Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

Trying to get back home after visiting your cousin, you are met with a few challenges - your trek is blocked by a few obstacles: little insects and giants block your way. Trying to solve the little puzzles are fairly simple (if you remember to climb things around you), and the responses quite silly. Who knew an acorn (Spoiler - click to show)could make a great seat!

The second half of the game is filled with puns and funny names for things around the building. If there is a list of cursed food out there, the menu hanged in the building should definitely be included (so yucky! poor kiddos!).

A short but very sweet little adventure!

I Gave You a Key and You Opened the Darkness is the introductory epitaph of a longer project set to be released episodically throughout 2024, named Los Huesos del Cielo, as an archive of the author's thirties in short form IF.

IGYKYOD is a short piece about returning to your former home, now empty and abandoned, reminiscing on your past, one you are forgetting, and identity.

Only branching out at the end towards one of three endings, the piece uses interactive elements to show that disconnect between what is there, what once was, and how lost you seem to be. Memories get darker as you interact with the text, the state of the house more decrepitated, choices questioned. You're here to find something (thought it's not really made explicit).

There is something quite uneasy about rediscovering a place: one your body remembers clearly but your mind does not (want to?). Surreal in its depiction of how uncomfortable it is at time - almost horror-y at some points.

Looking forward to see the other instalments.

This short kinetic piece is presented as an elegy written by a Dr. Chandra Roy about the Men'nai people - a distant human cousin from deep space. Following a forward about said scientist, the piece goes on to describing the Men'nai, from their biology to their culture.
It does make you wonder how far into the future the setting is supposed to be, and how related we (humans) are with that race (did we go to space and become the Men'nai? did the Men'nai arrive on earth and become us?). The end leaves you with more questions than answers...

It also included image snippets to help illustrate the text - though it was a shame these lovely illustrations were hidden by default.

While the interface reminded me of those sci-fi screens and the content of codex pages you'd find in games, there were a few friction elements with the UI, like the description of the text being cut-off/unreadable.

In this lovely meet-cute moment, Blood and Company follows Zach, a vampire looking for his next meal. He walks into a local bar, currently hosting a student meetup for the local architecture department - one he frequented once - and finds Lyle. The two strikes up a conversation... and may end up with something more.

To say I was gushing as their interactions was an understatement - it as so adorable seeing two ace not only finding each other but also vibing to the same wavelength. Two peas in a pod! When things click so well and the chemistry is flying off the wall, you only need to sit back and enjoy the events unfolding. It is so smooth and so right. Every beat just fit with the others so well - whether you do take the bitey path or not.

I went an played it again and again to try to find all the different endings (still looking for some), but even the more... bummer(?) ones felt satisfying - though none beat the more romantic one.

Such a delightful read!

Always delighted to see my favourite awkward couple come back for some slice-of-life shenanigans. With this new entry to the Pageantverse, we meet back with Karen and Em - who now live together !!!! - attempting to make some dumplings from Chinese New Year. Trying to follow Karen's mother's recipe, you help prepare the (sometimes expired :grimacing: ) ingredients, constructing the dumplings, and cooking them. During this process, you can find some little tit bit about Karen and Em's relationship and daily life.

As the blurb indicates, this entry is meant as a demo for DendyNexus, a mashup between Dendry and StoryNexus, providing decks to get action-cards, each sending the player to little storylets (well, different ingredient preps). I'm looking forward to see where this engine/extension goes...

Through the self-indulgent and luxurious prose, you play as one of two fathers, tricked into having a conversation (Spoiler - click to show)with the other through a mystical and fae being. The game mirrors the paths in the unfolding of the story, as the fathers each sit at the table for their respective breakfast, peruse a letter written by their child, are confronted by a vision of said child ((Spoiler - click to show)are they real or just a figment of their imagination?), and find themselves in the presence of a godly being.

And for all their similarities in their love for their children, their family and status, the fathers still intrinsically differ. One's pride revolves around status and traditions, favouring another who can do no wrong. The other's almost wallow in nostalgia of what once was, what will never be again, what is now lost. The difference in behaviours stemming from their social status: one being of high nobility with all the required pompous regalia, the other of a lower background, whom the first would look down upon.

There is a mirror, but the reflection is false.

To fully comprehend the story and the implication of the characters' actions may require some prior knowledge of the characters - the characters and settings are part of a TTRPG campaign*. There is something so strange but lovely too about reading stories clearly meant for like three people max, yet still shared to the world. The reader is pulled in by the intrigue and the mysterious setting, but kept at bay for the rest - leaving you to fill in the gap or find your own meaning of the story. It adds to the mystique of the whole.

Ever woken up on a weekend and felt like staying in bed, all day - just that? But, then, your stomach grumbles so hard you know you *need* to feed the beast to get on with your lazy day? And *then*, you realise the only thing left in your fridge - your emergency last meal - was stolen and eaten by someone else (darn you, siblings!!)? So you struggle to find this and that and try to make something... digestible with the last of your energy?

This game is just that. Literally the title of the game describes it. You are lazy. You are starting. Here's a simulation. Will you feed yourself or pass out? Will you give up or attempt to get take out? Or will you set your house on fire because exhausted and careless people should probably not cook in that state?

While it currently has a few issues (some errors, disappearing elements and missing responses), the story knows it is silly and making fun of itself - you should not take it seriously. It's entertaining trying to hunt down the 8 different endings (8... for now), though some are more difficult than others....