Reviews by MathBrush

This is a Twine game in the Single Choice Jam.

It's based around a single gimmick, where an adult is lecturing you but (full spoilers) (Spoiler - click to show)he gets mad if you click too fast, because you're just rushing, and mad if you click to slow, because you're not paying attention.

To me it feels like a real conversation with an abusive or at least just grumpy/self-involved person, always looking for something to nitpick and always trying to leave you with the feeling that you did something wrong.

The main mechanic did leave me scrambling, and I had to do several retries, so I'm still on the fence on how I feel about it.

This game is an entrant in the Single Choice Jam, and makes that Single Choice one of the most famous ethical dilemmas: the trolley problem.

Taking this basic premise, it pushes both choices to their logical (or rather illogical) conclusions, imagining all sorts of after effects.

The writing is amusing, but it goes by quick; it only lasts a few seconds while sounds play before moving on, with no option to pause or adjust speed, which I found detrimental.

Short and pretty funny.

This is an interesting game in the Single Choice jam.

You play as a desperately hungry person at an exclusive restaurant where you just can't wait for each course, but, unfortunately, the courses are tiny and they do not sate your anger.

The text here is rich and, unlike the meals, benefits from slow reading/savoring.

I did feel like the game was initially setting up something slightly longer (I looked forward to a description of the main courses), but it still made sense as is. I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars, but I see from the description that 2/3 of the original game was lost and this is a smaller part, so I'll gives 3 stars for the game that is (here on IFDB) and 4 for the game that might have been (in my heart).

This is a French game entered in the Single Choice jam. It has some nice presentation and look overall, with multiple play modes and a long explanation.

However, there's not much there. You pick a description from a selection of rhyming couplets, and then a dice roll gives you a 'fortune'.

It's short, replayable, etc., and plays a role more similar to, say, a Tarot deck then a traditional narrative.

This is short one-room, one action puzzle game entered in the Single Choice Jam.

I interpreted it as a short coding exercise designed to be an brief but enjoyable game without further pretense.

At that, it's completely successful. It is nice and repeatable, each action uncovering more about the world but forcing you to think laterally to solve them.

I only had to use one hint, and that was for an item that's not in the room description but could be implied. Otherwise, this was short and satisfying. I didn't feel any strong emotional connection to the game, but I don't think that was a goal.

This was part of the Single Choice Jam.

It's a well-written surreal-ish game from the perspective of...

soda pop.

Apparently, it can talk! And it can read the mind of people that are drinking it...and it know all about you and your past.

This absurd setup is used to tell a touching and sad story about family and, possibly, something larger in the world.

There is only one choice, but this game rests almost entirely on the strength of its writing, which is strong in this case.

This is a relatively brief PunyInform game inspired by the start of the TV series Otherworld, and 8-episode miniseries that takes a family to another world.

Only the intro and a few puzzles are implemented. Most of it is implemented fairly well; I saw few typos. The game is a bit sparse; I imagine that having watched the series allows you to mentally fill in a lot of the missing details.

I had some implementation issues, as shown in the two following segments:

(Spoiler - click to show)
> x tools
Mostly made of wood, are now useless.

> search tools
No need to concern yourself with that.

> take tools
No need to concern yourself with that.

> take all
There are no things available that match “take all”.

> x corner
It’s very messy. It might be worth searching through the mess.

> search mess
Sorry, I don’t understand what “mess” means.

> search corner
You search through the mess in the corner and find a crowbar.


(Spoiler - click to show)
> pry sarcophagus
Using the crowbar you manage to push the lid aside so you can search
the inside.

> search sarcophagus
The big sarcophagus contains a box.

> open box
You can’t open that.

> take box
Taken.

> look at box
It consists of a wooden box. It feels like there’s something inside.

>



Besides this sort of thing, this was well-scoped and not too hard to handle. It would kind of be fun to see a one-room game from this author; they have the sort of writing and puzzle style that I think would work well with a single room with a lot of little puzzles.

This Twine game is a retrospective from an alternate ending of the original Cinderella story.

In this version, the stepsister won out. By cutting off her heel to fit in the shoe, she married the prince.

But...

She knows she isn't the one he fell in love with.

This is part of the Single Choice Jam and, as such, has one big choice in the middle, which is a nice complex option letting you choose an adjective and a noun. Each one gives a different branch.

The game is not too lengthy, but has several poignant points. At times, it felt a bit repetitive, before the choice, while after the choice each branch seemed unique.

There are text effects adding to the overall appeal of the game, although one passage was all shaking, which was a little distracting.

I enjoyed playing this overall.

This game was written for the Single Choice jam. As such, it is designed more as a short story, adding interactivity only to punctuate important feelings.

As such, this game relies heavily on the writing quality and the styling of the game. And I felt that this game pulled off both of these very well; having played Fallen London (and finished the Nemesis ambition, although with a different choice than the author), it was clear that this was an author's depiction of her own character and the features/items they possess, but the descriptions were skillfully woven into the story rather than being dumped all at once.

The styling is nice as well, with gentle colors and subtle animations that I thought were just my eyes tricking me at first.

The overall story is a monologue of sorts from an interesting perspective. There are several stories, for decades, of (Spoiler - click to show)'they came back from the dead, but wrong', but this one gives the viewpoint from the other side. Maybe the reason someone else feels (Spoiler - click to show)you came back wrong is because they changed, not you. A lot of food for thought.

It's hard to know how much playing Fallen London affects the feel of playing the game; the ambitions are hard, and it's likely that < 2000 people have completed it. But I think this story has some elements that everyone can appreciate.

This is a parser game entered in the single choice jam, which requires that games only allow a single choice throughout the game.

This takes a clever spin on things by making you only capable of one real action at a time. There are many small things you can do: looking around, taking inventory, etc. But only one action really works.

It took me a bit to find what it was, which was frustrating at first.

Once I did, the game took on new dimensions, basically showing everything that could go wrong with a family party when your values and self-concept don't align with theirs.

Short and constrained, but impactful.