Listen to the Phone Ring

This game is entered in the Neo Twiny Jam, having less than 500 words.

It's an interesting game, a sequel to an idle game called Literally Watch Paint Dry that I'm in the middle of playing as I write this. It has some interesting plot twists about friends saying cruel things.

This game is split into two branches, one with a friend that is pretty kind; this branch is fairly bland. The other is with a 'friend' who hasn't been there for you since transitioning. This one is more poignant.

Overall, I feel the game made sense without knowledge of the idle game prequel. But both branches felt like they could use a little more 'seasoning', some more uniqueness in either phrasing or plot.

LttPR is a half-sequel to Litteraly Watch the Paint Dry (a meta Idle Clicker), during which you are looking forward to the weekend and hanging out with a friend. Through the limited options, neither answering the phone at first, you find out whether your friends are still truly your friends…* This short slice-of-life felt a bit too tell-instead-of-show for my taste… But I found the topic of friendship while being true to yourself had an interesting start.

*both friend appear in LWPD though they weren’t named at that point.

On its own, this is just a choice between whom to call, without a lot of data You have a conversation, then hang up. But paired together with a predecessor, a penny drops. It becomes more than a small vignette but a true story.

The predecessor is a cookie-clicker sort of game called Literally WatchPaint Dry. It's not the first boredom simulator and won't be the last. But it's a relatively quick one. And it uses the cookie clicker engine to relate a story with all the paint you watch dry. A friend turns away from you based on who you are, but another takes place. The implication is that there are some people you can watch paint dry with, and some people who were maybe exciting at first, or you did more exciting things with, but they were unfulfilling.

Perhaps this back-reference bends the rules of NTJ slightly. But I think this entry in Neo Twiny Jam can stand on its own. Pair it with LWPD, and you have something very nice indeed. It requires a certain confidence to call a game LWPD or, indeed, to refer back to it. That confidence is not arrogance, here.

I confess I used a keystroke-sender to get through LWPD. There is nothing beyond the first day and a half (129600 seconds to be precise) and it subverts the whole pointles clicking genre with something neat and emotionally rewarding. You see the backstory behind the friend who wants to be with you and the one who doesn't. You realize perhaps you were calling the old friend out of habit or misplaced loyalty.

It reminded me of a friend who I thought was okay watching paint dry with me. Then I figured I got too boring for him. But then I thought of what his ideas of excitement were, and I was glad I was boring that way.

LttPR lives up to its credo--it allows you to take it or leave it, even if it is different from the other entries in the jam (it is very plain, itself, but refers to previous non-text-based games, in this case one made from a graphic engine for a game originally meant to be mindless) or not being very interactive. It may, in fact, not be exciting. This is not because the author has a lack of creativity. But there are many efforts about far more oppressive circumstances that get the point across and may seem shinier and more praiseworthy. Many are. But LttPR focuses more on personal rejection and coping with it without drama and, in doing so, it is saying it's okay with what it is. This isn't a backhanded compliment, but I always enjoy works that don't have to be exciting to be creative or thought-provoking, especially if they help me recall certain negative things in a more constructive light. LttPR did that.