Yaan Versus the Party

Yaan Versus the Party is a short time-sensitive Twine, where you play as Yaan, trying to timely leave from a work party. Many obstacles (colleagues) are obstructing his way, trying to keep him away from freedom. Each obstacle has multiple options to get around it, affecting both the clock on the side, and your approval from the party.

It took me a few tries to find one of the correct combinations, but even the “failed” actions are entertaining. There’s quite a bit to do for the little amount of words. And the writing style adds to the time-sensitive feeling conveyed. You feel the annoyance of Yaan being delayed, and you really want to help him get out!

In this short game you have to get through a party, passing 4 obstacles. You are rated on your performance by your boss and by your partner (one caring about the impression you made and one caring about the time you come back).

The obstacles are all different people. This is set in a larger world laid out in many games, so you can learn more about those characters there, but knowledge of those other games isn’t necessary.

The concept of replaying this game to get a perfect other is pretty good since it’s short with several paths per character. But there are two things about it that are frustrating: the e sing doesn’t give much feedback on what you did wrong, with just a pass or fail for each of your evaluators, and no gradations in the way they respond. Second, the two goals aren’t independent; you have to pass the first to reach the second. So it feels like there’s some underutilized potential.

This is a great game to code though; I feel like figuring this kind of thing out makes making future puzzles easier.