The good people

This is a conversation-powered, living poem in which two people uncover a village previously submerged by a dam. As they uncover layers of the physical landscapes, so they also uncover the landscapes of the PC's childhood and family.

Everything is fragmentary, forgotten, which creates a sort of creeping horror. The unpredictable visual design adds to that.

The game has a striking use of images throughout, and whether by design or browser variability, the text design occasionally looks buggy - text sometimes appears in unexpected places, or laid out in odd ways. Here I chose to see that as part of the effect of the game.

The Good People was intriguing, not least because it scratched my particular itch of exploring abandoned landscapes and memories.

This game grew on me over time.

Like Pseudavid's previous work, this game is a highly-polished Twine game that focuses on time, place, and interpersonal relationships.

In The Good People, you play as a person descended from the inhabitants of an ancient village which was covered by a reservoir, and which has now only recently emerged. The exact setting escapes me; it seems like Native Americans in the Southwest due to the reservoir setting, but could also be Irish perhaps (?) or South American.

You've started a relationship with a travel writer who is of a different race from you, and you feel alienated from your past and your people.

This slice-of-life opening is pretty good but a little too 'high art' for me. It takes a sharp turn in the middle, though, that resonated strongly with me.

Uses unusual text placements, graphic images, occasional slow text and text animations.

English & spanish review,


Man, it's okay for me to say so: A "roller coaster" game of emotions between the protagonists, their current history, their past life and their nearest future. Immersive, very well written, polished, long, seems replayable (I'll confirm that later). It contains a series of very well worked photos, they change their appearance between day and night; the text is assigned a color for each character and also becomes chaotic when the character falls apart psychologically.

Two notes: at some point we change characters and the texts are aligned on the screen, with different fonts and sizes, making them very easy to read.

We are discovering the story through exploration and conversation that gives us more or less direct and more or less disruptive options. The duration of the game according to MB is one hour, although it took us 2 hours to read all the texts aloud and choose the options among the 3.

A detail: Good people are not us. :smiley: and the fact is that the game tells us about asymmetric relationships, the problems of uprooting, climate change, but also about the myths and legends of northern Spain.

In short, we are faced with a very fun game, which will make us think "in another way" depending on our personal relationship with the character, since through choices, it will end up becoming our avatar. It is more a game of whiskey than beer, better to play it at sunset in a quiet and unhurried place.

- jade






Hombre, está bien que lo diga yo: Un juego "montaña rusa" de emociones entre los protagonistas, su historia actual, su vida pasada y su futuro más cercano. Inmersivo, muy bien redactado, pulido, largo, parece que rejugable (eso lo confirmaré más tarde). Contiene una serie de fotos muy bien trabajadas, cambian de aspecto entre el día y la noche; el texto tiene adjudicado un color para cada personaje y además se vuelve caótico cuando el personaje se desmorona psicológicamente. Dos notas: en algún momento cambiamos de personaje y los textos van alineados por la pantalla, con diferentes fuentes y tamaños, haciéndolos muy fáciles de leer.
Vamos descubriendo la historia a través de la exploración y la conversación que nos da opciones más o menos directas y más o menos disruptivas.

La duración del juego según MB es de una hora aunque a nosotros nos llevó 2 horas al leer en voz alta todos los textos y elegir las opciones entre los 3.
Un detalle: La buena gente no somos nosotros. :smiley: y es que el juego nos habla de las relaciones asimétricas, los problemas del desarraigo, el cambio climático pero también de los mitos y leyendas del norte español.

En definitiva nos encontramos ante un juego muy divertido, que nos hará pensar "de otra manera" dependiendo de nuestra vinculación personal con el personaje, ya que mediante elecciones, se acabará convortiendo en nuestro avatar. Es más un juego de whisky que de cerveza, mejor jugarlo al atardecer en un lugar tranquilo y sin prisas.

- Jade