Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

Grozny has some of the best writing in this ectocomp so far, with 'dripping with the waters of SHEOL' standing as a good description of the text itself.

This is an intrinsically transgender story; every detail of the game is about being transgender, living with a transgender partner, and reassuring each other about being transgender.

It's also a strong tale about disability, both mental and physical. Your character has left their alt-history 1800's house in shambles, with clothes and dishes all over, most likely due to depression. You have to take numerous pills, you have intrusive thoughts, your joints ache (I somehow imagine a combination of arthritis and fibromyalgia), and you are walking a narrow tightrope with regards to your faith.

The entire game (which does have a ghost story, but only in service to the overall themes) feels like a house of cards which has been delicately set up but is constantly on the verge of collapse.

This is a shortish Ectocomp game with nice styling and some interesting text-hover effects.

You play as a schoolgirl who makes a bizarre discovery with her friends. The game branches quite a bit, with each branch fairly short.

I'd go into more detail, but the interest of the game lies entirely in the oddness of it all.

I found one small issue; the 'cockroach' link led to a page which was just a blank line; this was my first playthrough, and I had to restart. I ended up playing through 3 times.

I actually had a rather frustrating experience with this game. In this year's IFComp, there were three games submitted that were download-only, had the text slowly spool out without an option to advance, and had white text on a light background photo. They were heavily criticized for these three things.

That's why it's surprising to see an experience IF author (with access to this information) make a download-only game with slowly-spooled out white text on a light background photo/animation. I had to increase the font size significantly to see the game. I also had to look away for something on the last screen, and the text faded away before I was sure what it said.

Despite that, I enjoyed the game. It has strong parallels to one of my favorite short stories, The Judge's House, as well as System Shock (which I've only experience filtered through Cyberqueen).

The game manages to develop a great deal of backstory without slowing down the game too much. The ending is strongly foreshadowed, but this only helps to build tension.

The non-linear presentation combined with image changes gave the game some more interactivity as it requires you to puzzle out how it all fits together.

This is the second elevator-game based Ectocomp game I've played this year. Both are effective in their own way, but while Going Down derived it's effectiveness from understatement, The Elevator Game is much more in-your-face.

Like Owlor's other games, this game is loosely based on My Little Pony (in the sense that the characters are ponies with a similar art style), but otherwise the mythology and other world building details are different.

The game is fully illustrated, with some of Owlor's best work here, particularly in a sequence when you watch the elevator game taking place through a security camera and 'pausing' the camera reveals hidden objects.

I think that, for what Owlor is going for, this is a real success. But I found the horror to be a bit too over-the-top to be really effective; I'd like more moments where things were left to my imagination.

The author is going for something very different here, something out of the norm. As they state on the Ectocomp page, this game is a short story with no choices.

It's a vaguely mysterious game, with hints of influences from Asia (parts of it reminded me of China, India, and Israel). The blending of different cultures was the most important part to me.

The formatting was very hard to read, though. Pararaphs weren't spaced out, and the text was presented in large blocks. The dialogue could do with some pruning; it had a lot of the quick back-and-forth nothings that real dialogue has, but which do little to improve narrative writing without careful implementation, which was lacking here.

I liked the ending. On a technical note which is not due to the author (I think), I couldn't scroll down, and had to zoom out to read the text.

This is a purposely obscure short Twine game. It makes extensive use of color shifts and effects.

The story centers on a young (?) couple who have been forced into hiding while people like them are hunted down.

The first part was a lot like the diary of Anne Frank, so much that I thought that would be the final twist.

But it devolves into a dissociative mess near the end, in a pleasing way. The hard thing was that I didn't really know what sort of effects my choices would have, but that's unavoidable with the chosen subject matter.

This is a game that should be enjoyed at a slow pace, even though it's not too long. The slow-burn is the point, and it's good! I also recommend sound.

A friend of yours wants to play the 'elevator game', a creepypasta-esque game where you have to go to different floors in different orders, and you are supposed to end up in an alternate universe.

The elevator is mimicked here with muzak, elevator bings, and gentle use of graphics. I liked it! But it's hard to rush through.

This game is about a relationship between you (the angel Gabriel) and Demeter, a human man.

It’s a 2-room game, and the main object is to find objects of various colors to complete a rainbow. The game cheats a little by hiding colors in meta ways, but I found the color hint reasonably fair, well implemented, and fun.

This game has you explore a reservation-based casino to try and uncover the truth behind a murder.

It implements a blackjack game, and uses graphics and a hand-made parser hybrid engine.

The primary portion of the game is investigating a few suspects by interviewing them, examining their items, and talking to those who have seen them.

However, I never felt strongly emotionally invested in the game. I did feel interested while playing, though.

This game has you exploring a fairly minimalist underground factory. Each room has one thing in it (except for a complicated office with several things), and most things are undescribed.

There are 3 or 4 puzzles, which are pretty good, but could use significantly more synonyms programmed in.

I liked it in general, but found it frustrating. The release notes were good.