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Review
Adapted from a SpringThing26 Review
Played: 4/8/26
Playtime: 5 min to play, 5 min to explore credits
I have, for a while now, called choice-select works that adhere to a parser gameplay paradigm as “Twinesformers: Parsers in Disguise.” At one point, I grappled with the reverse: parsers that echoed choice-select gameplay. What did I call those? “DeceptaTwines” I think? If not, I like the sound of that, we’ll just pretend that was it. It does have the unfortunate side effect of positioning such works as villainous, which isn’t great, but puns will out.
This work is a short, very short, DECEPTA-TWINE that is completely playable as a link-select interface. The tortured Autobot conceit of my categorization is completely validated by a this work with two forms! It is a tight dual character study, where the protagonist/player and narrator are in dialogue with one another, revisiting artifacts from the protag’s life. Well, the Narrator is in dialogue, the player/protag is providing the impetus. The narration of these artifacts reveals a tortured family dynamic whose details are the crux of the work. Like, even discussing them, in a work this tight, can’t help but be spoilering. Yeah, no choice but to:
(Spoiler - click to show)Parenting, amirite? You have this whole new being that starts as a blank slate. How do you avoid infusing that empty vessel with your own loftiest hopes and dreams, powered by a chemical reaction of Love among the strongest we are capable of? How do you avoid seeing this bundle of endless possibility as a vehicle to correct or redeem failures in you own life? Thing is, these are not empty vessels at all, but EMERGING ones. Parents that cannot give space to that emergence, prioritize it over their own vicarious desires, those parents curdle this relatable impulse to something toxic. And tell themselves it is ‘parenting.’meminerimus captures this dynamic super concisely, conveying it through artifact exploration. Crucially, it recognizes that (Spoiler - click to show)the toxicity of this impulse is actually harmful to BOTH PARTIES. Perhaps not equally harmful, but devastating nevertheless. In this case, the tragedy of it underlined by one party seemingly not recognizing the cause-and-effect at all, and left to wonder. This is a pretty subtle and nuanced dynamic to convey in such a short runtime!
Overall, I found it very well done - so much emotional impact packed into such a small frame. Crucially, while the work clearly had a villain in mind and some artifacts generated repellently unnuanced feelings, others softened and humanized the proceedings: shifting it from raw despicability to flawed human tragedy. The alchemy worked. If I had to quibble (which… I might as well have said, “If I had to breath…”), I think the brevity of it slightly underserved it. In a longer (though not much longer!) work, I think the mixture would have blended a bit better. Limited to only four artifacts, there was a bit of whipsaw between narrative extremes. Like trying to drink a cocktail where the flavors had not quite merged yet.
Hey, I called it a quibble. Notwithstanding my documented love of well-blended cocktails, it was still a noteworthy achievement for its small package, capturing a very nuanced dynamic well out of scale to its word count.
Spaceship IF: Discovery
Vibe: Bad Parenting
Polish: Smooth
Gimme the Wheel! : If this were my product I would STOP GLORIFYING PYTHON and steer into the emotional healing power of PERL. Fun fact: I did coerce my kids to creating “Hello World” programs in Perl at an astonishingly young age. WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT???
Polish scale: Gleaming, Smooth, Textured, Rough, Distressed
Gimme the Wheel: What I would do next, if it were my project.
