, and some (non-graphic, comedic) sexual content. What I came away with was a sense of shallowness and slapstick. I found most of the major characters funny enough, but extremely one-note. The most developed one is probably your non-speaking animal companion, which might be significant. There is a type of fantasy parody story where everyone is stupid, sociopathic and horny, and Zero Sum Game fits into that bracket.

Most of the puzzles are logical and decently clued, and some are very clever. (I particularly enjoyed how you (Spoiler - click to show)resurrect the dragon.) However, some are unintuitive. Most blatantly, at one point you need to hide in one area when an NPC comes in and drops an item: miss it and you lose the item and your chance to complete the game. There is no massively compelling reason that the player should decide to hide in this place and rifle through the NPCs belongings, and I didn't figure it out without a walkthrough.

There is some world-building, but in general, the game's world is extremely thin, throwing together a number of settings (an orphanage, a troll bridge, a castle) because they fit with the puzzles. The writing is uneven. Most of the time it feels bland, but there are also passages of slightly overwrought beauty (such as the description of the oak in the glade), and some of the jokes are very good.

A funny parody adventure for an evening or two, if you're not bothered by violent characters and immature humour, but don't expect to still be thinking about it for weeks afterwards. A game that uses the same conceit, but with (in my opinion) better writing and more inventive puzzles, is Janitor.

I had high hopes for Ecdysis: the title and cover are evocative, and I am a fan of both Lovecraftian and body horror, and have found other entries in the Lovecraft Commonplace Book Project extremely enjoyable.

In the end, though, it didn't live up to my expectations. It feels harsh saying that, because the game is not a failure by any means. The writing is above-average, doing a good job conveying pain, disorientation and dread, as well as the occasional glimpse of wonder. While it's short and linear, it's polished, putting in quite a bit of information that you might miss on your first playthrough. (For example, try examining the stars when you can see them.) While the NPCs never get any characterisation, the PC's love for them comes through. The core situation with the PC's stepchildren is one that is pretty rare in this type of story. It's all... good, rather than great.

Time for the downsides. Perhaps it's just that I've consumed a lot of horror, but I found it easy to guess from early on where the plot was going, and it didn't surprise me much.

The writing seems to aim for Lovecraft's style a bit too slavishly, without hitting the things I like about Lovecraft's writing. Also, there are a couple of vocabulary blunders: for example, "diaphanous light" in the bathroom. (I guess the writer might mean that the light is faint, as if the darkness is showing through it, but it looks like a plain misused word.) As I mentioned, the game is short, linear, and almost puzzleless. (I say "almost", since there's apparently an alternative ending I haven't been able to get.) That's fine for what it is, but a longer game with a bit more freedom might have had more impact.

Perhaps most damning for a horror game, I didn't find it scary. The situation at the outset is certainly unpleasant, but as I said, after a certain point I could see too clearly where the story was going, and the central scene where we realise what is going on felt a bit too pulpy, rather than cosmic.

Not a waste of time by any means, but not as memorable as I was hoping for. Still, if you're after a quick, very polished horror/SF read, check it out.

Bubblegum Slaughter uses Twine to create a solid RPG about exploring and fighting enemies to build up your strength for the game's climax. Plot-wise, it's a magical girl story, but towards the darker end of the genre. While most magical girl animé and manga tend to focus on a team, the start of this game sees you all alone: your friends and beloved mentor have vanished, as night falls and demons are breaking into the material world. You are not defenceless, you still have your superhuman powers, but you have no idea where to find your friends, or whether they are still alive. And you are on a time limit.

I had a blast. The writing is very good, especially when describing the crystal items you can craft to enhance your abilities. The attack descriptions do a good job transmitting the feel of action animé into prose: you feel like you are effortlessly unleashing hell upon your foes.

There is a strong ambience of darkness and menace. Heading into a new area tends to keep you on your toes; there is an element of trial and error (though not to the extent of learning-by-death) when facing a new phenomenon for the first time. The fighting is rather simply implemented, but not simply enough to feel perfunctory, and a more complex system might have slowed the gameplay. The game element lies rather in the tactics of choosing your battles and deciding whether to use your resources or save them for greater effects later.

(Spoiler - click to show)While the plot may be darker than that of the average magical girl story, it steers clear of the more unremitting tragedy of, for example, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Your mentor turns against you, but the evil is vanquished and your team is saved.

There are a few flaws, though not enough for it to lose a star in my book. Firstly, your friends (your mentor excepted) have very little characterisation. I'm fine with a blank-slate PC for the player to project themselves upon, but NPCs, if they are important, require at least a little more personality.

As for the ending:

(Spoiler - click to show)I enjoyed that the game lets you choose whether to defeat your mentor-turned-enemy or accept her Faustian offer: if a game has the antagonist tempt you, you should be able to accept their temptation. However, I would have liked it even more if the "bad" ending had been as developed as the "good" one: after all, at the point where the PC accepts the offer, it's no longer a bad ending for her. Instead, we get little more than a "you have died" message, if an emotive one.

While not a negative, I have a few words about the time limit:

(Spoiler - click to show)It builds tension effectively, but in my two playthroughs, I never got close to running out of time: I always got to the endgame with around twenty in-game minutes to spare. I suspect a practical reason for the limit was to ensure that the player couldn't loaf around beating up demons indefinitely. Whatever the reason, it kept me on my toes, which is what matters.

In short, a good example of how to use Twine to create an RPG mechanic, while not skimping on the art or emotional impact. The mentor is a well-written NPC. Strongly recommended to fans of combat-oriented games or magical girls.

Note: the link to play online appears to be faulty. If the author reads this, could you please fix it? This game deserves more exposure.

The creator acknowledges that this is her first game and not particularly polished, so instead of criticising or scoring it, I'll give some hopefully constructive pointers on future game creation.

The good:

The writing is pretty good, though there are a few clichés, and there is a lack of paragraph breaks. There are also some technical errors that could be fixed with more beta-reading (for example, "here the sound" in the first room should be "hear").

The story itself has a nice dream-logic ambience to it. Especially climbing the tree in the darkness stuck with me. While the game is essentially puzzleless, I like that (Spoiler - click to show)the ending gives you a choice, even if one of the options just lets you replay the game rather than being a true ending.

Now, for problems to fix in future games:

Events in room descriptions. For example, if you walk out of the shed and then walk back, the cat gives you the same speech. Events like this should be put in a "say:" message. Likewise, room descriptions should either be written so as to avoid too much "story" information (for example, writing that the PC is shocked when they enter a room), or else be set to change after the first viewing.

There is also a problem with items being mentioned in the room description. This is not only redundant (since items are automatically listed on their own line); it also becomes misleading when the item in question is no longer around.

Some other implementation problems:

It's possible to return to the tree from the cloud by going down, which I think shouldn't work.

The switch isn't fixed in place, meaning that you can take it. Also, "push switch" or "pull switch" does nothing, but "examine switch" causes the PC to press it.

(Spoiler - click to show)If you choose to return to the garden at the end, "examine switch" no longer works.

At the end of the day, it's clearly a beginner's exercise. The story is simple, but nicely dreamlike; the world model, despite the problems mentioned above, is solid enough to make a winnable game.

We all need to start somewhere. Keep going!

Mother is one of Porpentine's own contributions for her Twiny Jam, a Twine game jam with a 300-word limit. It's pretty much a shaggy dog story; talking too much about it would spoil the joke, but it's a clever joke. The story is (unsurprisingly) well-written and (perhaps surprisingly) sweet. (Spoiler - click to show)The titular mother isn't an ordinary parent, but it's clear that she and the PC care a lot for each other.

It's essentially a static story, but features some cosmetic choices.

Play it if you want a clever, sweet little story that features all of Porpentine's weirdness without going into horror territory.

(Confusingly, the title of this game is given as Knife and Tendril in the game proper. I will refer to it as A Gift for Mother for the sake of clarity.)

EDIT: When I first played this game, I had not heard of Texture and assumed that it was made in a Twine mod, thence the references to Twine in the review below. I apologise for any confusion caused by this.

The first thing that stands out about A Gift for Mother is the interaction interface. Instead of performing actions by clicking hotlinked words, the player is given one or more buttons, which can be clicked-and-dragged. They then need to be placed on the relevant word, which is highlighted when you move the button.

This is a trick I've never seen in a Twine game before, and it is slick and attention-catching. I have no idea how much coding went into it. However, once the novelty wore off, I felt that more could have been done with it. The effect doesn't measurably differ from the regular Twine mechanism of clicking links: there are only 1-3 options on screen at any time, and since each only works on one specific word, there's no dimension of challenge. It would have been interesting if several nouns became highlighted and the player had to choose between them. Of course, I don't know whether that would have been feasible.

When you place the button over the highlighted word, the word then shows up on the button: again, an extremely neat effect. However, in several cases the grammar of the button-word and the target-word doesn't mesh: for example, early on, you have a button saying "listen", you have to place it over "reading" (as in the noun), getting "listen reading".

As for the story itself, it is body horror from the point of view of an alien parasite, gathering data from its human host for an unseen "Mother". I realise this genre isn't everyone's bag: me, I don't mind it. There is no exaggerated focus on grossing the reader out (the story being from the parasite's POV probably has something to do with it). The writing is very good, though I caught one or two typoes. You have to make some strategic decisions about whether to proceed or quit while you're ahead, getting different endings as a result.

The visuals are black text on white, without graphical flashiness. They feel... a bit too clinical, given the content. At least they are clear and easy on the eyes.

All in all, I found it engaging and well-written, but it still left me feeling a bit dissatisfied. (Spoiler - click to show)From the intro text, I expected more of a storyline, or at least some sort of revelation about the goals of the PC and their Mother. However, the game invariably ended with the PC's death, just when I would have liked it to spin off into a wider story. I realise this is the story the author wanted to write; I can't fault her for not writing something else. But it still came off as more of a morsel than a full meal.

Still, if you're interested in a short, well-written piece of SF/horror, it may well be the morsel for you.

To start with: I am not going to review this as an Ectocomp game, because it is so well-constructed, in terms of both writing and gameplay, that there is no way I could have guessed that it was made in three hours. I am going to review it as if it were any other interactive fiction game.

Caelyn Sandel has a history of making Twine games with strong world modelling and well implemented puzzles, more like point-and-click adventures than CYOA stories. It Is Pitch Black falls into this category. The plot is simple, but engaging: you are a kid going into an abandoned hardware store for a bet, one of your friends accidentally locks you in, and you have to find a way to make the light last until help arrives. Because you're not alone.

The writing is excellent: clear, not fancy, transmitting both the setting and the PC's sensations perfectly and without melodramatic effects. The use of graphics (and lack thereof) adds to the ambience. The puzzles are solid; again, exactly what I expect from Sandel's work. It is not extremely difficult, but it took me a couple of tries to beat.

I have very little negative criticism. The world-building feels sketchy, including magic and monsters as well as a vague (but evocative) apocalypse some time before the start of the game, but as the outro text explains that the game is part of a larger setting created by the author, I presume that other works fill in the details. I could also quibble with the use of the Zorkian staple, the grue, in an otherwise serious and non-derivative story. Obviously, there is a reason for the monster being called a grue (and not, say, a gazzok): the game's main puzzle is finding light sources, the average IF player knows that grues are afraid of light, no further set-up is needed. It still brought me out of the game a little bit.

As horror games go, this isn't particularly horrific, but it is tense and atmospheric. Recommended if you want a decently challenging Twine game with a world model and puzzles.

(And no, I still don't know how Ms. Sandel makes games like this in three hours.)

HAIZARA cuts the Gordian knot of Twiny Jam's extreme word count limit, by using Twine commands to power an LCD-style game, complete with music and sound effects. The result is slick, funny, and addictive (if hard).

I have to admit, I still haven't beaten it. (Spoiler - click to show)I can't figure out how to defeat the fire demon.

The only reason I'm not giving it five stars is because some of the puzzle solutions are counter-intuitive. (Spoiler - click to show)Instead of attacking the spider, you have to JUMP up to the spider, causing it to drag you to its lair where you find an emerald. Fortunately, emeralds are wizard stuff, leading the wizard to let you into his castle. Obviously, this is part of the intentional retro silliness of the game, but it still makes progress a matter of trial-and-error rather than reasoning.

Contains some gratuitous swearing and meme usage, for those who don't like such things.

Definitely should be played by everyone, if only for the innovation factor.