Starfish and Crystallisation

Our tale takes place in sunny Singapore. This is a story of loss and longing, with elements of dreaming, introspection and memory as the protagonist thinks over something they have lost. There are a few riddles at the start which ties into the protagonist's own train of thought, but most of these should be solvable either with google search or the hints provided in game.

That said, along with A Bottle from the Future, the presentation is hard on the eyes. The choice of colors, along with the sound, do a good job of conveying the melancholy vibes. Yet, it is just plain difficult to read. The choice of red and pale fonts do not look quite readable against the blue and white backgrounds, and the tiny size of the fonts does not help at all. As someone who has made his own bad art, I understand how difficult it can be to get this color contrast right. There was also one time where I quit the game early as I was just unable to see the link to continue.

The story was nice and the pictures fit the vibe. I just think that larger font against a solid background might have helped with readability.

Note: This review was written during Spring Thing 2025, and originally posted in the intfiction forum on 24 April 2025.

This is a short multimedia Twine piece about past memories and loss.

It’s quite evocative, and well written, though not too interactive. There are some key choices to make, and also some sections where you’re asked to type an answer or word into a box. Which can be challenging, though hints are given.

There is music, but fortunately for me it was instrumental, so unusually for me I kept playing it while I read the text. Often audio tracks for multimedia IF distract me too much from reading. The visuals got a little muddled at times, making text harder to read. But generally the interface was pretty clean.

A short piece, but well worth playing through. It only took 10 minutes of my time, but I found it very engrossing.