Black Rock City

One of my favorite things about this game is reading reviews from people who either don't know about Burning Man or didn't connect this game to it. Absent this context, it kinda sounds like this strange magical realist story as opposed to a pretty accurate depiction of Burning Man, by all accounts.

Because it's such a celebration of Burning man, I think you reaction to this will depend on your feelings about the festival. Personally, I just like the fact that something that strange exist in the world and I'm fascinated by the contradictions surrounding it. Since I am scandinavian, on the wrong continent, and would die in a desert, this is prolly the closest I'll ever get to experiencing it.

Black Rock City gave me the same relaxed feeling as did Beautiful Dreamer by S. Woodson.

The PC doesn't have any clear goals, they just have some time to spend at Burning Man festival before a dust storm hits. There are no right or wrong choices, no pressure; you explore different branches of the game, learn things about the bizarre city and its inhabitants, feel free to try even ill-advised actions like (Spoiler - click to show)jumping from a flying carpet.

The game has 2^6=64 endings and a considerable variety of possible actions across the branches; in addition to standard adventure verbs like "examine", "talk to" and "kiss", sometimes you can choose "believe", "sass", "admire", etc.

I've played this game 3 times since IFComp, each time trying several endings.

It uses Texture, which is a mobile-friendly app which seems like it could work well with screen readers.

Each page, though, is just two choices, which split into 2 choices, about 8 times. Or 6, actually.

The writing is good, but pure branching just isn't my style. I did enjoy it more on my 3rd playthrough, though.