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Swanglass

by Yoon Ha Lee

2004
Inform 6

(based on 5 ratings)
2 reviews9 members have played this game. It's on 6 wishlists.

Awards

Best of Landscape, Landscape - 2004 IF Art Show

Ratings and Reviews

5 star:
(0)
4 star:
(1)
3 star:
(2)
2 star:
(2)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating: based on 5 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 2
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The World's Tiniest Violin, September 1, 2012
by Sam Kabo Ashwell (Seattle)
Related reviews: poetry

Yoon's talents lie strongly on the writer side, as an author of lyrical, strange, high-concept SF/F in traditional prose formats. She has a proclivity for improbable fanfic mashups. And thus, here we have a short, poetic, lachrymose and opaque piece -- a fragment, really -- about Swan Lake and Klein bottles.

As an Artshow piece, there is not a great deal to do in Swanglass except to try out commands and piece together fragments of story, until you find the thing that ends the game. The writing sometimes works and sometimes is too overwrought to take seriously (">X MOSS Soft and green and vulnerable. Like your heart, once.") If you're not vaguely familiar with the plot of Swan Lake, it'll make very little sense; even if you are, you'll get little more than glimpses.

One of the big problems with more serious IF is how to maintain tone when the player resists it by entering silly or out-of-character commands. This is more of a problem when tone-viable, useful actions aren't obvious. It's tempting, in this situation, to write in snarky dismissive responses, in the same general style as the rest of the game; this works very well for some narrative voices, and quite poorly for others. Swanglass, with its tone of highly-strung, lyrical grief, is not really appropriate for response-snark, but the snark's there regardless. The answers to >EAT SWANGLASS or >COUNT LEAVES are entertaining, but give up too much: you get the sense of the author lampooning her own style. A larger game might get away with this.

In most respects this is like a tiny, puzzleless Moonlit Tower. If you enjoyed that and want more, this will deliver a very small taste, but probably not one that will satisfy.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Beautiful but Incomplete, July 13, 2009

Just like in the author's previous work (The Moonlit Tower), the writing and imagery in Swanglass is unique and absolutely beautiful.
Unfortunately, the game suffers from a lack of purpose. There really isn't much to do other than examine, explore things with your senses, etc. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if there was more to explore, more memories, etc., but as it is it ends up feeling incomplete. More to experience would have provided a sense of progress and closure, even without an actual "goal".
Swanglass is definitely worth playing, especially considering how short it is. While it isn't perfect, it is a memorable experience.

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Game Details

Swanglass on IFDB

Polls

The following polls include votes for Swanglass:

No map necessary by Divide
Pieces which can be fully enjoyed without drawing map, ideally without taking any notes whatsoever. Ones which you could play on a bus, on a break, laying on bed, etc. with nothing but a portable player. Games for which you don't need...

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