Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

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.

notes on the disappearance of a sister is an investigative interactive piece, where a young woman created a board to keep track of information found about her sister’s disappearance, which happened a year prior. While her sister’s case is unresolved, Eleanor is set on finding her - no matter the costs. Retracing the events leading to the disappearance, she questions a few individuals close to her sister at the time, and unearth some shocking revelations about her family.

The format of the story, through the investigation board of factual notes, thoughts/hypotheses and communication, really enhances the mystery. Organised by sections, you get to go through Eleanor’s thoughts processes, as she finds new information and processes it. We see her idea of her sister and where she stands in regards to her family changing as the investigation progresses, and how little she knew about her own blood.

Yet, Eleanor’s investigation is cut short, leaving us to piece out what happened to her and her sister. And it’s not hard to do by the time you get to the end - there are enough hints throughout the notes to point at the supposed culprit and their motives. Even with threads abandoned, and questions unanswered, the use of the medium is incredibly effective in communicating the story.

Love and Java is a short branching choice-based piece made in pure HTML and CSS. With its 9 different endings, it paints a picture of dealing with poor mental health and its felt consequences (e.g. insomnia, isolation, hallucinations, negligence…). The descriptions of the setting and of yourself is Kafka-esque, with the run-down unfamiliar-yet-familiar rooms, or the animalistic/alien-like view of yourself (which you even compare to (Spoiler - click to show)a moth). It’s both very surreal and strangely grounded. Definitely a vibe.
I do wish there was a bit more contrast between the links and the body of text. I thought at first the game was broken, but turns out the link is simply hidden.

CurseOfTheManor.xls is a sparse parser escape puzzle created in Microsoft Excel. The manor you are currently in is cursed, stopping you from leaving until you’ve collected certain items and placed them in a specific spot. Each of these items and the final location are blocked behind a puzzle. While it uses a limited parser (VERB + NOUN), there are no hints or walkthroughs. The difficulty is noted as cruel.

And it is pretty cruel - I got stuck a couple of times trying to solve some puzzles, before realising I should have unlocked something else first. Two sections include a dark room, some objects use the same item, and some interactions are essentially a one-way deal. In the same vein, the map is surprisingly large, often requiring you to go from one end to the other to solve a specific puzzle. Drawing up a map to keep track is advised (I got lost).
On the other hand, correcting mistakes is much easier. Rather than spamming UNDO or RESTART, you just need to scroll up and edit the line with the mistaken action. The answers will then update as if it was your first time entering it. It made test and trials and errors much easier to go through.

It took me quite a while to get through the game, since getting stuck with a couple of puzzles. With the limited descriptions/responses, you sometimes need to think a bit out of the box (and about some unusual verbs) to get through blocks on the path. But it was pretty satisfying to 1- solve the puzzles individually and 2- find the correct order to do all the actions the right way.

Overall, it was a creative way of making a really well-built parser.

:-O (..)_ INTERRED (..)_ :-Q is a short parser-like escape puzzle, coded in emoticons. Waking up in a bedroom, you feel the urge to leave this seemingly unknown place. Getting out isn’t too complicated, there is only one thing you need and all actionable commands per room are provided. It shouldn’t even be possible to fail.
What is most intriguing, is more how the game was made and is running. You actually get to peek at the source code, since you need to copy-paste it in the interpreter - though it doesn’t make much sense as is. I didn’t even know emoticons could be used to store data or be used to code whole games. So that was neat.

Mad, Sad, Glad is a snapshot of a corporate workshop following the end of a project. Inside the Miro page, participants could express what made they made, sad, and glad about the project, so to wrap up. You can also interact with it yourself, leaving a note on the Glad board too.

While there is no information about the project, you do learn a bit more about the company, with (Spoiler - click to show)the departure of colleagues, hiring/bonus freezes, and restructuring. With this, you'd expect the feedback to be of a certain way, as team members were welcomed to share their feelings and opinions (as the player, you can also edit the file and add your own comment!). Surprisingly, it ended up being (Spoiler - click to show)overwhelmingly positive.

But is it surprising, really? The Miro board actually (Spoiler - click to show)doesn't allow you to add any comments anywhere but the Glad section - the Mad and Sad post-its simply being screenshot images, not interactive elements you can edit. As if management had decided on a conclusion ahead of the workshop, regardless of opinions. As well, I honestly wouldn't expect the team players to share otherwise, (Spoiler - click to show)considering the state of the company - during uncertain periods, sharing criticism could land you the boot. I know I wouldn't either...

It's a pretty effective criticism on project management, from the way the board is formatted (with the cheerful stickers and bright colours), the way information and tasks are communicated, in contrast with the interactivity ((Spoiler - click to show)or rather restricted...).

a conversation with a concerned cow is a short conversation with, like the title says, a concerned cow. They've been feeling down for a while, thinking about life and death, wondering what happens when everything ends (you get to fill in a form). Worried about how you'd feel about the conversation, the cow sets some jazzy relaxing music and even sends you a cute slideshow (as some sort of palate cleanser), as well as an email address to each out for more conversations. It is a bit absurd, and also quite sweet.

Bakery management challenge is a cooking/management sim made in GoogleSheets, where the goal is to make and sell as many good in a limited amount of time. Each good has a specific recipe, with timed steps (kneading, rising, baking). You need to organise the 10-min-incremented planning with the good you’ll work on in that time. The sim has three levels, with the last two introducing a new step and cash reward.

This entry felt more like a gameplay prototype than a fully fledged IF game: there isn’t much story or text outside of the actual place action in the block or recipe book, nor does it tally the actual result of your actions (XP/money earned).
There was also an issue with filling the blocks, as you can only put one recipe per action (i.e. one kneading, one rising, one baking, one selling), even though the instructions allows for multiple recipe happening at once (i.e. rising/selling/freezing) - this makes the planning a bit more convoluted than necessary.

While the execution could use some polishing (and a tiny bit of a story, maybe even some endings depending on how much you sell), the core idea is pretty neat. I’d definitely play a resource management IF game.