Mikayla's Phone

I liked the interface and overall design of the game, which were clean and minimalist. The simple fonts and monochrome gradient contributed greatly to presentation. There were however several issues, some of which essentially caused the game to crash (such as when the game froze upon clicking the last note).

In the context of games like 'Whiteout' and 'a normal lost phone', this genre has become more established and less niche, which is something Mikayla's Phone might or might not have recognised with its goal of giving the player as authentic an experience as possible (which could be interpreted as going either way - be it conforming to or deviating from the standard). Nonetheless, I do like the fact that this game was made by a teenager and her dad, which makes the notes and the poetry seem less like a professional construct and more like a transfer of genuine, unaffected experiences.

This game is about a girl named Mikayla, whose phone you find. The game consists of digging though all the apps in the phone to see what her life was like.

I enjoyed the photos (of random things like dogs and writing) and the poetry. There were text notes and voice memos that were, I think, too long for me. They seemed to be there mainly to provide a feeling of reality and background; however, in a storytelling environment, being 'true to life' often makes things too unwieldly. I feel that the purpose of stories is to condense and crystallize reality, and those two parts of the game could have used significant condensing and crystallization.

Overall, it left a good impression on me, especially the ending (which I found by poring through the code).