Reviews by Kinetic Mouse Car

This game is a submission to Neo-Twiny Jam 2025 and explores the themes of technology and how we envision our relationship with it.

Gameplay
The driving gameplay mechanic is simple. A line of text appears: “It is 2050.” You then hover over each word until you find a link that provides more exposition about the year 2050.

2050 A.D. - the year of the Moros Program’s deployment into the cyberverse! An AI built to fit all of your needs - to love and care for you! An assistant to human-kind and to be kind to humans!

Would you like to read more?

The game then asks if you want to know more… but the Moros Program isn’t having it. That information is classified (for you, at least). When you click on the phrase “Would you like to read more?”, the game “reboots” and takes you back to the beginning, but this time there is additional text with “It is 2050.” You then find the hidden link in the new text, and the cycle starts again, expanding the game’s narrative.

REBOOT SEQUENCE…

It is 2050.

The Moros Program is watching us daily.

I thought that this was straightforward and set a good outline for the game, especially since it’s so short.

Story
We get our typical cyberpunk dystopian themes: A.I. being inserted into everyday life, an (I assume corporate) entity that watches over everything and wants to be your best friend, censorship, and a Resistance fighting against it all.

In other words, 2025 doesn’t seem like a fun time (and it’s scary to think that 2050 isn’t that far off). To summarize, the Moros Program is run by the mysterious Administration. It takes the stance that A.I. will lead to the betterment of humanity. Now that the Program has taken over the digital landscape, its impact is far-reaching. But if the Administration only has humanity’s bet interests in mind, why is it so opposed to transparency?

Despite this bleak premise, dreamer contains a ray of optimism. There is the sense that no matter how much Moros tries to keep things hidden, people will always seek to find a way around it. To pursue information even as the Administration tries to make it inaccessible. To dream of a better existence. Every time you reboot, you learn more about this possibility. The game ends with (Spoiler - click to show) a plea to join the resistance and live above the norm set by the Administration’s Moros Program. And while it does not go into too much detail, it seems to explore the distinction between wanting to take action and actually taking action.

Visual elements
There is minimal flair in this game, but what flair it does use creates a distinctive cyberpunk vibe that pairs well with the game’s themes. Its appearance consists of a black screen with white text, while hovering over links makes the text turn blue and highlights it with an electric purple colour for a splash of edginess. It’s also easy to engage with the game. The text is organized neatly on the screen and it appropriately uses fade-in/fade-out text effects to give it polish without dragging out the gameplay. A little bit of flair goes a long way.

Conclusion
I enjoyed the cyberpunk themes in dreamer and was impressed with how the game makes good use of the Twiny Jam’s word-limit rule. While I would welcome more backstory on the (Spoiler - click to show) Resistance, it definitely feels like a complete game.

This is such a neat little game! I love sci-fi Twine games, so this was perfect for me.

Echoes of Ending Worlds is a Neo-Twiny Jam submission. You work for the Bureau of Observation as an Operator tasked with screening planetary radio frequencies for signs of life. The basic act of listening and reporting, or as the game puts it: “You Listen, So We Can Learn”, is vital to the Bureau’s efforts to obtain resources, find new settlements, and squash potential threats.

Time to tune in.

Gameplay
Gameplay is brief yet atmospheric- your first playthrough will likely be about two minutes or so. After the game’s intro, which serves as a mission briefing presented by the Bureau, you are presented with your first radio frequency.

You must:

• Observe.
• Record whether there is life, intelligent or unintelligent, or none.
• Suggest if Bureau should investigate, abandon, or re-observe later.

You read through the data audio collected and then make two decisions: whether there is intelligent life present and what action the Bureau should take. The game uses two drop-down menus that allow you to input your decisions before moving on to the next radio frequency. Also note that there is actual audio you can listen to for atmosphere. I, however, played with the sound off after my initial playthrough.

The entire gameplay consists of processing (Spoiler - click to show) three radio frequencies. It then ends in a probation review to evaluate your decisions.

• Suggested new settlement location in dark sector. Nearby mission rerouted to investigate.
• Noted mission distress signal. Rescue pending, awaiting resources. ETA: two months.
• 100% accuracy in observation reports.

Above is what I consider to be my best ending.

I really wish the game was longer, although I recognize that the 2025 Neo-Twiny Jam had a 300-word limit. Given this rule, I think the game makes the most of the amount of content it has through its potency and atmosphere.

There is some replay value. Your choices for each frequency seem to influence the frequency you receive next, and said choices also determine the nature of your (Spoiler - click to show) probation review. After playing several rounds, I encountered a total of (Spoiler - click to show) five planetary frequencies. Seeing how these frequencies could influence each other had my attention and prompted experimentation.

Story
While the game is short, there is still an interesting story to unpack. Right from the beginning, the Bureau of Observation establishes a strong presence. The game strikes a nice ambience by making it clear that the Bureau takes note of everything. That while you are listening to your frequencies, an invisible party is no doubt listening in on you… to make sure to you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, of course.

Also, despite the important nature of your job as an Operator, the PC does not seem to be a high-ranking individual. If anything, they seem to be at the bottom of the bureaucratic food chain. The fact that they are (Spoiler - click to show) under routine probation meetings makes one wonder what their backstory is. Did they step on someone’s toes? Or is this life as usual for everyone in this future?

My favorite aspect of Echoes of Ending Worlds is the overarching story. At the start of the game, the Bureau says, “Every observed frequency saves a manned mission; every planet could be our new home.” My interpretation of this is that Earth isn’t doing too great and that humanity needs a new place to live- a premise I enjoy exploring in science fiction. Missions have been sent out to find a new home, but with limited success. It also (Spoiler - click to show) puts the intro’s mention of an “evac time” into context. There’s not a lot of info, but I’ve pieced together that the people of Earth will have to evacuate at some point, and those who help the Bureau’s efforts earn more priority. We see this in action if you are rewarded for certain gameplay choices. Glad to see that finding an unauthorized settlement shaves off two months’ worth of waiting…

On a final note, I would like to know more about frequency (Spoiler - click to show) Asmer 31 and its status as a Re-observe case. Also, why do you get locked into declaring it “Observe: No Life/Suggest: Abandoned” when you read the frequency’s data? Does anyone have any thoughts on this? There seems to be a deeper story going on, but all I can say for certain is that the Bureau is not pleased with your assessment.

System scans indicate Observer’s report on Asmer 31 inaccurate: life signs detected. Observer hostile to this report. Psych eval requested.

What this psych eval looks like is never revealed. Let’s hope it’s nothing bad.

Visual elements
The game’s appearance is a dark blue-grey panel set into a background of the same colour. The text consists of crisp orange and white font and is evenly placed on the screen. I liked how the text included basic interactivity where the player clicks on passages for more descriptions about what is being heard over the radio frequency. It keeps the screen from becoming cluttered and makes things more interesting.

The credits list several images, but I never saw them in the game. Unless of course it has to do with a technical problem on my end. I don’t think the lack of photos takes away from the game’s presentation since it already has a “less-is-more” aesthetic.

Conclusion
Echoes of Ending Worlds is a game with a great concept both in gameplay mechanics and story concept. The premise of turning to the void of space in search of a new future amid an ongoing planetary crisis is a powerful one. Anytime we ponder the possibility of life in the universe we are forced to evaluate our relationship with the Earth and confront our ability to leave it. These themes immediately caught my attention, and I spent many playthroughs trying to digest every detail I could find. I would love to see a longer, expanded version of the game since I didn’t want it to end, but it still stands on its own as it is now.

Haiku was submitted to the Twiny Jam (hosted by Porpentine, yay!) where the rules were simply to make short Twine game with no more than 300 words. This was partly to make the idea of submitting a game to a jam/event less daunting since it can be easy to talk oneself out of participating, you know, just in case everyone submits a longer and better game than your own creation. I'm part joking, but there is truth to it. Submitting a game to anything can be a big unknown. Narrowing down the word limit to 300 reigns in the expectations of scale while also encouraging innovative cleverness though a word limit.

The game's title borrows from a traditional Japanese poetic structure known as a haiku. These are short three lined poems with specific rules on how many syllables can be in each line. Haiku lets you compose a poem by clicking on each line of a haiku provided at the start of the game. I believe the terms a replace macro. It’s a common sight in Twine games. Each line has about five choices to choose from. You swap each line out with another until you are satisfied with your creation. Here is mine:

A pond full of carps
Tells a story to the child
Lies among the grass

The game then ends on a peaceful, reflective note.

I must say, Haiku is rather minimalist, even for the game jam. From a gameplay standpoint the haiku creation process is not particularly advanced. Clicking on a bunch of links several times is not necessarily going to be a hit with players, but offsetting this through other characteristics that engage the player transforms the gameplay experience.

In this case, I’d say that the writing would be the characteristic that keeps the game afloat, and I think it mostly succeeds with this. The first haiku line had some cool options, but the options for lines two and three were not quite as potent. It did not quite feel as satisfying as I expected but I still enjoyed it.

The author plays with some simple but appealing visuals for ambience. The background is off-white colour with green text. The bottom of the screen has simple artwork of riverbank surrounded by grass and cattails. The artwork uses basic brush strokes and is merely meant to be a vague impression.

Haiku captures the idea of less is more, which only enhances the minimal yet potency of haiku poetry. Simple and subtle things can work together to make a finished work more complex than its individual components. Now, I am giving this game three stars instead of four because its premise could have been a little more evolved with how the player interacts with the poetry. That said, it still captures a strong sense of serenity through its haiku concept and visual design that makes it enjoyable to play.

If you are shopping around for anything to do with poetry in interactive fiction, I recommend Haiku.

This is a Twiny Jam game of less than 300 words about a parent casting a critical eye over you and your possessions before you leave on an excursion. It reminds me of being in the dead of winter about to leave when your parents interject that your jacket is not warm enough or that those shoes will be painful for your feet halfway through the day (and usually they are right). This game follows a similar concept.

At the start of the game, you select either a mom or a dad to be the parent in the gameplay. When you try to leave your parent stops you and comments on the (Spoiler - click to show) practicality of your clothes, the amount of food you have, how you intend on keeping yourself safe, and whether or not you snatched something sneaky when they were not looking. For each of these prompts the player selects one of three links that influence the dialog. For example, (Spoiler - click to show) when asked about food you may say trout, mushrooms, or rabbit which each result in a different response. This is the height of the interactivity in this game. It is a short game and needs to be because it was submitted to a game jam with specific rules, but it still felt like it could have been more substantial. The game's ending is sweet and sentimental but a little abrupt.

We never get any backstory on the protagonist's journey. I am curious to know why they are inspired to (Spoiler - click to show) don a "rakish hat sporting peacock feathers" or have a "mark of Grun" to ensure their safety. The writing suggests that the protagonist will be weathering the raw elements during the trip and risk the possibility of encountering bandits. There are tiny little details that hint at a surreal world but none of it comes into play.

In conclusion, this is a short and simple Twine game that can be reasonably relatable. There is not really a specific audience in mind or a dominant message but if you are looking for something brief and positive than this game is a good choice.