I read through Eye Contact pretty quickly, which was nice because I was able to zip through it several times to gain a full understanding of the story.
It recreates the experience of meeting up with a close friend who needs to vent. I thought that the story was skillfully delivered, realistically leading up to the part where you and your friend realize why she needs to vent.
It took me a shameful amount of time to recognize the wordplay in this entry’s title, but now I understand and I am here for it.
I did a quick playthrough as hoeforpoe and I thought it was a competent entry. The chat exchanges felt like real transcripts between people online. And they were applied sparingly; I appreciated that the game provided summaries of the discussions instead of trying to simulate lengthy poetry workshops.
On my second playthrough, I hit a blank screen and wondered whether I was doing it right — was there much interactivity in this story, and could I influence how it unfolded?
Then I opened up the walkthrough to see whether I had missed anything. OMFG, I did.
So, strong fiction, strong interactivity, and bonus points for adding interactive elements that played with the fourth wall. It was my own fault that I missed these features on my first two attempts.