Congee

by Becci

2020

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(6)
4 star:
(6)
3 star:
(14)
2 star:
(1)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 27
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- Edo, November 18, 2023

- Kinetic Mouse Car, July 29, 2022

- dgtziea, October 22, 2021

- rindy, October 3, 2021

- Jade68, September 14, 2021

- TheFlightyFairy, May 4, 2021

- Greg Frost (Seattle, Washington), January 26, 2021

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Very short but cute and fun!, December 22, 2020
by inte (USA)

This game is very short, but the art and music is amazing. Over all it's cute, fun, and with a heartwarming story.

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- Dawn Sueoka, December 16, 2020

- Marc-André Goyette, December 11, 2020

- autumnc, December 9, 2020

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Lovely little Twine game, December 6, 2020
by brwarner (Vancouver, BC)

Lovely little Twine game. This honestly feels like what all the tiny, evocative Twine games aspire to be and it does it so well. For such a small game, it has a lot of visuals but they are so effectively woven into the passages, it isn’t distracting it all. The first screen after the title will show you exactly what I mean. Great atmosphere, so much care taken with each passage, and really cute and heartwarming ending. Never had Congee, but now I want to try it! Please play!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Interactive comfort food, December 6, 2020
by Mike Russo (Los Angeles)
Related reviews: IF Comp 2020

The Comp randomizer handed me Congee and Mother Tongue close together, which is an interesting coincidence since they’re both short choice-based games dealing with immigration, alienation, and assimilation. Where Mother Tongue focuses more on the relationships between different generations and touches on some big issues, Congee is really about friends supporting each other, and the comforts of home.

The story here is very slight – the blurb says it all – so it’s really about the small details in how the thing is put together. Congee’s greatest strengths are the way it cleanly sets up the personalities and relationship between the main character and her friend, and the canny use of just a few simple visuals to set the mood on a cold, rainy British evening.

There’s good use of humor here – the protagonist bewailing her fever by noting that “the body is but a weak vessel” is a funny bit of self-pity, and the gag following her decision on what to name the regular get-togethers with her friend to eat congee also made me laugh. The writing in the exchanges between her and her best friend Allison is filled with nicely-judged details, in-jokes, and clever turns of phrase. Making the text messages look like text messages, and imposing delays that are long enough to make one believe in the conceit, but short enough that it doesn’t feel frustrating is a really nice touch too (and I hate it 99% of the time when games force you to wait for text to display).

Where I think the game falls down a tiny bit, and where I can’t help make a comparison to Mother Tongue, is in the short exchange between the protagonist and her mom. In fairness this isn’t the central relationship of the game – that’s clearly the one between the main character and her bestie – but the dialogue here felt a bit generic and vague, in a way that the conversation with Allison never did.

Again, though, that doesn’t do much to mar the appeal of this sweet story of how friends can make wherever you are feel a bit more like home.

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- E.K., December 5, 2020

- Karl Ove Hufthammer (Bergen, Norway), December 4, 2020

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A cute story about homesickness, friendship and family, December 2, 2020
by Stian
Related reviews: ifcomp 2020

Congee is low on interactivity, but it does tell a cute story about homesickness, friendship and family. Interspersed with the text are music and occasionally some nicely drawn pictures. A problem for me, playing it on a poor internet connection, was the size of the images, some up to a megabyte. I’m sure they could be reduced to a tenth of the size without sacrificing much detail.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Absolutely Lovely, December 1, 2020
by Ann Hugo (Canada)

I absolutely loved this game. I felt the story so much. And the characters were so wonderfully written. The audio and graphics were excellent. I don't know what to say beyond that this game was amazing and I 100% recommend it.

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- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), November 16, 2020

- Sobol (Russia), November 8, 2020

- nf, October 26, 2020

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A beautiful, lived-in short story with light interaction, October 21, 2020

Congee is a short game with multimedia elements about a young woman who craves a piece of home while living abroad.

The story features strong, assured writing, with great sense of place and character. And the sleek interactive design with chat window choices and occasional visual asides sets just the right tone to deliver the mood and message of the narrative.

It’s hard to find a negative, other than I wish the game were just a bit longer, expanded to get some more characterization and narrative heft. As it stands, the piece feels closer to flash fiction than short story in impact, but maybe that’s intentional.

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- Zape, October 12, 2020

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A short and sweet story about home, October 12, 2020
by MathBrush
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This is a truly lovely game. It’s written in Twine, and is basically a heartwarming short story told with interactivity, animation and sound.

You play as someone raised in Hong Kong now living in the UK. You are sick and wish more than anything you could have some congee.

The choices are more about roleplaying than about strategy, and that works well for me. Visually, the game is gorgeous, with animated line drawings, animated color scenes, and beautiful faux text messages.

I identified with the message of the game as well, even though I’ve never experienced it to that degree. I lived in Manhattan’s Chinatown and the Bronx in New York for 2 years after growing up in suburban Utah, and it was a real culture shock. Even now, I live in Texas without anyone nearby, as a single dad. And probably the thing I miss the most was our Sunday Roasts lol. I even cooked one for myself last week in the crockpot and ate the leftovers the whole week.

So, very lovely. It might not place in top 10 due to its short length,but I’d be happy to nominate it for an XYZZY or two next year.

+Polish: Incredibly well-polished.
+Descriptiveness: I could almost smell the food.
+Interactivity: It gives either choice or the illusion of choice, and both are good.
+Emotional impact: A lot, for me
+Would I play again: Definitely, if I ever get down.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The IF equivalent of comfort food, October 6, 2020
by RadioactiveCrow (Irving, TX)
Related reviews: About 15 minutes

This short choice-based work is about being both sick and homesick, and the comfort that certain foods can bring to both kinds of illness. While primarily text, the game is accompanied by soft music and occasional illustrations that perfectly compliment the mood of the story. I don't want to say much more as the game is very short and I wish for everyone to experience it for themselves. But I will say this: I've only played this game once, and for the best reason. The path that I took and the ultimate outcome of the game felt so perfect and brought me such joy that I can't imagine finding a better one and I want to preserve this one playthrough in my memory, undiluted.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Warm and comforting. , October 4, 2020
by deathbytroggles (Minneapolis, MN)

A linear, very short story about a woman missing being home and the women in her life who support her. Becci does some really cool things with Twine on the graphical end of things; the imagery is gorgeous. The story is not particularly deep, but it's heartfelt and something many people I'm sure can relate to. I almost want to try some congee!

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A lovely little Twine story, October 3, 2020

A small piece that tells a simple, heartwarming story.

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- jvg, October 2, 2020


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