Reviews by manonamora

WAKE UP is a horror Twine piece inspired by the creepypasta of the same name, in which following a traumatic event you fell into a catatonic dream state, unable to wake up, unable to remember what happened to you, until you find a note telling you to wake up. Like the original text, the game does a great job at adding unease to the text, with the protagonist not thinking much of the note at first, to feigning concern. Nice.

Please Don’t Reap my Soul, Mr. Grim Reaper is a short Twine game where you attempt to trick the Grim Reaper into putting your soul back into your body after a nasty fall. You have a couple of options, all of them pretty silly and funny, leading you to the end. If there was a message to this game, it would be: be careful of what you wish for.
Anyways, it was a fun short time.

the sword of justice plays a sick bassline is a tiny kinetic piece made in Twine mixing the superhero genre and your regular teen slice-of-life. You are a teenage superhero on a job, when you realise you’re going to be late for a gig! What’s a teen to do?!
The tone is pretty zany, and really what you’d expect from a teenager story. Different priorities, hard rolling of the eyes, jabs at everyone. It’s stilly, but fun.

After the Janazah is a beautiful short interactive piece, where you follow the protagonist going to the funeral of their baba, and converses with another woman, dressed in a bright red, as the body is put to rest (I am not sure what relationship they have, but they seem to be related in some fashion). They exchanges words about the deceased and memories of them (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and their families interferences. The simple and short writing is effective, but it is enhanced by the melancholic background and use of pixel art. Very touching.

Conductor’s Gambit is a short game of luck created in Twine, where you play as a prisoner of the threatening conductor. Though he intents on murdering you, he gives you one way out: play his little card game. If you win, he’ll set you free. If not…

The game is one of chance only: you draw a card, and if it is higher than the conductor’s you win a point, if it’s lower, you lose one. Reach 6 points (or go down to 0) and the game ends. It’s a bit like a Russian Roulette, if you didn’t die from the bullet right away. Since you are at the mercy of Lady Luck, there isn’t much for you to do. But the game does a pretty good job at keeping tension. And the winning end made me chuckle.

To Study a Butterfly is a surreal short interactive piece involving time distortions, where you experience this phenomenon at three different period in your life. Without getting too spoilery, it was interesting how everything related to each other, going almost cyclical. It reminded me of those time-traveller movies, where they go back in time, both by mistake and not really. Neat formatting of the text too!

Space Wizards Rendezvous 1.5: Music Lesson is a short magical moment made in Ink between Daffodil and Castillo, doing some little space magic, on a chill evening night. Either focusing on discarded seeds or the magically-infused instrument, Daffodil tests out some silly spells, leading to one of four endings. It’s silly, it’s fun, and quite lovely! More silly space magic please!

my third eye opened today is a short kinetic visual novel, where the narrator experiences a spiritual connection with their self during a dream. Through “opening their third eye”, they swift through their feelings, their struggles, in hopes for peace and acceptance. Their Self is the same but also different: happy and sure of themselves, with their hair unbounded and free. Along with lineart illustration and soft background music, the piece brings a very soothing experience.

A changing greenhouse is a relaxing mini-experience made in a custom format in Twine. Enjoying a stroll through a greenhouse, you can notice its ever-changing aspects, or simply reflect on memories or feeling, spend some time caring for its plants or have a lay down looking out the window. With a soft and calming background music and delightful cute illustration, this little game brings a cozy atmosphere. Extremely cute!

i really want that is a kinetic short poem about desires, especially the ones pushed aside for later. The text takes on both an absurd and philosophical approach to the question, as it wonders what happens to unfulfilled dreams. It made me wonder if going through the question was actually worth the effort, as your cursor runs after an exclamation mark (like a quest point), who is always running away every time you approach. Rather than running after the unreachable…