Reviews by manonamora

Prepper Van is a tiny adventure game, where your goal is to survive as many disasters as you can in this apocalypse future, AND find a job. With you van, and some dozen dollars in your name, you can pick up hitch-hikers or dead amarillo, buy or sell supplies, and hope you can go through the day unscathed.

There is something quite dystopian about this entry, although I am not sure it is intended. For all intents and purposes, it seems the Earth is going through the End of Times (tm). Yet, your parents nag you to leave the house to find a job, because you're freeloading off of them. And you struggle to get exorbitantly expensive basic supplies to survive the night (and whatever shenanigans of the hitch-hiker du jour).

I don't know... I'd expected small groups of people banding together and have enough humanity to share things (until the inevitable raid from the rowdy group a field over...). You know, more together we can survive anything. Less whoops we're destroying the Earth but capitalism is a demanding master still.

Eight Steps is a tiny slice-of-life piece about ageing and the art of kyudo (the Japanese martial art of archery). Following the hassetesu ritual (or eight stages of shooting), the narrator describes their movements to achieve each stance - and how their aged body reacts. The recent pains, the old ones that were never shaken off, the creaking and the soreness that only comes with time. And most importantly, coming to term with this version of themself that fights them at every step.

This was pretty calming, going through the repeating steps of the ritual. And a bit existential-dread-y? Being reminded of your own limited existence through physical signs, knowing it's unlikely they will go away, that things can't go back to the way they used to...

A Crumpled Piece of Paper is an interactive epistolary game, where you find a balled up piece of paper on the pavement. Curious about its content, you open it. It's a letter written to an ex. Reminiscing on the past. Talking about the present. But it's also a lot more.

The game calls itself flash fiction, using cycling interactive elements to display different sides of the story. It starts off pretty normal and mundane, exploring the messy feelings of break ups. Soon, though, as you interact with the sentences, so does the tone. It's a bit bizarre, quite sad, then turns to chilling, to down right horror-y!

You'd think the shift of tone would be bizarre, but it's incredibly well done here. Fed drip by drip, you don't realise until it's too late what has happened here. There's a bit of a back and forth with a few sections at the end, almost re-writing what was there before.

But I think the most interesting thing about the interactivity here, is the tiny "combination puzzles". At a couple key points, you have multiple active cycling elements, blocking the rest of the story until you match the correct words. In the context of when the letter was written in-game, it really puts emphasis on how the choice of words are important, how they all have different meanings and weights, how appropriate they are in specific situations.

This was really really good!

Regarding Absurd Attempts to Rid Oneself of Waterfowl is an absurd humoristic tiny adventure? fight? celebration? Sisyphean IF game in which your goal is to get rid of a duck. A duck which you had gotten rid of yesterday already. But it's here again. Taunting you. How will you take care of this problem today?

Well, you have multiple ways, and multiple sub-ways. Some works, some doesn't. All are hilarious. Among some options: marry the duck (why not?), fight the duck atop a volcano?, fight the duck on the roof of a moving train, put all your faith in God, try to eat the duck... Not once the consequences of your choices misses a beat.

It's pretty impressive how large and varied the game feels with just 500 words. It gave me a really good long laugh for the good 10min I spent looping through all the paths!

Distance is a tiny epistolary piece in which you play as Syrena, a woman writing a letter to her beloved, Davey, currently at sea, longing for his return. You share with him news about life back on the coast, how you spend your day, and wish for his safe return.

It's a very simple but effective use of the epistolary format. It feels so real and dream-like. Just a snippet into people's live through very few words. Maybe the pink interface influenced this, but it's charming to boot. I really enjoyed the variation in your choice of hobby, how distinct they are, giving a different window into Syrena's life.

A really cute, with a hint of sad, entry!

one way is a short kinetic dialogue through text between Syn and Lily, though it feels more like a monologue, as the latter doesn’t respond much. In the messages, Syn talks about the writing progress (or lack of) on a story, and the struggles of being relatable, even when drawing on one’s identity. The messages go unanswered, worrying Syn, who ends up confronting Lily for a sign of life.

Because of that one-sidedness in the exchange, and the minimal formatting, I thought at first I was reading Syn’s diary entries (the first few pages being pretty relatable, being in a writing rut is not fun). Though it was after going through the passages again did I wonder whether we were playing as Lily, clicking the arrow link to forward time, as if reading but avoiding answering, making Syn’s plea for a response all the more heartbreaking.
Or maybe I’m reading too much into it, and we’re simply a complete outsider.

story of my life is a tiny kinetic slice-of-life piece, centred on a couple of linked memories, snapshot seemingly mundane at the time but with hindsight and reminiscing may look important. It seems like a reflection of things seen and said, or more what was experienced differently and what was never said. This disconnect is made all the more obvious on the last screen, where the narrator admit they could actually say something… but still end up avoiding the subject through a more light-hearted question, further the miscommunication.

Sanguine: The Stygian Shore is a tiny Twine adventure, where you incarnate Ash’Garekh, a mercenary stranded on Lunaris after a storm at sea. Still, you need to get to your original destination, so you travel north and do your best to avoid the traps and the dangers, and maybe thwart a plot in the process.
The writing reminded me a bit of those darker fantasy pulp stories, with danger to overcome, some damsels to rescue, and cliché shouts, but all the good ways of those. The only negative thing I have to say about it, is that it ended way too quick. I would love to play a longer version of the game with trials and tribulations and puzzles… until I finally reach my destination!

Lunar Fall is a mini make-out-sim where two women, L and E, embrace each other for a while. With a short tangent about relationships and love (do we min-max one’s feelings by our actions?) and the definition of sex (is there a line to what or what isn’t sexual), the main focus of the game is the actual make-out part. Depending on the starting position (spooning or facing each other), you have two to four actions, one being one-off while the other options being repeatable, before you end it altogether.

I’ve tried multiple combination of actions, and always seemed to end with the same words and the same thanks, but I wonder if there are multiple endings to it.
Am I min-maxing enough this make-out session?!?! No matter, I’ll go make out with E again anyway.

Find a parser beta tester! is a short reflection piece on beta-testing, particularly when having your parser work beta-tested by others. Whatever the program used when making a game, beta-testing is the most painful part of the process: you not only need to have people play a game that isn’t complete and probably has too many bugs it’s embarrassing, but you also have to FIND THOSE PEOPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE. The pain…

The game give multiple options, between parser and non-parser players, players who know and don’t know you, so you would get a wide array of feedback, allowing you to fix it all before the deadline (though it is never truly fixed…). It is a pretty sound advice, having a wide-range of different testers, to ensure you’ve covered as much as possible the potential players base.

Testing is one of the most important part of game making*, as it can be the difference between receiving glowing reviews and… a torrent of negative comments because everything is broken. Not just that, but depending on the amount of issues with your game, you may feel guilty for having put them through such gruelling efforts (especially if they are not familiar with parsers).
*I say that but, lol, but I barely do that myself