Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

dénanti is a CYOA booklet, in which you switch bodies with billionaire Arnaud Bernard (and definitely not the French businessman, *wink wink*). Armed with this incredible fortune, you get to choose how to spend it... except, it's *really hard* to spend a lot of money like this. If your actions are not stopped because it looks fraudulent, you actually end up richer by fixing the (speculative) economy or through tax-loophole! In both the setting and gameplay, this entry reminded me of You are Jeff Bezos. It was a pretty funny 5min going through all the options!

Maasdreniev, taudis de l’Est is a short hyperlink story created in Decker, in which you follow a hungry and cold man in an unnamed dilapidated neighbourhood (though the vibes are evocative of Eastern Europe, just after the Iron Wall is constructed). Lost and left behind, these beings do what they can to survive, even if it means turning on each other and losing more of their little humanity. It is very bleak and as immersive (especially with the uneasy tune of the background music).

La Valise is a short speculative fiction made in Ink, in which you decide the fate of humanity, as nuclear bombs are about to decimate your side of the world. Contrasting with the imminent destruction of your country (and maybe more), is a banal and calm prose (maybe resigned already? with the state of things), rendering the scene both comical and pretty depressing. Regardless of your choice, little changes for you, but it is nonetheless impactful.
A great piece of speculative fiction in so few words!

The Column is a Cluedo-like game made in Twine, where you embark on an expedition to explore a desolate island, with a strange and cursed structure. To life the curse and save themselves, the team must trust each other - though the curse will try hard to break those bonds. There are two endings, which can be easily found (the game lets you skip back to the first choice to retry).

It’s beautifully written, with a very enticing introduction. A rag-tag team, each with its own specialisation and personality, stuck together on an island with no other choice but trust each other to get out? Sign me up! And the reveal of the column really built up my expectations for what was to come. That introduction does a pretty good job at laying down what you need to get to the mechanic.

And it’s an interesting mechanic, as a social experiment, focusing on your deduction skills from the information provided - though it doesn’t really punish you if you miss the mark in the combination of choices, even for the high stakes. Not knowing is the hardest thing, and the game forces you to rely on your assumptions to make a choice… and accept you might fail.

It’s a pretty tightly built game overall, but the selfish part of me kinda wished there was a bit more (especially with the introduction being about half of the game) - like getting a few more in-game days, or talking to the NPCs before/after the choices and make them sweat a little. Then again, there was a lot already for a made-under-4h game!

Hotel Halloween is a collection of short scary games created by young students (of the Seneca Thing group), centred around the theme of horror hotel. We have 8 different rooms, each with a different take on Halloween, or creepy elements, or horror. Overall, it's pretty diverse and creative!

Room 10 is a simple story, which follows a person on a holiday, given a key to the titular room and finding a pool of blood by the door. Follows a branching sequence in which you either realise (Spoiler - click to show)you are dead or find a way out. I think there were 3 different (non-repeated) endings to find.

Room 16 is a survival story, in which you decide to relax before the Halloween Quest Game, except there are weird things happening in the room. At every turn, you are given a choice, where your (in)actions will mean life or death. You'll need a bit of trial and error to get to a Good Ending (there are multiple), and advanced to (Spoiler - click to show)an unfinished level 2 :( . Because of the arbitrary consequence of each action, the comedic tone of the writing works pretty well (the Bad Endings line were absurd, in a good way).

Room 102, strangely located underground, is another survival story, where you must escape your room to live. It was a time a bit confusing, which actually makes sense, since (Spoiler - click to show)it's all happening in a dream, though we don't really find out how or why this all happened. I liked the details of the hotel, that made things unsettling.

In Room 113, we play as a werewolf staying at the hotel for a vacation. This hotel is not dangerous for humans, but also magical creatures, which means that with one wrong move, you are out. The consequences are sometimes very sensible (like (Spoiler - click to show)why would you try to pet a dragon xD ), and sometimes pretty arbitrary (like checking into the bathroom). But it does so with humour, so that helps.

Room 444 is doll-themed, with a bunch of creepy dolls in various state throughout the room. And you are given an ominous warning if you decide to stay. The writing does a good job at describing the unsettling nature of the dolls, and your transformation if you get too curious. Very creepy.

Room 505 is another escape room situation, where you are magically transported into a dangerous maze, and given binary choices to find the right path and leave. It's really a coin toss on what you should to pick to get to the end, and I kinda found myself more interested in the Bad Endings after finding a couple (they are pretty funny).

Room 555's puzzle is centred completely around one very important object, which will determine whether you live or die (in various horrific ways). It reminded me a bit of the towel in HHGG in that sense - there's no real reason to need it, and yet... Both Good Endings were pretty nice, but the very matter-of-fact plug-the-wall one was very funny in context of the whole.

Room 666 is probably the darkest game of the collection, with a focus on body horror (and I think no "good" endings). The recurrent attention to the eyes really gave me the creep - I kept hoping I wouldn't have to see it again. It was a good utilisation of the haunted mirror trope, no matter the outcome.

Jumpscare Manor is a silly tiny jumpscare game made in Twine, where you explore the titular Jumpscare Manor, for if you stay a whole night within its walls, you will own it. There is only one end, which will happen randomly (otherwise it wouldn’t be a jumpscare).

It’s really silly, filled with jumpscare red herrings (like the dusty armour stand in the entrance). It was funny trying to go through the rooms and realising they’re all connected to another (Spoiler - click to show)through a secret passage, so you’d start on the ground floor and end up two stories higher - not surprisingly I lost my sense of direction pretty quickly. It’s really a gag entry, one you’d expect from Damon Wakes, and it does what it sets to do.

Sundown is a surreal horror game made in Twine, where you play as Dolores, an old woman exploring her house as she looks for her dog. As you go through the motions, the game hints at the peculiar situation she is in, leaving you to fill in the (very obvious) blanks. You’ll expect the twists coming, but when it does arrive, it still hits like a ton of bricks.

From what seems like a slice-of-life story, with Dolores, trying to find her footing as she wakes up from a nap, and to reminisce on her past, it progressively gets stranger before downright getting disturbing. She’s seems surprised at the presence of guests, at their frustration when she asks again and again the same questions (what are they doing here?), but most importantly, it seems, at why she can’t find her beloved pet, no matter how many times she calls it.

It is a pretty tragic tale, enhanced by the interface and the background score (creepy as heck). We experience Dolores’s confusion, through that semi-confusing maze (or maybe I’m the problem, forgetting where things are), her inability to find things (only available after a specific conversations) or remember events (which are obscured to us too). The only insurance that we are advancing the story is the changing colour palette (reminiscent of the sun setting). Still, in the context of the story, that change is incredibly off-putting.

While the first section of the (Spoiler - click to show)Charlie act brought things to a new level of scary and creepy, I am not sure if their conversation really added to the story as a whole. We didn’t know/learn/explore enough about their past, their relationship, and the consequences, for that revelation to make a real impact (compared to the other ones). It seemed a bit out of place. I would have preferred a focus with Dolores’s child instead in that section - I think it would have made the final section even stronger.

Overall, this was a great piece of writing, especially being good at conveying that confused state of Dolores, and the frustrations of those around her. Pretty heartbreaking.

At the Strike of Twelve is a short horror games made in Twine, where you explore a nightmare-like setting after waking up at midnight in a wet graveyard. Depending on your choices, you can reach one of 5 endings: two good ones (though one is pretty bad still), two neutrals (which might still be pretty bad), and one bad one.

The game includes a lot of horror/creepy elements, starting in the graveyard, the creepy random phonecall, the sense of dread from losing time, and, of course, the monsters. The focus on the senses, especially the sounds, with the recurring bells ringing, is a nice touch. As well, the shift in the story, where you suddenly become transported to a detective's office and (Spoiler - click to show)body, while it was still alive, really flips the game upside down and adds to the uneasy vibes.

I think the text would profit from a touch more formatting to help the player digest the conveyed information along. Like paragraphs breaking longer passages into smaller section (helping the player breathe a bit) or page breaks (have two regular passages instead of one, can help build tension). More interactive options can also be considered, such as timed text (in moderation) to delay the inevitable, or click-reveal elements to give the player a bit more agency/control (even if they don't really).

Still, for a limit of 4h, it's pretty effective in creating a creepy and unsettling/dark atmosphere. My favourite ending is probably the earliest achievable one (which is a good one, of course), with the other good ending being 2nd best (it's way more creepy/gruesome than you'd expect).

do not let your left hand know is a horror single-choice game made in Twine, in which two women, Monica in 2017 and Lisa in 2024, struggle to keep hold of their bodies, something tries to take over. The game switches back and forth between the two as they are faced with revelations. This body and psychological horror story has two endings, through that final and only choice.

The game has an interesting discussion about identities, the persona we choose (or are forced) to bring forward in any given situation, and our relationships with our bodies. Monica feels like she is borrowing her body while travelling, as if pretending to be someone else and experience their life (want for happiness?). Lisa has a stable but boring life, but finds herself missing days on end, unable to remember things that she may have (not) done - like blanking at her desk for three days. Both harbour feelings that their body is not quite theirs, that it has somehow a mind of its own. As is, it makes for quite the distressing tale...

... but when it is revealed that (Spoiler - click to show)Lisa and Monica are just different sides of the same coin, that's when the horror really sinks in. Who was there first, really? Or (Spoiler - click to show)did they enter the body, like some parasite? or maybe even split following some trauma as some sort of response? Are there maybe more identities that neither Monica nor Lisa acknowledge? And who is actually in control, after all? technically you...
But the game doesn't care much in answering these questions, and is, instead, more interested in who should be in control of this body? This is what you are faced with at the end of the game, to choose between (Spoiler - click to show)Lisa with her boring life and unassuming personality, which makes her so forgettable that she'd spend three full days being catatonic before someone notices OR the social Monica who forged relationships in the past, made connections which brought her heart pumping. It's just one or the other. The left or the right hand. Whose side will you take?

While this is a powerful choice on its own, especially with the build-up of the previous passages, getting more and more distressing and gruesome, the game also makes it way to easy to impede on the significance of this choice. The interface lets you UNDO that choice with just a click on the bottom arrow (or save at the choice, then reload). And it doesn't make that final choice feel final.

I also struggled a bit with the formatting of the text. Mainly with the alignment of the text not always being contrasted enough between the left right and centre blocks (especially with long sentences/paragraphs) - smaller width would help section those blocks better. As well, a bit with the dialogue/thoughts lines, I wasn't always sure who was talking or whether it was inner thoughts (until the context kicked in, but it took me out of the immersion a few times).

Overall, a cool piece of horror, with a great sense of mystery and build-up.

Narthex is a tiny Moiki game, where you meet the eponymous character, a helpful little creature on your way to a party. The short story centres around challenges meant to be overcome (your anxiety towards the party and Narthex's imminent growth/evolution) and how external elements can empower one's will to confront those challenges (Narthex's enthusiasm calming your fear and the punk rock beats giving them power).

An intriguing point about the title: Narthex, which isn't just the name of the little creature, but also an architectural element in churches: its entrance, opposite to the main altar. And here you start, before the narthex of your party, unable to enter without that little push, even though it is meant to celebrate you, to see you front and centre (as if on an altar?).

Another, darker, take that crossed my mind was how I first interpreted the illustration of the party. Because of the simple drawing, of people waiting around, without a clear face drawn, I wondered for a moment whether this party (Spoiler - click to show)was supposed to be your funeral, and Narthex being there to help you accept the fact that you are dead/guiding you to peace (especially with their final winged form).

But I think, overall, it's meant to be a very sweet story, enhanced by adorable little illustrations and dope music.