Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

Rescue at Quickenheath is a delightful fantasy swashbuckling Twine puzzle-y game, where you play as the dashing highway-person Kit Valentine, who just learned that their partner-in-crime, Aubrey, was not only captured but about to get executed at sundown! And only you can save her!

The premise is silly, the puzzles are pretty straight-forward, and it's pretty linear (afiak you can't lose). But boy, did I have fun playing through the game. The vibe was so big and bright, with hints of cool adventures behind you and hopes of more in your future. A daring escape plan you need to manage on your own, which will require some wit, definitely some crimes, and discovering life-changing secrets (though the games hints enough at it that you can make the connections pretty early on). I was seriously grinning all the way through the game.

While the first half of the game is pretty exploratory and lets you do things in whatever order you want to (sort of), the (Spoiler - click to show)Fae chapter is a bit too I'm-getting-pull-around-to-move-the-story along. I get that time is limited before Audrey gets the chop, but it would have been nice if the gameplay between each section mirrored each other a bit more (and adds a bit more to the stakes).

If I had something to add, it would be a (Spoiler - click to show) proposal at the end of the game. A (Spoiler - click to show)knee on the ground, grumbling because of the pain, lots of tears and happy yes type of proposal. All pointed to it, with (Spoiler - click to show)the ring, the True Name, and all the Aubrey loves you, you dumb-dumb.

Anyways... Be gay! Do crime!

To Beseech Old Sins is a linear sci-fi Twine story, part of a larger series, where you play as Epsilon, a superpowered (if you will) golem, part of a Throuple/Trio SpecOp team. Though your behaviour goes against every directive ever, you and your team are barely reprimanded because you are the best of the best. And this is why *you* get to go on a daring mission to win the war (or at least the battle). All the odds are against you, but luck is weirdly always on your side.

Yay, I thought after reading the long introduction to get here, some action, I get to do something! Let's take over the ship and... oh... they immediately waved the white flag. Ah... ok, then. Let's just read about how great we are, I guess.

While I do not have gripes with the kinetic type (having made and played plenty), I was sorely disappointed to see that I would not have any input in the story. The blurb talks about an admiral (your boss) wanting a swift victory but nothing goes as plan, and I sort of expected we would have to get down and dirty and fight (of some sort) or be forced to escape some sort of prison. But no, you just read about how you strut around with desire in your eyes (which is fine, just not what I expected).

I think my biggest issue with the piece was how I kept playing Guess What the Link Will Do throughout the whole game. Was I going to read a snarky observation or continue with the story? I could never tell, as all the links looked the same, and the one to move forward with the story never had the same position between passages (it was only obvious when only one link was on the screen). So, every time I moved to a next passage on the first link, I kept wondering what I had missed (was it important for me to understand? would it have helped provide more context?). It really made the experience frustrating.

Note: I beta-tested this game.

PROSPER.0 is a dystopian Twine game with a very interesting gameplay mechanic. As an employee of CORPOTECH, you are tasked to verify the content of documentations, and to delete any file not including factoid (strangely resembling contemporary poetry). Do your task correctly and you are rewarded (by keeping your job), but do too many mistakes and find yourself on the CORPOTECH blacklist.

If you are lucky enough to go through more than one day of work (really, you only don't if you troll the game), and your screen may get visited by a stranger, who, unlike management, would prefer not to see all those poetic files lost forever. Though you cannot go against your overlords, lest you lose your job, the stranger proposes a different way of keeping these files alive: you reconstruct them... in your own way.

Until one day... You have to make a choice. A choice that could change everything... or nothing at all. But only you can make it.

And here it is, the interesting gameplay, word play, in a different way. As the words are one by one disappearing from the screen, you have the option to "save" them from destruction, leaving you the opportunity to use them afterward to create another poem yourself. You are even given challenges, like only be allowed to save or use a certain amount of words.

And there is no right or wrong way of making those poems, because they are made by you, a singular individual with your own set of words and endless possibilities. It is pretty poetic (eh) and I don't think I ever experienced this kind of interactivity in IF (so far).

Also, it made me thing of those word magnets you can get for your fridge, and create whatever sentences to display to the world. Except, only you ever see it. It's pretty cool. I've been messing around with the other game modes, because it's less stressful than during the game, and made some weird nonsensical poems, just for fun!

All I will say is Down with CORPOTECH!

Potato Peace is a fairly linear game made in Ink, set in a fantasy world where mankind and potatoes live in peace and harmony (sort of). Until one day, the <S>fire nation</S>... urm... the Pie of Peace, symbol of potatoe-human relationships, is stolen. At the time, you were an investigator, child of a famed diplomat, tasked to find the statue. And it was with shame that you were forced to retire, when you could not deliver the goods, never learning of the mastermind behind this awful act.

That is... until the culprit shows up at your door to confess, asking you to participate in a bit of a charade to bring things back to where they were.

You are more pushed through the motions of things rather than exploring the mystery/plot or affecting your situation (save for the final beat of the game), which is a bit of a shame, considering the zany setting of the game. There are a lot of good bits about the worldbuilding already that would have been so interesting to get into (why are the population clashing? have humans stopped consuming potatoe? when did all of this happen?).

As for the Interface, it was a bit jumpy at times, and often, I found the AI-generated illustrations/mashups distracting (I was also really confused about the appearance of the woman on the screen, until I realised it was supposed to be me [the player] - I thought we were a man?). I would rather have had more text and exploration in the story than the pictures taking 2/3rd of the page.

The writing was pretty fun, and the puns made me giggle. It was a pretty nice distraction from the rest.

Do Good Deeds... is relatively short Twine children's story, where you play as Modis, an outcast elf on a stroll in the forest. Along the way, he meets many creatures in need, prompting him for help. Some of the animals require council, others your bare arms, and some a bit of wit, to help them out of their situation... if you choose to do so (because you can also ignore them). Depending on the amount of creatures, you get different endings.

At its core, it's a cute game, probably more aimed at children, with some inspirations from fables (The Lion and the Mouse, the Ant and Grasshopper, etc...). The "puzzles" are relatively simple, and if you mess up, the games lets you try again. And the interface with the custom backgrounds and sprites were really cute! It really gave off that children's book vibe.

Some stuff that didn't work quite as much for me:
- except for the white and maybe yellow-coloured text, the dialogue was often pretty hard to read, even with the letter border (often an issue with a multi-coloured background). The cycled link was sometimes impossible to read because of it.
- the timed/typed text was too long, and pretty unnecessary for the type of story. It hindered more the reading of the text than helped build it up.
- there were some awkward space between lines of text (unnecessary spacing) and a few miscoloured lines (switched between the interlocutors).

It was a cute little game, that could use a tiny bit more polish.

Chatterbox is a short Twine piece about chatboxes experiences. Using the simple interface of Harlowe, you incarnate the user ripherup, a true crime enthusiast discussing cases with other members of a Forum, bickering over the details. Between technological mishaps and diverging conversations, you find yourself in a pretty chaotic situation. Thought the game is pretty minimal, it does encapsulate pretty well the vibe of chatrooms, especially unmoderated ones.
I’m also a sucker of this chat-based storytelling concept…

Phantom Protocol is a short interactive prologue made in Godot, set (so far) inside your phone. A strange number contacts you, disoriented, claiming to be a newly created intelligence (AI). You can interact with it (as the game gives you different options), as well as other individuals contacting you (including the “owner” of said AI and a “friend”). The game ends after a couple of messages.
Though there isn’t much inside the current build, I’d be interested to see where it goes.

ConversationalRumblings is a short cyclical Twine piece about two people looking for an activity to do and talking about it. Between going to the movies or make ceramics, listening to music or going to the club, or maybe just chill and make some poems, the two will ramble on bouncing from one activity to the next, never ending.
The way they interact with one another, I wouldn’t want to be friend with either of them…

Extended Sabbatical is a short linear interactive piece made in Unity about… making a game, or more about not making that game. Though it focuses on struggles and frustrations (and maybe even procrastination), it was a pretty fun piece. The dialogue is charming, the art is colourful and stylish, and it is pretty smooth.
I enjoyed it quite a bit!

Tresmir Sight is a short sci-fi (fantasy?) visual novel, where you play as a young human trespassing in a camp, looking for someone important to them. Ensues a conversation with the leader, where choices allows you to cooperate or obstruct their questioning.

Since you are dropped in the middle of a story, you being capture while trespassing, unwilling to answer to anyone, it is pretty hard to be invested in the MC’s struggles without knowing anything about it. For all we know, he is the bad guy here. You only learn of the reason why you are here because the answer is pulled from you.

Still, it looks neat and polished. I would play a longer version of this game if it ever happened.