Reviews by manonamora

Method in My Madness is a short experimental Twine piece about a borderline-mad person’s obsession over a man. Through stylized text, unfinished sentences, and hidden choices, you get a cool visual sense of the broken-like thoughts bouncing in one’s mind. There are two endings, leading to blank screens.

It seems more like a proof of concept/prototype than a fully realised piece. I think it would need just a bit more fleshing out.

The Ocean View from the Keiyo Line is a micro slice-of-life Decker piece. Sitting in a train, you spot the calm ocean afar, and wonder whether you should go and take a plunge or continue on your journey. It is pretty sweet and hopeful, with only a hint of maybe bitterness or insecurity with one of the path, though both end pretty happily in their own way. It was touching and dreamy.

A Clean Getaway is a micro Ink game about strategy and chance. You are an outlaw in a Western setting, trying to escape the law after your last botched bust. You have a few days worth of supplies and the authority at your heels. How long will you manage to stay out?
I still haven’t managed to reach a fortnight, getting caught pretty early on often, even while trying to lay low as much as possible. While it is possible to bribe the authority to get out of their grasp, I have yet to manage a clean getaway…
Pretty fun and addictive!

Out Of My Mind is a kinetic-like micro Twine about letting go and trusting the ones you love. Your sister has a crush on your trans best-friend, and you fear what could happen if it doesn’t work out between them (she’s your sister and he has a tendency of ghosting after breakups) or what would happen if they do (losing them to each other).
It was at time a bit difficult to realise who was talking when, but it was a cute short entry. The game may force you a certain path, but it does make sense with the personality given to the narrator.

What’s the worst that could happen when missing your alarm? Here, being locked inside the hotel, after the owner has shut it down for the season. Without a phone to call for help, you are left to your devices to find a way out.
The puzzle is pretty simple (click on the correct links to progress), and quite reminiscent of parsers/text adventures (I would see this one as a pretty cute beginner entry imo).
Nice job!

This is what this entry feels like, a intro or teaser to a larger series about Dimensions Guardian, some sort of spy/agent team working to restore reality to its natural state, fighting the monster of the week! “In this week’s episode, The Typewriter!”

As expected from Sophia, themes of religion, celestial bodies, and trauma, will usually have an appearance in her writing. Again with this entry, from the allusion of a “guardian angel” looking over you, or the triple digits as some form of communication between heavenly bodies and humans (notice how 666 is missing…).
This guardian, however, has not the best intention at heart, as the descriptions (told from their perspective) of their actions seem to traumatise you, has they have done your father before, as they will do your daughter in the future. This fixation is hidden behind their love for you, as they had for your father, as they will your daughter…
Or… you could read something completely different…

The final note absolutely KILLED me.

While this is not the first entry of this jam to have an escape your nightmare concept, this one add an extra mechanic with the “Will to Live”. Depending on your actions, you may lose part of said will… and be consumed by the darkness. This was a neat little addition, giving more gravitas to the concept.
There is another layer to this nightmare, a reason for its existence in the first place. Thought you only discover it when you get closer to dispelling the nightmare…
Overall pretty neat and anxiety inducing game.

I liked the added illustrations too! And this was made in the Snowman format!

Or so Sartre says, in “No Exit”, the piece this entry is based on. In the play, three people are brought together to torture each other, including Inez, a woman who seduced her cousin’s wife and met her demise when the latter, filled with guilt, left the stove one while they slept (all this is referenced in the blurb/game).
Seemingly told from Inez’s perspective, this entry focuses on the burning love for a kept woman ended up burning her to the core. The entry sort of felt it was doing a one sided conversation with one of the other characters stuck with her…
A very interesting of a similarly poignant source!

This short quiz calling itself a time waster reminds us of two important things: taking breaks is important, especially if you’ve done a lot with your days, AND you often will find you’ve done more than you think. Either way, it is important to be kind to and take care of yourself.
Very sweet!~