Reviews by MathBrush

This game has a classic setup: you awake, disoriented, from a cryopod, alone on a starship. It’s been used dozens or hundreds of times before, but I always enjoy it.

You meet your ship and have the chance to walk around and exam things. The game isn’t too long, but I liked the writing and the two characters.

There are at least two endings. I liked one of the ones I got. I think one thing the game does well is its focus on sensations, including touch and sight. The descriptions are vivid.

All that said, the game is brief and doesn’t have a lot of time to develop emotional momentum, although it does well with what it has.

This game has you come to your partner’s door only to find that you have been cast out! The relationship has unilaterally been declared to be over.

What can you do? There really aren’t many options, due to the coldheartedness of your partner. Even talking only works once. This ends up being similar to one move games, but you get several chances to figure out what you can do.

This game is polished. I found no bugs and many custom responses, even with obscure commands like “push me” being blocked off to ensure consistent responses. It was fairly descriptive with regards to the people. Interactivity was natural, with many responses being implemented and subtle suggestions pushing you towards new actions.

Emotional impact was dampened a bit. We’re not told why everything happened. Did we cheat? Did our partner get a job in Beirut? Are we 14? I like to suspend disbelief and immerse myself in characters, but I didn’t have much to grab onto here.

The game is short, so I likely wouldn’t play it again. So I’m giving 3 stars. The workmanship is great, and the game seems to accomplish the author’s goals, but every audience member interacts with a work differently, and for me I’m more of a sucker for story and plot than character and personality, and longer or unique interactions over small bites of classic interactions.

In this short game you have to get through a party, passing 4 obstacles. You are rated on your performance by your boss and by your partner (one caring about the impression you made and one caring about the time you come back).

The obstacles are all different people. This is set in a larger world laid out in many games, so you can learn more about those characters there, but knowledge of those other games isn’t necessary.

The concept of replaying this game to get a perfect other is pretty good since it’s short with several paths per character. But there are two things about it that are frustrating: the e sing doesn’t give much feedback on what you did wrong, with just a pass or fail for each of your evaluators, and no gradations in the way they respond. Second, the two goals aren’t independent; you have to pass the first to reach the second. So it feels like there’s some underutilized potential.

This is a great game to code though; I feel like figuring this kind of thing out makes making future puzzles easier.

One of my favorite operas, if not my very favorite, is the Hungarian opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, a short two-singer psychological opera that turns the tale of Bluebeard and his wives into a story of almost pure metaphor.

So it’s always nice to see some allegorical Bluebeard content.

Alas, this wondrous tale is both a bit short and not interactive outside of actions. But hey, my favorite opera is short too.

On this you don’t feel a connection to traditional womanhood, but your parents arrange your marriage to Bluebeard anyway. But Bluebeard is certainly not what he seems.

This story has some layers to it; there was one implication I only just now realized besides the more clear ones. Overall, very interesting.

This is a short romantic story about going on a road trip with someone you love.

There’s a cast of supporting characters along with our main love interests, and a long road journey over which there are several hotel stays that cause tension due to sharing a room together.

I was really torn on how to rate this.

On one hand, the characters have their own quirks and idiosyncrasies. The story is grounded in reality and a lot of distinct events occur (like car trouble). Conversation feels realistic, and the couple fit as a pair.

On the other hand, we are told we are in love but I don’t really get to see what makes either person lovable. I think being told you’re in love is really important in these stories, but I think seeing why could improve it.

On the other other hand, maybe it was there all along and I just didn’t see it. For instance, in one part we help defuse a tense situation, and in another we offer reassurance. Being a comfort and a help is more than enough reason to fall in love.

So, I’ll give this the higher of the two scores I was debating, with 4 stars.

This shirt game has strong writing , good descriptions, and a variety of paths to take.

I generally like vampire games because they give a chance to explore the human condition from an extreme viewpoint. This game is no exception. It tells two stories simultaneously: one of a vampire looking for anonymous, quick blood, and another of an ace loner who skirts around the edges of societies and relationships without committing.

The simultaneous stories play off each other well. And I liked the fact that I could open up or keep it all close to my chest, or let my little fish go.

Overall the only nitpicks I have are minor. A few too many choices felt like “stop playing now or continue on to more interesting material”, although on replaying a lot of the “stop playing” choices actually lead to the same place as the “keep going” (specifically (Spoiler - click to show)trying to leave Lyle early on). But overall has a lot of good stuff for its brief content.

I liked this game quite a bit until I ran into some snags.

You play as an older kid/young adult who is making some food at home. You have to balance the demands of your family while still cooking. It even comes with a neat meter to show how much patience you have left.

I found it hard to strategize or figure out what’s going on. I thought there were only two endings after 5 or 6 playthrough sans still haven’t found one, but there are four in total. It’s not clear what options decrease Provence or whether that changes an ending, and it’s hard to say why one oath ends in catharsis while another in unhappiness. So I felt like there was a mismatch between my attempts at communication and the game’s response.

I did like the lively setting and the character and world details. Very descriptive and fun outside of my struggles.

My kingdom for a crumb of context!

I liked the setup of this a lot. The art, intro and the fact it was in the Dialogue jam got me in the mindset “I will enjoy this”.

And I did. This is a brief dinner conversation between two individuals, the text spooling out in a format like SMS messages in different colors, but representing a spoken conversation.

I felt like I had a lot of control over how I reacted. I could be the overly fussy partner, the silent one, the gently encouraging. Despite only one ending, my oath there had agency.

However, almost all context is absent from the piece. I have started drawing a lot recently, and I usually spend 90% of the time getting the outlines right and 10% shading. I’ve noticed that the shading tends to add a lot more than most of the rest of the work, even though it’s small.

I feel like context is like the shading here. The format of the story is perfect, everything in place is right. But who are we? What kind of situation is this? What are we? Who is “him?” I don’t think everything needs to be spooked out, but it would be nice to add little grounding touches. Are we cooking on a wood stove? Was our train late? Do I hang up a wet overcoat? Was “he” smoking again? Little details like this could add so much flavor to this.

However, it’s not completely necessary. This works in its own sense, formless and abstract, but it may be nice to state that as a goal to prepare readers for a state of mind ready to accept an abstract situation.

This game was fun. I immediately felt invested in my little rat character. I learned more about the little world I was part of, my fellow rats, my simple life.

Alas, it ended quickly, and before I could interact with this ratty world. The description given is fun to read, but this felt like the beginning of a narrative arc, rather than a complete one.

This game features a portrait of a single person, currently resting.

It’s a fairly compact game, arranged in a network of interconnected nodes rather than a linear or branching narrative. Each lingers on a distinct feature of the man in question (I believe it’s a man due to pronoun use).

The writing is evocative and clear, making it easy to imagine this person. The narrative voice seems to care about him quite a bit. And the game is thoroughly polished.

However, despite the clear vision, I didn’t connect emotionally with this guy. Maybe because a purely physical description of a man isn’t something that interests me in real life, unless it were a relative or a friend. Maybe some extra background revealed through hints could carry this even further, or a mystery that can only be pieced together in pieces.

But it doesn’t have to be expanded. What’s here accomplishes several things, like providing a vivid picture of one person. It is labeled as following the rules of the former IF art show, and would be an appropriate entry for that former comp.