Reviews by MathBrush

less than 15 minutes

View this member's profile

Show ratings only | both reviews and ratings
View this member's reviews by tag: 15-30 minutes 2-10 hours about 1 hour about 2 hours IF Comp 2015 Infocom less than 15 minutes more than 10 hours Spring Thing 2016
...or see all reviews by this member
Previous | 151–160 of 665 | Next | Show All


Eliza's Unbearable Awkward Reunion!, by Lance Cirone
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A truly awkward moment, August 7, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.

I saw this game from two points of view.

In the first, it's a truly awkward situation. You're running into your ex girlfriend with your now boyfriend. You're nervous it'll be awkward but...(Spoiler - click to show)she barely remembers you dating? That's super awkward. And pretty funny.

From the other point of view, it's kind of a mystery. Everyone has very specific and unusual names. Is it a reference to a show? An in-joke? Some OCs?

Either way, the styling is nice, some good choices for color and font to add to the awkward feeling.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | View comments (2) - Add comment 

eurydicesloveletter, by tamburp
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting twist on a well-worn story, August 6, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.

There are a lot of Orpheus and Eurydice adaptations out there, from the original stories to the first recorded opera to the platformer Don't Look Back, and I generally like them all; it's a good story.

This game manages to do something I haven't really seen with it before. It merges it with the author's personal history, and it manages to (Spoiler - click to show)gives an ending where Eurydice is reborn, and does so in a way that isn't cheap and unearned but also has its own mixture of emotions. Well done.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

Conduit of the Crypt, by Grim Baccaris
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Pleasant little dungeon crawl, August 6, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game has some fabulous looking images and nice sounds, accompanying its text size of 500 words for the Neo Twiny Jam.

Storywise, there are several branches here. You are trapped in a dungeon, although your true nature may not be apparent at first.

Freedom is possible for you...possibly. But sacrifices must be made.

This was well-written, and enjoyable to play.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

Résumé, by Requiem
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Work on your resume over and over, August 5, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.

It's a Texture game, which I haven't seen a lot of recently. This system has you drag verbs onto nouns (or, here, resume sections), both causing changes when you actually drop it and tooltips when you hover.

The humor (or pathos, depending on how you view it) comes from the self-criticism or uncertainty or Sisyphean task of dealing with all of this.

I found only one ending, but I found it multiple times.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

vanitas, by sweetfish
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A cute story about different social media, August 5, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.

It is as far as I can see completely linear, but uses interactivity as you can click to make each line appear.

The gimmick here is that it's a single story but changes every few lines into the format of a different social media site like Twitter or Reddit, showing how some things stay the same the more they change.

Pretty neat. One crude joke that doesn't add much to the story, but overall some tight writing.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

goodnight, by Rylie Eric
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A night of troubled thoughts, August 5, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.

It uses all of its words in one path, a torrent of thoughts that pile on. The narrator lies in bed with thought after anxious thought crowding the mind. Thoughts of death, of unimportance, come endlessly.

There is some comfort in the end, at the hand of a friend. Overall, the feeling is of a storm followed by sunlight, observing the wreckage.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

So You Have a Knife at Your Throat, by Natasha Luna
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A brief but thorough exploration of two assassins colliding, August 5, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.

It features 2 assassins who have met at knife point. Will you fight, or romance?

It manages to pull a few surprises while playing with well-trodden tropes. The writing is to-the-point and effective. I enjoyed playing it right after I finished re-watching Hawkeye, which includes a similar assassin-on-assassin fight.

Short, but worth it.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

The ecology of the waterways of Mars, by Liza Daly
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Fascinating and beautiful exploration of a historical work, August 5, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.

This one was fun to read up on. I was just talking to my son a few days ago about 'automatic writing', where mediums would just let the pencil move and see what writing the spirits produced.

This game is about one such work, a long epic by Sara Weiss detailing the history, biology, and language of the people of Mars. It is accompanied by beautiful illustrations from the original text.

While the game itself provides fascinating insights, reading up on the accompanying material and just searching the original book in general was very fun.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

Cat vs Villain, by Raccoon Raconteur
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Implacable villain vs unstoppable cat, August 5, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game was written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam.

It's pretty funny. A cat has appeared in your evil lair but you, a supervillain, are completely unable to do anything to stop it or damage it.

There is a lot of flexibility, and paths diverge but merge again, which I prefer to pure branching or no branching. Pretty fun!

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

in igni, by Lapin Lunaire Games
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Pretty words but complex; a difficult life at court, August 5, 2023
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This is a game that is styled in loving detail, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.

It describes in elliptic and complex language a person who has arrived at court and must carefully navigate the political systems and other intricacies.

The text is simultaneously rich and difficult to understand. For instance, here are two sentences (not set in stone; both can be changed with cycling options):

(Spoiler - click to show)Overwhelming in its capacity for promises as binding as fingers through water. Bloodless as the art she would learn soon enough to become to survive the court’s pleasure.

These sentences are both descriptive and grammatically correct, but due to their nested phrases and clauses it becomes difficult to figure out the meaning.

Overall, it presents an interesting setting.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 


Previous | 151–160 of 665 | Next | Show All