Reviews by MathBrush

This game was part of the single choice jam.

It's generally polished; I found no bugs or typos.

The writing is descriptive. It was a primarily linear narrative, due to the nature of the jam, but it works well as such, with a strong story about a half-Asian kid and their mother's attempts to bridge a generational gap.

It had good emotional impact; I know it's based on real life, but even depictions of real life can become one-dimensional. Both characters seemed complex and thoughtful here.

While the interactivity is severely limited, the game made good use of 'blocked out' options to highlight futility.

This game was the only game entered in Spring Thing 2020's Late Harvest, designed to accomodate designers who were unable to complete their games in time for Spring Thing due to Covid.

It's a parser game with a long sequence of almost-identical rooms, each with different puzzles in them. The puzzles can repeat, and I believe in the long run that all of the rooms are procedurally generated in some way with common elements in them.

There is a bit of a twist, which I saw in the Club Floyd transcript and which was hinted. Explicitly, (Spoiler - click to show)You can TOUCH WALLS to go through them and end up in a story segment that you have little control over.

Overall, the plot was interesting, as were the puzzles, but both were a bit threadbare. Not bad at all for a first game, though.

This game has you play the friend of the eponymous Beth, whose date has arrived. It’s your job to size this guy up. The game has music and graphics, starting with a black and white picture of the date that is slowly colored in, which was a really neat mechanic.

I was emotionally invested in the conversation. The date guy seemed kind of lame at first but I grew to respect him more. The ending I got when I chose to let him up surprised me quite a bit, but I ended up accepting it in the end.

There is some profanity in the game. Overall I was impressed by the presentation and the writing.

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 is a long choice-based game where you build a character who is a hobbit and live through a year or so of local hobbit life.

It seems built on the same general model as Choicescript games, where your choices influence your stats and relationships with delayed effects in later chapters.

However, the effects of your choices are pretty opaque. Unlike Choicescript games, there is no stats page that I could find, and many of the options you can pick from are very similar. On top of that, several chapters are built up as a 'win/loss' scenario where you either make the right choices and get a good result or just fail. When I played every commercial Choicescript game a few years ago, those were all common things that made games more frustrating.

On the other hand, the characters and setting here are fun. A lot is taken directly from Lord of the Rings, but the individual characters are all new. There is also a lot of branching, especially with romances. I did two playthroughs, one pursuing Patty the 'witch' and one pursuing Lily the mayor's daughter. The last 3 of the 7 chapters in these playthroughs were very different from each other.

Everything is pretty low-stakes. Someone steals a sword and runs away with it, but not you. The most stress you have to deal with is social judgment and a pie contest.

So, I'd recommend this to fans of 'coffee shop AU' or Stardew Valley. I liked it enough to play it twice, and the price I paid (I think $3.99?) was definitely appropriate for the size (a lot of such games are $10 to $20 now).

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.