All Hands

Next up for me, and this Texture piece, a horror/mystery set on the sea, in an unspecified time and place, but my mind imagined almost Napoleonic Britain.

Starting this up i’m reminded how I find Texture somewhat tricky to use with my neuro illness hands. Also as i uncovered more chunks of text in the middle of existing text the font size on screen got smaller and smaller and harder to read, which isn’t great for accessibility. However it’s the author’s choice. And it does work differently from conventional choice based pieces. Instead you effectively have a set of enigmatic verbs at the bottom of the screen. Selecting one shows which nouns in the body of the text (which can change as you interact) can be used with that verb, which you then drag above the noun. There are sometimes verbs that seemingly don’t work on anything, e.g. often “Take” in this game. It’s a curious interface, but quite evocative in of itself, with a sense of unplanned discovery more than player control. I rather like it, even if I find it a bit difficult physically to operate!

The writing of the game is strong, as you can uncover a mysterious ship and the stories behind it. There is exploration, with numerous options for how you approach things. At no point did I feel rail roaded. However I was puzzled by the ending I reached, though not inclined to replay, given my physical difficulties with the interface.

But I’m left with an eerie unsettling sense from the story, which is a credit to the author. It is well crafted and nicely written. I would replay if it wasn’t so tricky for me physically.