Reviews by manonamora

Escape your Psychosis is an illustrated CYOA booklet about escaping the cycle of psychosis by recognising and avoiding the unhealthy choices. The format allows you to click on the option to process through the story. The text is accompanied by whimsical illustrations, relevant to the state of the story. The entry is meant to be educational.

This very short entry is the product of the author’s experience with psychosis in their surroundings, wanting to spread awareness and demystify what it means to fall into a psychosis. Through short snippets of situations, the entry takes a light-hearted, often humourous, approach to the theme. Still, it recognises that this is not a situation-fits-all type of content.

For what it tries to do, I think the game manages to do quite well. It provides enough variety and choices to make it feel believable, but brushes over the more darker elements of going through a psychosis to not make it a bummer (the illustrations* are a big help in this way). However, this can also be seen as what doesn’t work about the entry, with how over-simplistic the game tackles the subject matter, or how it overlooks completely the darker realities, or how too cheerful the entry looks for what it tries to portray. It can feel a bit superficial.
*they reminded me a bit of the Little Inferno game style…

I’d love to see more CYOA entries in a similar format in future comps!

The Sculptor is a pretty short interactive story about the artistic dilemma of creating for the sake of creating and essentially selling out, through the lens of an older man yearning to create his Magnum Opus before it is too late. Through a fairly poetic prose, the man reflect on his gifts, the process to get to the finished state, and that dilemma.

With a focus on touch-related imagery, the entry does a fairly good job at describing the tedious, and often painful, but fulfilling process of creating art. Its poetic prose engages to see creative endeavour as more than the final product, but all the acts, the efforts, the sweat, the tears that made it happen. I was particularly touched by the yearning of the old man to accomplish one last piece, fulfilling his dream, before meeting the inevitable.

Though it is a major point of the story, I did not find the dilemma quite satisfying. The question itself of creating for the sake of creating or to be able to survive has been debated almost ad nauseam, without much of a new or fresh angle to it. It also felt like the Sculptor’s position was clear: not preserving the art from being sullied through transaction would tear his soul.

Another thing that felt strange was placing the time period of the piece. The cover art and starting prose suggest a Baroque or maybe Romantic period, while the dialogue from other characters would place it in a more modern time. It would not be too surprising to learn that the sculptor’s sensibilities were tuned to older periods, being maybe even detached from reality due to his age or current state. An angle like this could have helped bridge the gap, I think.

DICK MCBUTTS GETS KICKED IN THE NUTS is what you could consider a joke entry. It is a nonsensical and completely unserious game, where the point is to make you chuckle, one way or another. The game is not just dipped but fully immersed in absurdism… if you got the correct start when opening the game. I reached multiple Dead Ends, and one True Ending out of Three.

I was pretty lucky, getting the good path from the moment I clicked Play, avoiding the flashing image and on-purpose terrible spelling*. I got to enjoy the adventure of Dick, our protagonist, trying his darn best to protect his family jewels from getting the kick. If this sounds juvenile, it is on purpose. The game is meant to be a joke through out (if that was not yet obvious from the title and the author’s name), and can be enjoyed by playing along with the joke (making the situations even more absurd than they are), or making fun of the game for how stupid the sequence of events is going (how unlucky Dick is to have to choose to flee towards two different shoe factories…).
*Whether the author did it on purpose or not, just for having that path, it will be a Banana of Discord contender for sure.

While it is very humorous, it is also a very specific kind of humour, which will not be of everyone’s taste. It is a one-type-of-joke kind of game, which can become tiring pretty quickly, if you are not in the right mindset. It’s crude, it’s rude, it’s balls-y*.
*yes, not very smart

Though, the author should be commended for how long they managed to keep that joke going, never once faltering, always doubling down. It is pretty impressive how creative the game stays even with just one scenario, and the sheer amount of branching available in the game (every passage or two, you have a choice). It is a commitment to the bit I’ve only really seen with major shitposting and memes*. Just for that, kuddos Hubert!
*hrem…Goncharov

This was a riot of a game!

Last note, importing the game on Twine give the dumbest but most topical overview of the passage placements. Extra points for effort.

The Enigma of Solaris is a short interactive game set on the Solaris station, where you must find the reason for the power loss threatening the lives of its inhabitant, fighting any hurdles along the way. It can be played as a choice-based or (limited) parser. There seemed to only be one ending.

The story was reminiscent of those old pulp sci-fi stories, with the strive for advancement at the cost of human life, and the hubris of it all. The game is not afraid to go at full speed into those tropes, which makes it a bit comical (in a good way). The visual characterisation of the NPC add a bit of creepyness to the situation, with it’s uncanny valley-esque vibe.

Though I quite enjoy bite-sized games, this one felt somewhat incomplete - as if a whole part of the story or a different angle to it was missing. Starting strong with multiple options to explore the station, interact with different elements, and diagnosing the issue, the player sees its agency disappear by the second half of the game - railroaded towards the ending, with not even the illusion of being able to make a choice.

I think it could have made the ending a bit more satisfying if you had a final choice between fulfilling the mission to save lives or being persuaded to take a path of higher purpose just before the end. Maybe even a bit more choice in conversation with the second NPC.

There was also a bit of friction with the engine used, with the image messing a bit with the placement of the text (if they were more to the side, it would be nicer), or the longer portions of the text forcing you to scroll up and down to read the new bits.

Lonehouse is an emotionally charged piece about facings reality, processing one's grief, and finding ways to remember passed loved ones. The entry feels very personal albeit short. Following the passing of your estranged sister, you find yourself sorting through her belonging, reminiscing about the past, and learning new things about the time spent apart.

The entry takes you through different rooms of your sister's place, each giving the player the same actions (inspect, move, thing). It feels methodical, as if you had to force yourself going through the things your sister left behind. But, in each room, you discover a special item, triggering a memory or thought - each showing a different facet of the person you (thought you) once knew.

Grief can be a heart breaking and complex feeling, rendered even more complicated when the situation is itself a complicated thing (there's a lot of unsaid things in the entry about how it got to this point). I felt like this entry showed maybe a more detached look to that feeling.

This is a tales in two parts, two POV, where things are not quite what they seem. You are given the choice of two paths: to follow the story of the boy or the girl (you play the other as well), with the actions from the first part of the story affecting the second, and both the ending.

I managed to get a fairly good ending, by playing it smartly - choosing any option to get the hell out of here, I'm not following dumb horror actions xD. The writings about what is going on are on the wall, the game not always been very subtle about it.
I did like the mirroring of the actions between both paths. It does not fit quite completely, both PC being somewhat unreliable narrators, but it makes for an eerie experience.

I also chose to play the "boy" path before the "girl" one, which ends up working in favour of the game - the former pushing more of a damsel in distress trope, while the latter has a badass taking charge girl. The writing is much superior in the "girl" path than in the "boy" one.

There is an interesting core with this game, and I hope the author will update/polish it in the future!

This was a short-ish story about fantasy prophesies and predestination. The game does an interesting thing by using a different POV to the tale, from the monster's position rather than the saviour, as well has hinting that the monster and the saviour were friends. The ending (notification of one) will end depending on your actions (the monster's), and its trust in its friend.
Also, don't forget to click the link in the ending page, even if the text looks familiar...

That said, the writing didn't quite click with me. Nothing seems to be wrong with it, it just didn't grab me as much as the premise of the game itself.

There were also some issue with the bold formatting in latter passages. I don't think this was on purpose

As the title hints, this short sci-fi story is predetermined. Your ship is task to investigate an area, only to essentially land in an ambush. The game includes multiple endings, all of which end fairly abruptly (if there is no link on the page, it's an ending).

The building of the tension in the action sequence is intriguing, but I wish the different elements (NPCs and such) were introduced a bit more and were more fleshed out. You're king of thrown into the situation, making things a bit confusing.
I also thought you could have a bit more agency in what to do during the height of the action sequence. A lot of things seem to be happening, but you (the player) have not much control over the PC.

I do wish this had been a completed game rather than a demo, because it was quite fun to play through it.
Choose the UNFINISHED paths at your own risk... You may run into dead ends...

From what is there, it gives off vibes of those 20s-40s mysteries, like your Agatha Christies, with a locked room murder or an unexpected setting for a murder to take place (ZEPPLIN! DON'T SMOKE xD). You play as an up-n-comer detective, still needed to prove to the world you have what it takes to do the job and solved mysteries!

The game takes an interesting approach with exposition by making you write a letter to set your background and reasons for being. The writing overall is pretty playful and fun, reminiscing on those old mystery pulp, and playing with their tone and tropes.

As for interacting with your environment, the game offers you multiple traits, affecting the way you act around NPCs or interact with things. It reminded be a bit of The Thirty Nine Steps in that way. To solve the murder and get information out of people, you can also spend Detective Points (very TTRPG/Fate system), though it didn't seem you could earn some in this current state.

I am looking forward to see how the game pans out...

I got inside (with some struggles), looked around (with some struggles), and... got stuck, I think?

This kinetic parser is a follow-up to Ranaway, which is coded the same format, continuing the use of unconventional keys and commands to progress through the story (like L for leave instead of Look). The issue is that commands are not always made obvious, nor what is interactible either. The bug didn't help either (that or it was the ending?).