Grove of Bones

Absolutely fantastic, compelling premise that tackles greater good vs personal commitments in an intense and captivating way. (Spoiler - click to show)The scene of the townsfolk debating who should be sacrificed is incredibly compelling, I could read a whole chapter of just that.

That all said, this is an incredible short story that I hope places high in its competition. Made an account on the IFcomp website to give it a good score.

I was surprised this one wasn't reviewed on the spreadsheet yet. Jacic has a history of doing small, well-polished creepy stories, so I was looking forward to playing this one, and I think it worked out well.

This story combines three effective horror tropes: a 'deal with the devil' (although who the deal is with here is up to interpretation), carnivorous plants, and a lottery/voting system in a small town for deciding which citizen to kill.

You play as a citizen in a small desert town that depends on its sustenance for red, bloody fruit. Unfortunately, the red, bloody fruit, gifted to the town by a stranger years ago, can only grow if fed upon the blood of the guilty. Thus it falls upon your community to determine the guilty among yourselves each year and to feed them to the tree.

The problem is that your wife was taken last year, and you and your son are among the top nominees this time. You have to navigate your way through these tumultuous times and find a way to save yourself and the remnants of your family.

I liked the creepy styling on this and though the writing was appropriately dread-filled. I had some real agency, as I took the option at the end to revisit the game from its most important decision points. Both endings were slightly 'off' for me in length; I feel like it could have done with either less denouement and just having an abrupt or implied ending or a longer denouement with more emphasis on the character, but that's just nitpicking since I didn't find any real flaws to talk about. Jacic produces consistently good work and I look forward to more games from this author.