Reviews by Kinetic Mouse Car
Simulation
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who i am., September 5, 2025*(Reader note: If you don’t feel inspired to read this entire review- and I don’t blame you- please check out the Visual design section to see one of the main reasons to check out this game.)
This game made me feel so slick. For an hour or so I felt like a quantum computing genius. Well, at least you play as one.
Also, I remember this game being released in Spanish in 2022, and I was always curious about it even if I couldn’t play it. So, I was thrilled to see it in this year's competition!
Gameplay
This review- like many of my reviews- is longer than I anticipated, so I’m going to break the gameplay part into sections.
Overview
You play as L. Garcia, a researcher who works for the Quantum Model and Simulation Laboratory, a department of the European Centre for Computational Research (ECCR) that specializes in quantum computing. The gameplay is also narrated in first-person.
For context, advances in quantum computing have opened the door to modeling a person's consciousness and developing highly realistic simulations of real-world environments. My understanding is that a personality “snapshot,” or image, can be paired with a model of how people interact, which is then added to a simulated world.
The player’s task is to create a personality image through brain scans and then train a social model before compiling everything into a simulation. Gameplay consists of navigating a menu of locations on a computer to create the files needed for the simulation. For instance, “bin/” contains links that lead to emails, a saved web page, and other content.
Once the player has everything, they start the simulation and prepare for the end game. The result? Life- or at least existence- after death for the protagonist. Hopefully.
Thoughts on gameplay
I realized that the game’s difficulty does not stem from implementation challenges or flawed design. Rather the difficulty came from my unfamiliarity with the game’s concepts. During my first try, I had a vague sense of what I was doing. Surprisingly, the ambiguity did not frustrate me because I was having fun running scans to see what would happen, reading emails, and simply exploring the game's content.
And I actually did get quite far on my own. The main obstacle was needing help with (Spoiler - click to show) running the high intensity scan, and even then, I came close to figuring it out. So, the walkthrough was more of a useful guide to keep you on track and inform the story rather than being a resource you cling to desperately because the game has led you astray.
I will say that the walkthrough does a poor job with the (Spoiler - click to show) compilation puzzle. It made no sense. I knew that I needed to stack the numbers in the right order, but I couldn’t figure out how the arrows worked. The walkthrough does not mention the arrows. Then, it finally clicked! I figured out the arrows and the puzzle ended up being a lot of fun (and much easier than it seemed on my first try).
It was a bit intimidating at first, but I picked things up as I went along. Just a little bit of context and most of the technical jargon made sense. The README.md file made me think "Of course! It's so simple!" even if that was not the case when I first picked up the game. I think this gives whoami good replay value. You go back and revisit how the gameplay merges with the story now that you’ve played it at least once.
First time around, I tinkered with the game for about an hour before completing it with the walkthrough. Once you know what to do you can zip through the game in about ten minutes. I noticed from the walkthrough that you only need to (Spoiler - click to show) complete the high intensity scan. The low and mid intensity ones are unnecessary. Fortunate, since performing the high scan fries your brain, killing you and making the electrodes inaccessible.
Story
whoami is ultimately a game about making desperate decisions, exploring what we are willing to do when you have nothing left to lose. Are you willing to put faith in technology that is still filled with unknowns? What can it offer? Do you even want what said technology has to offer?
The beginning of the game informs us that it is the year 2030 (five years from now!). Our protagonist, L. Garcia, has staked out in a remote research lab tucked away in a place called The Vault, located somewhere in Europe. The climate has taken a turn for the worse and now countries are in the midst of nuclear warfare. Chunks of Europe have been lost to nuclear weapons and Garcia is slowly dying from radiation and injury.
They can die... or attempt to create a virtual consciousness.
There are four endings based on (Spoiler - click to show) how you acquired fruit from the man in the social training simulation (I discuss this later). Out of the four endings, arguably only one is a "bad" one. I mean, why would you choose to live in a simulation of the same violence and human nonsense that destroyed the real world?
Both the emails and saved web page provide excellent exposition without overwhelming the player with details.
Additional thoughts on the story!
The emails offer a lot of foreshadowing.
For instance, Garcia notes in an email that high intensity scans have never been done before because they would kill the subject. Having nothing left to lose, they do exactly that and die. What's wild, though, is after you complete the scan and you check the date in the “/bin” section, we find ourselves in the year 2130.
2130
A hundred years have passed. Even if Mia (Garcia’s colleague) made it to the shelters, she and other survivors are long gone. Fortunately, the facility is powered by its own nuclear power plant, and no doubt The Vault is called The Vault for a good reason. The facility's computer systems that Garcia lives in will last for at least a few centuries. The final step for Garcia's new life is to activate the simulation.
Now that I think about it, there is something eerie about having developed a super advanced technology- quantum computing- only for the world to fall apart from human conflict. It’s not clear if humanity has been wiped out or if everyone has been knocked back into the stone age, but there is something chilling about picturing an Earth in ruins while an advanced, self-sufficient facility is tucked away in the Swiss Alps, quietly idling away. No one gets to marvel at what Garcia managed to pull off.
Oh, and when the protagonist sees their own dead body on the facility’s cameras. The facility used mind-machine interfaces that allowed personnel to access the lab’s systems, explaining how the protagonist could access the camera feeds via the electrodes on their head as they were dying. That was also chilling.
Characters
L. Garcia
We never learn the protagonist’s full name. Even the web page only lists them as L. Garcia, and emails show that people would refer to them as “L.” I’ve already shared most of what I know about them. It seems that they are meant to be a PC that the player can step into without being distracted by a complex backstory.
I do have one question. I don’t think the game explains why (Spoiler - click to show)Garcia went back to the lab rather than take shelter with everyone else. Was it because they wanted to take a chance with uploading themselves, or was it something else?
Despite limited information, I still found them to be a compelling character.
Mia Gerdes
The arc with Mia added dimension.
Mia is (or was) the protagonist’s colleague and potential love interest. We know little about her other than the fact that her full name is Mia Gerdes, that she was headed to a shelter following a nuclear attack, and that Garcia attempted to send her an email admitting their feelings towards her. An email that failed to be sent, making this character dynamic bittersweet.
(Spoiler - click to show)In an email with Mia, we learn that it's possible to create an "image of your personality” consisting of your memories and emotions. But is this the same as capturing a human experience? Neither character knows for sure.
I liked that you could import her data into your simulation, even if we never get the chance to interact with her directly.
We know that Mia’s mind and body- if she was still alive at the time- existed while the protagonist uploaded themselves. The personality image we can use is a “digital clone” of Mia, but not of a Mia who sat with electrodes on her head and underwent the high intensity scan like the one Garcia completes in the game.
So, is the Mia in the final simulation still Mia? If so, is her digitized being of a lower caliber than the protagonist who underwent the high intensity scan? It gives one a lot to think about.
I see her sitting on a rock. She is gazing at the sky, seemingly absorbed in her thoughts. I fill two tin cups with campfire coffee and walk over to give her one.
Given all that has happened, it’s not a bad conclusion.
Visual design
This is one of the coolest uses of Twine I have ever seen. It's visually diverse and uses various design elements to illustrate the game's narrative.
The main gameplay uses a basic black screen with primarily white text and blue links. Animated text is often used to give the illusion of a computer “processing.” For some reason, the upper right corner of the screen has a faint yellow/white glow (although, I'm not sure what that's supposed to convey). But things get cooler.
The “dev/” section allows you to “access” the facility’s cameras. This is illustrated with a white text box containing the protagonist’s thoughts set against an image of static. Then there is also a “web page” that seriously looks like a web page. It provides an overview of the Quantum Model and Research Laboratory.
All this pales in comparison to when you train a social model. Surely, it’s going to be another black screen, right? Or maybe some boxes with an interesting background?
Wrong.
(Spoiler - click to show)QSIM Trainer
A social training utility for QSIM by I. Schellenberg
Release 3 / Serial number 300826 / QSIM 0.5 build 8L63 (VR Toolkit v12.01 lib 2/16N)
This special simulation scenario is designed to calibrate the parameters of the QSIM social system depending on the user's actions.
[Type HELP for more information]
Beach
I'm on a beach. The sky is clear and the sunlight draws out sparkles from the sea. A path of white sand runs through the palm trees.
That's right. We get to experience a parser simulation. Mind blown.
I was floored. (Spoiler - click to show)The screen turns white with black text, and you actually type commands. It was the last thing I was expecting. It’s that feeling of Woah. That was my reaction. You go from a Twine game to this. Somehow. I don’t know what kind of Twine wizardry the author used but it is one of the most novel and unique uses of the Twine format I have encountered.
(Spoiler - click to show)Now the parser does not have a lot of depth- and that’s the point. It does not need a lot of depth to serve its purpose: to model a social interaction to be used in your final simulation. I especially liked how the simulation acknowledges its own sparse implementation.
x jellyfish
The sea creatures are background graphics. They aren't programmed for interactivity.
The simulation also notes that the palm trees are perfectly identical and that the sun casts no shadow. This painted such vivid imagery in my head.
Anyway, you need to acquire some fruit from a man sitting by the palm trees. There are four ways of doing this, each of which leads to its own ending. This interaction shapes the social interactions that occur in the final simulation that you create. Also, if you go back and revisit the emails, you realize that the simulation is the one from Schellenberg’s email. That was a neat connection.
Conclusion
I had a lot of fun with whoami. As I’ve already said, it offers a novel use of Twine and demonstrates its potential in visual storytelling. The game gives players a compelling glimpse into a future where human innovation is paired with human destruction. I would definitely be interested in knowing more about the story and its characters.
At one point, Garcia gives us the following reflection:
This machine is my prison and perhaps my salvation.
I think that is meant to be left up to the player. Garcia seems to take the stance that it is salvation, but even they reserve space for doubt. Perhaps we will have to do the same within our lifetimes as quantum computing and other technologies loom on the horizon.
Until then, whoami provides a thrilling sci-fi experience if you are willing to brave the gameplay’s mechanics.
(edit: formatting cleanup/grammar.)
The story behind this game is that you are board of your cushy job. You work as a commodities trader at a bank. It pays well but the most action that you get is managing paperwork and spreadsheets in a cubicle. Now, you are inspired to seek out the adventure aspect of trading by renting a truck and hitting the road. Along the way you hope to experience Canadian geography.
Gameplay
You begin in Toronto Ontario with a million dollars and your truck. The game ends after 30 days unless you reach an earlier ending. In fact, 30 days lasts awhile in this game. At each main stop the player can sell or buy goods, rest at a hotel, refuel, and sightsee. Between destinations are smaller stops where the only options are to rest and refuel. The strategy comes in the form of managing these resources while you travel.
The gameplay is built consistently and is bug free (as far as I could tell). But it is also repetitive and bland and would have benefited from some variation. There are no surprise events or sub-storylines to build upon the game's portrayal of a cross-county journey. You just do the same action of shuffling from one location to another. The closest to a storyline is (Spoiler - click to show) if you pursue is the Iqaluit ending. In fact, you can skip trading all together because you have more than enough money to pay for gas and hotels. The Iqaluit ending is the most interesting one to pursue but also involves the most backtracking since it is tied to specific locations rather than the money you accumulate. You visit Fredericton and High Level to acquire a wooden nickel and Spider-Man comic book before traveling to Inuvik. With these items you can then drive to the Arctic Circle and end up in Iqaluit, ending the game.
The author provides a helpful map and "teacher's guide" walkthrough that I strongly recommend using. The walkthrough includes a chart of buyable and sellable items at each destination. You will find it helpful in deciding where to visit rather than hoping that the next stop will allow you to unload those excess engine pallets that you have been hauling around for the past ten days. The supplemental map drastically makes the game easy to play. Without it the player is stuck visualizing the location in their head. I would end up travelling in a circle without branching into the other areas. The map allows you to gauge your location and where you want to go. While it would have been cool if the game came with map graphics built into the gameplay the supplemental map is easy to read and adds a hint of realism.
Design
Desmos Activity Builder.... Never heard of that one before. I just had to play it. I love seeing how people can make interactive fiction in unexpected ways. Of course, no matter what format you choose the game should strive for quality. Let’s Explore Geography may be light on substance, but it does feel like a completed piece. The draw is its unique development system. Though the content is unremarkable playing a game made by “Desmos Activity Builder” software is its own memorable experience.
I played the post-comp version that opens when you click the “Play Me” button on the IFDB page. The competition version is nearly identical except for the class registration steps. It involves using a class code to access the game on the Desmos website. You do not actually have to sign up for anything, but the game’s instruction sheet gives you gives the impression that it is more than just an interactive fiction game. When I saw, “Thank you for purchasing Let's Explore Geography! Canadian Commodities Trader Simulation Exercise. We're certain your students will enjoy this engaging, interactive virtual activity,” I had to look twice since it really does look like a teacher email. I prefer the post-comp version because it is faster, but if you want to take advantage of the immersion than consider the original.
Its appearance is a simple beige (or white if you play the original) page with a multiple-choice format, just like taking a test. I am not sure about design limitations in Desmos software, but the game could have greatly benefitted with some visuals, particularly photographs of locations. This visual aid would alleviate some of the repetitiveness in the gameplay while also staying true to its focus on learning about Canadian geography.
Content
Is it educational? Sort of. Not in terms of understanding trade and economics, but it does sprinkle some Canadian history and culture into the gameplay. The education part comes from each main stop having a landmark of Canadian culture for the player to experience such as going fishing at Grand Rapids. This was a clever idea, though there is not much meat on the bones in terms of content. And if you use the handy supplemental map, it gives you a basic familiarity with geography. If anything, it is more of a sight-seeing simulator than an educational tool.
Final thoughts
The game does have strong points. There are multiple endings, and the gameplay is bug free. The author makes up for some deficiencies with genuinely helpful supplemental materials. The downside is that the gameplay is nothing remarkable. Nonetheless I still think it is worth a try. If anything, give it a go because it is something new.
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