Reviews by MathBrush

This Neo Twiny Jam game explicitly describes alcohol as a monster that haunts you, your father and his father before him.

The jam conditions require this to fit into 500 words or less, and it does this in part by having choices that more reflect your personal feeling rather than branching the story, and that works well.

The portrayal of alcohol as a monster is a good concept but I feel like this doesn't really add anything to that idea that hasn't been done before. The monster exists, whispers darkly to you, is resisted by love. I think old ideas can work very well without needing to switch them up, but it works best if there is a strong underlying story to graft on to rather than existing alone.

This is a Neo Twiny Jam game, written in 500 words or less.

In it, you take the role of one of two primordial powers, meeting endlessly to discuss your opposing roles. It's also a love story.

In a cycle that never ends, what is the point? Do you succumb to despair, or try to change?

I was a bit lost in the first couple of paragraphs, and re-read them 3 times to try to focus, but after that it all clicked and was enjoyable to read.

This game was written as part of the Neo Twiny Jam, written in 500 words or less.

It's a poem, and it's well-crafted, both in its words and meaning, but also in its design; I enjoyed one segment where each line was just a bit longer than those before, forming a pyramid.

It's about a couple drifting apart. One person, the narrator, is always trying, always eager to please, while the other always seems to drift away, no matter how much the narrator tries.

I found this game especially meaningful as something similar to the narrator happened to me during my divorce. I had mentioned (Spoiler - click to show)that we would be having our 10 year anniversary soon and my ex realized that she had spent almost (Spoiler - click to show)a decade of life together, and it was frightening. We ended up being divorced at (Spoiler - click to show)8 and a half.

This is a pretty solid representation of the myth of Icarus. You play as the fated child, ready for your first flight, but with a mocking crow observing you.

This game is written for the Neo Twiny Jam, with <500 words, so there's not a ton of story, but the author manages to make it feel both long and meaningful by having series of pages with many links of which you can only click one. There's no going back, contributing to the feel of falling.

The contrast between the main text and the 'inevitable' text felt a bit off to me in a way that's hard to express. But I liked the overall effect of this and enjoyed the mythology references.

This game is an essay in an expendable format, written for the Neo Twiny Jam in 500 words or less.

It's an edgy tale, with theme of black, red and white and displayed over a background of what looks like abstract art of muscle cells.

It is one static paragraph with numerous links that expand into their own page, giving it the feel of a children's book with little openable paper windows giving more details. I like this technique and would enjoy seeing i more for short works.

It's about self-harm, and a very different take than Gavin Inglis's game Hana Feels, which was an educational game designed to inspire sympathy. This game explicitly rejects sympathy; to the author, self-harm varies between amusing and matter of fact. It's not meant to be something sad.

The game has a very focused narrative and tone. The narrator wants zero credit or sympathy for both self-harming and stopping self-harming, so in accord with their wish, I will afford them none, but for other readers in similar situations, I do have sympathy for you.

This game was entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, written with 500 words or less.

This is just a big text dump; two choices, both leading to a solid wall-of-text paragraph.

The story is disjointed, about a dream about a skinned dilophasaurus. This is the second game by the author I read, and I far prefer the other one. This one just doesn't have enough substance to support itself.

This game manages to fit a lot into its 500 words, written for the Neo Twiny Jam.

You play as a goldfish in your little world, a 29 gallon tank. There isn't much to do, but even your small routines take up the whole day, and soon you're sleeping, ready for more.

I found some nice little surprises, the tone varying from amiable to disturbing to contemplative. Does our goldfish dream of a higher realm, or is it merely troubled by thoughts of other possibilities?

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

In it, you play as a young captain, alienated from your father and crash landing on a planet. Your sarcastic droid gives you comfort in these last times.

This has some great setup but kind of felt unsatisfying at the two ends, for me. The narrative arc felt like it hadn't reached the climax and so hit the ending running. Maybe a paragraph or two of further narration could help, but that would run into the word limit. Overall these characters could work well in other works.

This is a short game in Twine written in less than 500 words. In it, you play as an alien who has, with other aliens, infiltrated earth, trying to impersonate humans but often failing.

In the author's notes, this story is framed as an analogy to autism, specifically the difficulty in determining what is normal for human behavior.

This is a good idea and has some authenticity in it that lends it strength, but it's a little messy the way it's been put together. The UI is garish, with clashing colors and random icons that don't do much but make a field of blinking eyes, making things confusing to navigate. It may be intentional to express the confusion of autism, but an accurate simulator of a frustrating experience is, itself frustrating. The story seems to be three or four different stories, as it's hard to tell if this is an omniscient narrator infodumping, a person thinking alone, or a party; it hops back and forth disconcertingly.

Some solid ideas here, but their current presentation is confusing for me.

This game is sadly somewhat realistic. It's a Neo Twiny Jam game written in 500 words or less.


The game is simple in concept. Audio indicates that a door is opening, then a conversation ensues.

This is essentially someone drunk who is tearing down their partner, trying to ruin everything they had together in a tirade.

It's hurtful, but brief. It could fit in to many relationships, not really bearing either a unique individuality or a universal applicability.