Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

Contaminated Space is a short sci-fi horror-y Twine piece, where you embody a lone(ly) spaceman, dealing with the consequences of entering a contaminated space. In this lonely trip, taken as a break from reality, moving further and further away from home (escaping? fleeing?), silence and space are your only companion. Perfection found in quiet, cleanliness, and simpleness (like the overall formatting).

All contrasted with the contaminated space, quarantined sections of the universe due to their potential danger, horrors that could infect and destroy worlds. None who enter are allowed to leave. Careless with your safety in your goal to reach an impossible unsullied state, you miss every warning sign… until it is much too late.

In your wish to be alone, you are taken over by a whole. In rejecting your personhood, turning into a husk of yourself, you become a host, a filled shell for another. In your aimless journey, a purpose is forced upon you. In your deliberate want to be unbothered, you are disturbed.

This was disturbing to read (in all the best ways). The glitchy-ness of the text, jumbled/broken thoughts, the back and forth between the entities, made all the wrongs so wrong, but all so good too.

Mathphobia is a decadent puzzle fest of a text-adventure.
While your classmate rejoice in the Halloween break counting their candies, you are stuck at home solving a metric-ton amount of maths problems. As the night progress, and you are no closer to be done on time (it’s due in the morning!), you are visited by a strange character, who takes on an adventure in a faraway fantasy land, terrorised by Archfiend of Arithmetic, and… where maths is the only way to defeat them.

So you go on this adventure, where maths solves everything under the sun, travelling the land, helping folks with their measurement problems, and defeating in each region a villain specialised in one type of arithmetic (subtractions, divisions, multiplications…). The calculations starts off pretty easy, amping up in difficulty when moving to a new section of the game. While some of the latter problems may be difficult (or annoying/impossible to solve if you are mathphobic), you get as many tries as you need (or check the cheat-sheet - which I’ve done for the last-ish problems)!

The premise is really silly (but down-right tortuous for this poor child!), but the writing hooks you so easily (even if, like me, solving maths puzzles isn’t a fun time). The humour is full of charm and levity, and of puns (especially the villains, that cracked me up). It’s was downright impossible for me not to cheer for the kid, and do my best to help them save the land. And by the end, weirdly satisfying to actually solve that many maths problems without help.

Anyway, it was silly fun (that made me do maths against my will, gasp)! I’d even recommend it to tweens.

Ghost Hunt is a tiny Adventuron game, where you must find and catch the ghosts of long passed family members (all because you wanted to use a casket as a decoration for Halloween). Since catching a ghost is not an easy affair, the ghost of your great-grandfather gives you a box that will do the job for you, if you manage to find the ghost in the first place.

It is a pretty simple parser, with a very limited map and verb list, and generous directions on how to proceed with the descriptions/responses. It’s a polished parser starter-friendly game.

Boo. is a short spooky story, made in Moiki, in which you investigate the strange whispering voices you start hearing in the middle of the night (even though they keep asking you to leave).

While the search is fairly simple and to the point (the main block in the path can be resolved within a couple of turns), it excels in creating a genuinely atmospheric creepy environment, through both the simple dark interface, sparse and uneasy background sound/SFX, but most importantly the voiced dithered whispers. The voice creeps and disappears, climbs up your spine and runs back down double speed, jumps and leaves you just as fast - making you expect it at any turn to scream until kingdom come.

This game knows what is it doing, and doing it it extremely well. It keeps you on your toes, both bare and rich in content, on point with timing, and doesn’t stay its welcome.

SPILL YOUR GUT is the third instalment of the GUT series, after GUT THE MOVIE, and the spoof GUT THE MOVIE 2: GUT ves. TER THE TWOVIES, where we check in on the original cast of GUT, Gemma, Uma, Tilla, and their manager Stace, after the movie was completed (or was it ever made?). There are four paths to follow, one for each individual, with the request to follow the above order.

Now, I don’t like being told what to do and started with Stace, essentially spoiling myself with the outcome of the previous paths… or did I?
Confused by the tone of that path (reminding me of the vibes of GUT2), I reloaded and followed the instructions in the game. Granted, there was a good reason for that.

Gemma’s, Uma’s and Tilla’s paths are completely different from Stace. While the later is in the third person, with the same interface as the starting page, the formers focuses on inner thoughts and bright, duo-tones, stylised and distinctive and restrictive interfaces. But more so, the gameplay of each path builds on the previous one: Gemma’s deep taunting red in a limited N/S direction, Uma’s cool emotional blue opening to all four main cardinal directions, and Tilla’s envious and tortuous greens adding the up/down option. All to finish with the linear definitive and decided Stace section, looping us back to the start.

But the contrast is not just in the visual and gameplay between the paths, but also in its content. The RBG section is enmeshed with anxious vibes, in the way the characters talk about themselves, their fears and insecurities, and the repetition of screens (indicating the end of content in that direction). Gemma, in kill the internet, feels hopeless and lonely, and struggles to find a purpose moving forward (funnily, you can only move back and forth between sections). Uma, in call your girlfriend, ruminates over her past and current relationships, the good, the bad and the ugly, and their inability to stay emotionally connected while with someone (her thoughts littered in a maze without much sense). Tilla, in sell your dreams, hides her true feelings (about the movie and herself) behind a criticism of society, which she has left being by moving to the Moon (layers discoverable by taking the elevator). Each are tortured in their own ways, either barred from opening a specific door, or unable to ever find that wanted exit.
On the other hand, Stance’s section has a more absurd take. She isn’t riddled with insecurities or worries, only caring really with eating chips. She flips the script on its head, going against the expectations, taunting the monster instead of being taunted (who breaks itself and sorta the game), unbothered with the change of/breaks in the environment or herself - as long as there are chips, she is content.
This contrast is made extra obvious with the repeated “I am lonely/scared/tried” screens in RBG, which Stance’s action can be reduced to “Eat chips”.

Strangely, though most of the game is very different from the previous iterations of GUT, it is surprisingly still much in line with the series as a whole. Through RBG, you are forced through these anxious-riddled paths, tortured along the characters, unable - like them - to escape (unless you reload the page), stuck in their head… Only to return to the absurdity of Stace’s section, greatly enhanced as it calls for the opposite almost of feeling. Stace is never stuck, whether she acts or not, circling through a death/rebirth unending cycle, always moving, and changing - while still staying the same. Stace is both the anchor of RBG, and the much needed comedic relief.

A third opus I didn’t know I wanted or needed. Neither better nor worse than the previous GUT. Only leaving me with the want of more sequels!

Delusion Deluge is a short fantasy visual novel prelude made in GoogleSheets. In this autumn equinox, you are invited to the annual Delusion Deluge, an event where one may receive a dearly wanted wish. The invitation asks you to both bring yourself (costumed), a tribute, and your wish. This prelude gets you ready for the party, and branches out in three paths where you can interact with multiple individuals and your environment, which may or may not let you get a trinket.

While there isn't much to the story currently, as it is a prelude, it is a beautifully crafted piece. The interface, backgrounds and sprites, create an atmospheric relaxing setting (that makes you wish you were there) -the artwork is really lovely. There are some awkwardness when clicking through the different slides, but that is to be expected with the medium chosen.

All in all, I'm really intrigued with the rest of the story, and will be looking for updates on this project!

Missinger is an investigative interactive piece, where you play as Paula, a university student, looking into the disappearance of Alex, a popular student in her class, following the win of a contest. Through your "phone", you can check out digital magazines about the contest and classmates, as well as talk to the different suspects (who participated in the same contest as Alex). After talking to everyone, you'll be able to report the person you think was behind the disappearance.

The game is comprised of multiple static stylized HTML/CSS pages and pictures of the digital magazines, which you can find and get to by messing around with the URL of the page (explained in-game)... if you find the right keywords. There are 4 endings to get to (and a secret one, which I haven't found - unless it's the (Spoiler - click to show)troll ending in the diary?). Honestly, it's pretty obvious who the culprit is, but it's the getting there that is most satisfying. Checking out the different URLs, sleuthing for more information, it's pretty fun!

What is most impressive, however, is the interface, and how smooth it runs, especially without any JavaScript/jQuery to run the animations/timer/choices, using instead pure CSS to do the trick. Well done.

I need to let it out is a collection of text files containing thoughts and feelings that Clare doesn’t dare say out loud, even though it is weighting on her. Between dealing with loss and struggling with their identity, Clare discusses her hopes and wishes for the future - especially with one special person. Retrospections of past relationships, especially their failings, brings forward this yearning in Clare to be seen - not just a glance, but actually be seen - and to have their feelings reciprocated.

In the way those thoughts are communicated, it becomes clear Clare struggles with her seemingly innocent out-personna, of the helpful girl that asks nothing in return, kind and collected, insightful but plain, with her more passionate desires (especially in regards to her crush). The never-reached balance between virtuous actions and unexecuted vice. The felt extremes.
I think it’s best displayed with how Clare talks about Tiffany in two different sections, first her silent personal devotion from afar, almost voyeuristic-like, to her domineering, almost disturbing, view on the future of the relationship when they finally interact.

These feelings and thoughts should probably get out, at some point, probably sooner rather than later… but maybe not today.

Productivity2000 is a time management interactive games, where you must fill-in a time-sheet in Sheets with tasks completed during the week for your micro-managing boss. Along with logging the hours worked, emails sent, and even breaks for lunch, you must also abide by your boss’s crazy rules to prove you actually did some work.

It takes a bit of organisation to get things all checked out, having to balance the hours worked throughout the week (never the same), or amount of emails filled (you will learn how to say ‘hello’ in new languages!), and even rate your own performance, just so you can rise above your boss’s suspicions. While behaving annoyingly, this isn’t the worse boss in the world: you can work from home (even exclusively), have to take breaks during the day for sustenance, can’t work overtime during the day, and must have two days free… Sign me up, please! I’ll ill in all the time-sheets you want me to!

The Swormville Sweep is a treasure hunt puzzle made in GoogleMyMaps, set in the village of Swormville, USA. The map has 15~ pre-selected locations, each with a little blurb about its creation, sometimes how it fared over the years, and a picture of its last recorded state. Through those, you don’t just learn about the town, how it got to be and evolved, you also collect a character - needed to solve the treasure hunt and find the secret final spot.

Like any good treasure hunt, from the starting location, you are given clues about the next location to check out (and the next character to collect). The clues are pretty varied in terms of type (e.g. family relations vs. architecture) and details. Some clues are obvious enough, while others will require making a guess or doing a bit more sleuthing on the internet. There is also a cool side guide, on the game page, which provides further detail on each location.

Though it took me much longer than I care to admit struggling to solve the puzzle (I had to restart a few times because my notes made no sense after a while), it was a fun way of being an online tourist in the small town, and learning some fun tit-bit about it. While novel in the medium use, it reminded me a bit of the author’s other town-focused game, Blossom, NY, in the share-some-obscure-knowledge-about-a-small-town way. It was a fun (if not at times frustrating) digital promenade, with a good use of the medium chosen.