Ruiness

Time to completion: 30-40 minutes

You are a traveller - whether you be scavenger or dustrunner - and, on your steed, you traverse the hostile lands.

Ruiness is set in what I term 'dystopian wilderness': not quite post-apocalyptic, but barren, harsh, downright caustic environments. The prose is purple and abstract; the story typically abstruse. The florid prose thrums with purpose, though: each place has a distinct climate and role, and the different races or roles you can assume remain thematically consistent.

This game has all the hallmarks of a Porpentine game, but what I found the most interesting was the map/travel system. You travel by typing in your destination in a text field. Whilst in new locations, you discover new names, and the cities you have discovered are mapped out on a chart you carry. This allows for Easter eggs, for openness, for a sense of discovery.

Ruiness is a mid-length confection of a game which affords slightly different perspectives with different characters. The travel system is definitely worth having a look at.

In this game by Porpentine, an author known for creating bio-mechanical worlds that are almost hallucinatory. This game is a great example of her world building power.

You play in a dust-covered world of raiders and scavengers. You can create yourself, but also destroy yourself, and both are necessary.

This game is unusual for Twine in that you have to enter city names in text when traveling. This gives more of a riddle aspect to the game. However, you have a map storing names you've met. There are less than 10 total cities.

The game ends in a sort of transformation that is best experience rather than described. Overall, it has a feeling of exploration and of 'just living'. One of the least disgusting porpentine games, and one of my favorites of hers.

Ruiness is a cosmic fantastical journey. You get to choose your character and explore different routes of a world that I sort of interpreted as desert like but also with really shiny temples and cities. The game kind of reminded me of all of my fave JRPGs, I can think of Phantasy Star and even the latest Xenoblade game.

There's also sort of an existential theme to it, at least this is how I interpret it from the ending I've gotten. Despite all the suffering you go through, in the end, hopefully, you will reach serenity.

She also makes this ingenious text map for you to travel to other places. The game overall has a very ambient feel to it despite some bleak existential feels.

It's freaking Porpentine just play it.

Pros: A RPG journey with nice graphics and innovative use of Twine.
Cons: I think one time I played this game and ran into a bug but that was a long time ago so I don't know if it's there anymore.