The Den

**The Den** by Ben Jackson.

It's been interesting tracking Ben Jackson's IF career. *The Kuolema* used Google Forms, a highly unusual format, and was choice-based but required text entry. It had lots of open exploration.

Then we had *Lunium*, a tightly constrained Twine escape room that also featured both choice and text entry, and included several visual puzzles. It kept most puzzles at all time.

Now we have *The Den*. While it keeps the choice and text entry hybrid of previous games, it has (in my mind) a stronger plot arc and better pacing than the other two, and features two protagonists, Aiden and Vee.

Our two heroes live in The Den, an underground area controlled tightly by Father. My first impression of the game was that it was similar to 10 Cloverfield Lane, where a tyrannical man imprisons others, and in this case was abducting children for experiments. I later decided that (Spoiler - click to show)this was some kind of lab with artificial beings and near the end it was clear that this was (Spoiler - click to show) a retelling of the story of Adam and Eve.

This game gave me big Subnautica vibes, with regards to storyline.

Puzzles in this game are the classic type you see in two-person games like Fire Boy and Water Girl, where one player opens passages for another or one player finds passwords for another.

There is also a Wordle mini-game, which I thought was amusing. I also found it a bit contrived, but that is later resolved.

The game is long, a bit more than 2 hours for me. I found the writing good; the two main characters manage to be neither cloying nor obnoxious, and the character of Father grew on me throughout the game.

The only things that I didn't much like during the game was how many options were 'Continue the story' or 'stop right now'. I usually didn't try the 'stop right now' choices, but once when I did the game ended (near the end) and another time it just ignored my choice, essentially (near the beginning). I understand the need to both move forward the plot and also maintain agency, but we usually reached those points by player commands in the first place, so I don't think we need additional confirmation so often. On the other hand, I'm not sure what the fix would be, as it's nice to have a little more interactivity like that. This is just a minor quibble; I think this game is great, and has the same high quality that proved popular in the author's earlier games.

Finally, I liked the use of all sense in the descriptions. There are a lot of smells and temperatures, along with the feel of wind, the hum of fans, the taste of food, and these sense come into play with the puzzles. I like that quite a bit and would like to incorporate that more into my own games.

This gave me "Silo" vibes, as the mystery of their existence in a post apocalypse underground bunker is slowly revealed as you solve puzzles and investigate your mundane surroundings more closely. Hints and clues keep the story moving.

Swapping control between the two characters in this adventure leads to an interesting paced and double perspective experience. Learning to use both your assets to solve problems and investigate different areas makes this game exciting and fresh.

I enjoyed the easy progression, lack of dead end and stumping problems. Nothing was contrived or unfathomable and that keep the story moving and me engaged.

Highly recommended for casual or beginners, this is a great introduction to adventuring.

Hats off to the writer for his imagination, polish and very cool touches throughout.

Adapted from an IFCOMP24 Review

'Awake in sci-fi base, then escape while learning lore' is a tried and true staple of IF, carrying momentum even into the console gaming era. Here it is spun as a two-piece conceit, where two protagonists must work in concert to solve puzzles and help each other, first to suss out the truth of where they live, then to decide what to do with that knowledge.

This is as assured an implementation of this old saw as I’ve seen in a while, and it has everything to do with the design of its alternating, interlocking protagonist puzzles. Some areas being only available to one, some only to the other, controls in those areas having effects in the opposite area - it is a natural progression that feels a bit like a peloton as you alternate leads to make tandem progress. There are subtle gameplay flourishes (like graphically highlighting areas that are finished and lock icons on ones that are still gated) that help wrangle and keep things on track. The central mechanism of hacking computers is an amusing puzzle, and savvy enough to exit gracefully before it becomes a chore. The 'search/secure' and 'use item/explore more area' is all paced and varied very well, never getting into tiresome routine and continually presenting just one more twist on the formula. As a raw puzzle fest, this was well designed and completely Engaging.

The story this is in service of flirted with – no, it flirted, traded digits, then blossomed into a regular hookup with – too-familiar beats. The lore, the antagonist, the overarching challenge, you’ve seen all these things before, and the main narrative here is not going to astonish you. The work still has some tricks up its sleeve though. Every time you start to feel jaded by the plot, there are flourishes that tweak just enough to elicit a smile or nod of appreciation. A mid-point scene where one character encounters the antagonist had a true frisson of ‘oh crap, did I just lose this game?’ followed by, ‘ooh, clever moment, narrative.’ The allusionary linkages are so in-your-face as to circle around from ‘oh c’mon, this?’ all the way around to ‘lol, ok, you’ve won me over with your confidence.’ It’s been a while since I’ve seen a work sell its unsubtlety this thoroughly on little more than the strength of its commitment to the bit. I mean, the (Spoiler - click to show)protagonists’ names, the final (Spoiler - click to show)vessel for the cure… and then the PLAYFULNESS WITH THE TITLE GRAPHICS??? Fair enough work, you earned it. I would say the narrative didn’t wow me, but it did ultimately sell itself. (Caveat. There was one narrative choice that felt a shade off. Given the work’s final, heavy-handed-but-loveable-for-it conceit, it is odd that for most of the work, the protagonists were characterized as (Spoiler - click to show)siblings. I get the misdirect value it serves to the narrative, but that’s gonna make the epilogue WEIRD.)

Here is the deeply unfair portion of the program. This author’s previous works really raised the bar on graphical integration. Their skill in this arena is top tier, and among the things I most look forward to in their work. The Den flouted this established strength by incorporating almost no graphics into the proceedings. Look, this author doesn’t OWE that to any of us, but I couldn’t help but imagine a version of the game graced with epic graphics WHILE I WAS PLAYING. My brain is a dick, but there it is. Really, really Engaging puzzle play, a narrative that should have been Mechanical but Sparked nevertheless, and the whole time, thinking of graphics that could have been.

Played: 10/7/24
Playtime: 1.75hr, 93/97 survival chance, also fail end
Artistic/Technical ratings: Engaging/Seamless, penalty point for shortchanging that patented BJaxn Graphix!
Would Play After Comp?: No, experience feels complete

Artistic scale: Bouncy, Mechanical, Sparks of Joy, Engaging, Transcendent
Technical scale: Unplayable, Intrusive, Notable (Bugginess), Mostly Seamless, Seamless