Reviews by manonamora

I think the synopsis says it all: it is a reformatting of an old short story, accompanied by contemporary pictures and music. This is supposedly meant to enhance the ambiance of the short story. You can go back and forth in the story, which is shown a couple of paragraphs at a time.

Though I do like adaptation of older work into an Interactive format… It didn’t really work for me, especially when portrait-oriented pictures were included (forcing you to scroll up/down the page). I found the contemporary pictures kind of going against the story, not finding the link between the specific picture and the text shown on the screen. I think it might have worked better if the adaptation also included more interactive text…

In this pulp-like murder mystery, you play as Detective Picton (the same as in Murder at the Manor), now accompanied by his strangely attired assistant (a sci-fi suit?? in a 70-80s-like setting? the uncanney valley of her face creeeeeps me out), set to solve a new murder! This time around, the suspects are Peter and Paul, the nephews of the victim.

Visiting the murder scene, you get to investigate different rooms of the victim’s home, under the watchful eye and comments of your not-always-so-professional but very competent assistant. After finding a couple of required elements, the game ends abruptly, like it was bugging/freezing - but it is just the end of the demo.

The game does an interesting thing, mixing choice-based actions with point-and-click mechanic on images (I liked being able to “move” around the room and get a different angle)… though it is a bit finicky getting the element to click rather than bringing the image forward (a white outline above bright images are pretty hard to see).
The images sometimes disappear when clicking on certain elements (the ones that display a new interactive picture). It would be nicer if those interactive pictures could be set more apart from the text…

The context to which the game was first released (the *Worst Game of the Year* Jam) helps understand this pretty strange game. This short minimalist bitsy game introduces a handful of "maze" screens, where you must find the element to interact with (often a "sense") to move to the next screen. It is pretty silly and nonsensical, and if you manage to pass the first screen (I think your cursor is "invisible"?), you'll be in for a wild ride...

In this short Twine adventure, you play as a "fake Star Wars/Trek" fan, excited to see the anticipated new movie. Fan as you are, you even have a whole costume, with accessories, ready for the event. But *oh noooo!*... you didn't manage your time correctly and find yourself unable to get inside the movie theatre. Your goal is to find a way in and see the movie, whatever the cost!

The game provides you with different possible actions, branching into different fail/success scenarios - some funny, some pretty embarrassing. It's clear the PC feels very entitled to a spot in the event, even if it was their own fault they didn't get there - ready to even start a riot, if that is what is needed.

It is always interesting seeing people explore IF with mediums not usually made for IF - it kinda shows that anything can be IF if you sets your mind to it. It’s pretty refreshing!

So here we have: a minimalist mysterious adventure created in PowerPoint. With limited words on the page, often just 3 separate nouns, next to a couple of 1-word actions, you can explore some sort of dungeon, face judgement, and maybe save yourself?
I got lost for a long while :joy:

While it is a pretty creative way to use PowerPoint this way, it comes with some caveats: you must only click the “link” actions to move between slides, and wait before the (much too lengthy) animations to do anything… or you will end up on the wrong slide. Shortening the animation would have made the experience a bit smoother.

This kinetic (and looping?) entry spans a conversation, between two unnamed/undefined pixel characters, about a vague subject ("it") -- how it was made, what value it has, and whether to end it. The game advanced by clicking on the pixel circle appearing on the screen, rather than through choices or other active participation.

It is a bit strange and quite confusing.
What is this "it"? Are *we* the "it" those those characters talk about?
The snippet is much too short and vague to provide any answer.

The low-res interface is pretty neat tho! with the little animation of the background and the characters.

The game is a short-ish explorative game made in bitsy, reminiscent of point-n-click (except you use your keyboard arrows instead of your mouse), where the goal is to find all treasures of the Dwarf King. There are about 20-30-ish screens that you must go through to find all treasures, some where you will find the wanted objects, others where an element is interactive. This "fetch-quest" relies on your memory of having already explored a certain screen or not.

The game is a bit silly in its premise, with (internet?) trolls having taken treasures and hidden it. And the design of each screen, with it's 3-colour palette, is reminiscent of old school games. But it is made extra tedious by the choice of program, as bitsy relies on pressing arrows to move the cursor around...

Interactive Fiction has an immense potential in making educational topics fun, especially concepts and procedures that feel pretty unapproachable and complex. Gamification and all that!

As much as bill passing can be explained simply (representatives vote on a bill they read, and it can pass - or not), it is clear there is more to the process. With needing to find support, raising funds to change minds, but not taking too long before submitting the bill to a vote... the process includes a lot more stakeholders, each with their own agenda or influence. From the Assembly to the Office of the President, you will need to min/max your way to pass your bill.

An interesting way to get a bit more of an insight into US politics (as a non-US citizen).

As a sidenote: Bill reminded me of Clippy.

*Time's Game* is a short body horror story, where you conduct a magic ritual aimed (?) at breaking the fabric of space and time (*holes*). As you get ready, snippets of strange memories (yours? someone else's?), also orifice related, rush through your mind, debilitatingly so. Your body, unable to take it all, breaks and rips into multitudes.

The writing is very evocative and gross (in a good, Porpentine way). It makes you uncomfortable, but in a way you can't really take your eyes away from it. It crawls up your spine...

This almost kinetic visual novel follows three (vigilante?) fighters inside a bunker plotting against a controlling (otherworldly?) organisation called VIRGIL (Big Brother-vibes). The latter’s control is so spread and wide that the only way to fight it would be to essentially nuke the Earth - or it would regenerate. Away from “real life” to ensure their safety and so their plan wouldn’t get discovered, the three characters uphold different view on how to approach the issue - discussions turning more into arguments with the “weapon” being ready.

While there aren’t meaningful choices, none that really affect the story at least, the story is quite engrossing. The story sets up enough to get an understanding of the conflicts, but stays vague, forcing you to piece things as you get more information. The culminating scene is satisfying even if as a player I barely has anything to do with it - putting an end to the MC’s struggles with their goal and their wavering will.

The visuals, with the limited palette and sprites looking like they were sketched, complements the writing and the scenes, with blinking and shaking elements, and an interesting focus on gazes.

I stiiiiiiilll… wished we could have had one choice at the end, rather having the PC making that choice for us (even if it made sense story wise).