Reviews by MathBrush

This Neo Twiny Jam game, written in 500 words or less, has you exploring your father's crypt after his death.

It seems he has built an enormous tomb, and under great secrecy. But you're determined to find out the truth.

The game has a puzzle or two, and did a good job incorporating exploration and mechanics. All of it was a bit slight; the 500 words was pulled thin, having to handle story, puzzles, etc. but all the pieces that are hear are either already good or promising.

This game features in a more self-reflective way than a traditional narrative. It was written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, and all of those words (save just a couple) are displayed on the page at once.

The self reflection is in choosing which words to keep. There are a dozen or so 'cards' with nice images, good backgrounds and fonts, etc. and they describe magical abilities and items like lucid dreaming or door portals.

It's a fun choice and written well, but there's no hidden depths. In a way it's the opposite of the author's other entry EVISCERATETHISGIRL.com, which is completely linear and nothing but hidden depths. Together they make an interesting study in contrasts.

This Twine game, written in 500 words or less for the Neo Twiny Jam, is about Sisyphus.

I've seen a lot of revisionist takes on Sisyphus recently, but this one is a straight-up thoughtful interpretation of the original myth as-is.

The short 500 words get reused a ton as you go through many very similar loops. There is a gradual increase in knowledge, the loops changing.

I found that very effective. But the frequent use of yellow-on-white was a bit hard to read, and it got repetitive (which I know is the point, but an accurate representation of a frustrating thing is still frustrating).

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

It uses a UI similar to a google doc, and the best part of it to me was the way that it looked and the detail in the highlights and such.

The second best part was the overall writing, which painted a fun picture of having a mysterious officemate who you contact every day but don't know in person.

The worst part was not having enough of it; the premise was great, but it kind of just stopped, presumably when the author hit the word limit.

This short game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, has you play as a cute rat and to live out your days. You can eat, drink, play, etc.

There's not a ton of variation, so I was inclined to give it 3 stars, but it's sweet, especially the tribute in the credits, and in a way the way it just keeps going on (Spoiler - click to show)could be thought of as a way for Puck to always live on.

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

It takes the limited word concept of the competition and works it into the game. You have died, but your soul only has 400 words left to say before they perish.

Unfortunately, Charon is a bit of a chatterbox, and you've got to cross the river.

This game was pretty entertaining. I only found 2/3 endings, though, although I tried a lot of stuff to find the third.

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

It uses a mild amount of branching and a few other text techniques to tell the story of an Australian who immigrated from Jakarta. While the rest of the family is preoccupied with political unrest, the protagonist is interested in love.

While not long, it is well written and presents some interesting facets of life that I wasn't previously aware of, and it looks good while doing it.

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

It has some excellent tech behind it with creepy music and an SMS-style interface.

It's a branching game with storylines that diverge wildly, each ending in a different reality. I played about 3 times.

I would have played more but the beginning is agonizing slow, seemingly in pursuits of mimesis. For a game meant to be replayed, an option to read at leisure may have been better. Each individual story I read was well-written, though.

This game, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less, takes a twist on multiple meanings of the word 'correspondence'.

Rather than using the word limit to ration small paragraphs into multiple branches, it unloads it all in one linear story.

There's a nice twist halfway through, which is executed well. But a lot of the phrasing in the letter felt very vague to me. I realize that they may have helped the twist, but I'm not sure. Overall had some strong moments.

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

It has two segments. The first is a slow, timed text description of being at a party and leaving. It focuses on visceral details rather than overall storyline.

The second is a series of elevator stops, each presenting the reader with an image (which sometimes requires you to zoom out; I think enabling scrollbars on itch would fix that). You can choose to enter that level, or not.

I replayed twice, but no more, as the timed text was really very slow and all had to be repeated each time. But the atmosphere was effective and moody, which was nice.