| 5 star: | | (1) | | 4 star: | | (7) | | 3 star: | | (2) | | 2 star: | | (0) | | 1 star: | | (0) |
| Average Rating: 
Number of Reviews: 5
Write a review |
1-5 of 51 of
1 people found the following review helpful:
"Can we talk about our Relationship?" "Look at that Architecture!", July 12, 2023Adapted from a SpringThing23 Review
Played: 4/10/23
Playtime: 10min, happy ending
Well, this work was a nice change of pace from the pretty narrow “Pulp or Funny Only” algorithm that seems to have inhabited my Spring Thing randomizer up to now. This is a relationship drama piece and stands out in direct contrast to everything else so far. It is specifically a tale of two lovers working through some doldrums and tensions in their relationship. It travels a clear path to success, by committing to the details of the characters in question and selling us on the reality of those.
Early on I was worried. A conversational path had a bug that delivered non sequitor text that both jarred and cast a pall worrying whether more glitches were to come. I happily report they did not.
A smart choice the game makes is to alternately put you in one, then the other’s head, back and forth as the drama progresses. It takes the additional step of providing a unique graphical cue for each protagonist which was a nice touch. The author uses this conceit to nice effect - contrasting their respective concerns and highlighting their dissimilar emotional priorities. This contrast (and neither character’s acknowledgement of the difference!) was a very mature, very interesting, and very well observed artifact of relationships. If I had a quibble here, it is that I found Yaan (the older, more powerful member of the pair) much better rendered than his young lover Kel.
As we are introduced, Yaan seems congnizant of the power imbalance between the two but not OWNING it, if that makes sense. He is further struggling with work anxieties and pressures. Between the background descriptions and the potential actions he might take, I felt he was really effectively painted with few strokes. Now that picture is a little skeevy, but it rings complex and true and interesting.
Kel on the other hand, despite having lots of concerns, felt less clearly drawn to me. He wants to befriend cats. (A clear cry for help… no, this is not the place.) He’s aware of the power imbalance. He wants closer relations with his family. He likes an old theatre. In particular, the options provided for him felt less nuanced and more melodramatic, most especially around the theatre topic. Which honestly, is really not their relationship problem, yeah? That comment was too flippant. The text is clearly using the theatre as a catalyst to air their deeper grievances in an indirect way. But it didn’t always come off that way for Kel’s options.
The game allows multiple gameplay styles. You can try to “two hand solitaire” it, and role play both characters, or you can “I’m the director” it and orchestrate the drama. For me, the latter made more sense because 1) I didn’t want to be skeevy and 2) Kel was harder to get a bead on. So in gameplay, I tried to work against 1) and find ways to add complexity to 2). And I got a satisfying drama and a good ending doing it! Well done, author!
Now the Achievements page told my there were 4 more endings, and two more achievements I might find. I don’t think I want to go for those though. I really enjoyed the character study I went with, and don’t think alternate ones will satisfy my sensibilities insomuch as it requires choices that were not as compelling to me. I’m happy enough with the story I got that I don’t need to poke the sleeping bull.
Spice Girl: Ginger Spice
Vibe: Relationship Drama
Polish: Smooth, bar one.
Is this TADS? No.
Gimme the Wheel! If it were mine, I’d fix that dialog bug next (which I believe author did). That sounds easier than the jeweler’s tool precision of character refinement.
Spice Girl Ratings: Scary(Horror), Sporty (Gamey), Baby (Light-Hearted), Ginger (non-CWM/political), Posh (Meaningful)
Polish scale: Gleaming, Smooth, Textured, Rough, Distressed
Gimme the Wheel: What I would do next, if it were my project.
1 of
1 people found the following review helpful:
Spring Thing 2023: Structural Integrity, June 18, 2023Relationships are a race against time to discover a love beneath the ever receding romance, but we own only fractions of our time, most of it lost to howling necessity, and the will to cherish languids from flutters to flickers; at first energy enough to lavish the days, explore how you connect in extravagant ways, but then you return to machine, return and return to routine, rumple back exhausted, not only of the desire to connect, but increasingly the sense that there’s anything left to connect with; each lambent hour echoes with disconnects, until, almost with relief, you realize you’re alone.
Racing against the clock this time are Yaan and Kel. Their dynamic is simple enough: they share an unadorned earnestness, Kel adds a casual cheerfulness that gives it a plainspoken joie de vivre, Yaan adds a responsible seriousness that focuses it into thoughtful stability. The signs are there that this could lead somewhere, yet, day after day, no progress occurs: “Now it’s just you, alone in the apartment. / Another day of trying to find ways to entertain yourself… / In the evening, Yaan arrives back slightly later than normal. He greets you with a simple “Hi” and a long sigh, and turns to pull off his shoes.” All day daydreaming about what your relationship could mean, and it means nothing before him stumbling through the door, drained into distant stares, muttering for a glass of wine to smooth the transition to sleep.
No progress being made, when all The Problems start peering in, you start to question what it is you’re fighting for; for, not about, since you’re very sure what you’re fighting about: the usual, of course: money, “Unlike you, he doesn’t have to get up and go to work; he quit his job when he moved in with you, since you make enough money to support you both. He was concerned about no longer bringing in money for his family, but you give him some regularly to pass on to them.”; the power dynamics that come with money, “Lately you’ve been feeling a little bit… neglected. A little bit… used. When the two of you started this arrangement, you made sure to clarify that you were committing to each other as equals—that this wasn’t going to be him paying you for companionship. But you’re starting to worry that, in essence, that is what your relationship has become…”; the lack of communication, with so many hurts quietly swallowed and stored up for later, when you’re suddenly aware that you’re shouting; and, finally, Matters of Principle which give you the pitched battle to imbue your petty nettleds with acceptably significant meaning: “Eventually, Yaan’s going to do, or not do, something, and it’ll finally be the last straw, enough to shake you out of your complacency and push you to finally make the hard choice. The theater wasn’t quite it—although it was close, and when it inevitably is torn down, you almost wish it had been—but it’s going to happen before long.” Doubts, tensions, awkwardnesses of perception, become disagreements more severe than the initial attraction, and you can start to see through them to the other side, how, instead of loving them, you could actually quite easily hate them…
In fact, you’re increasingly confused why you even chose to in the first place: “You are Kel, and you never expected to end up here. You were happy in your old life, living with your family, spending your days running around the city delivering messages.” Why should languishing for hours in an empty apartment waiting to greet someone at the door like a dog be more desired? All these brittle angers scabbing the communication until nothing can break through anymore, not anymore: “You’re Kel, still sitting on the floor beside Yaan, having just listened to him say the most heartfelt, honest things you’ve ever heard from him. Now he’s simply looking at you, all his hopes hanging on this moment. / Even after all that, you can’t bring yourself to trust him again. / “Sorry, but… I can’t do this anymore, Yaan,” you say. “I’m leaving.” / You get up and start packing your things, without looking back at him.” Leaving behind the nothing that you shared.
Or hold on for more, with empathy for the failures: “Yaan looks at you, as if waiting, but when you don’t say any more he rubs his eyes and shakes his head a little. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been under so much stress lately—I didn’t mean to neglect you, I didn’t mean to make you think…”” Not that he doesn’t love you, but that most days he returns withered beneath what it means to love. But what then, just wait more and more days for something more to never arrive? But what if there is a lovingness that can persist at localized minima? What if that something more isn’t some substantial epiphany, rather something far simpler, nestled around the unadorned eagerness, that straightforwardness of care, that once united you? Maybe your love isn’t some miracle to be worked, only the effort each day to hold together as miracle enough? “You’re Yaan. You leave work on time every day. You ask Kel about his day, and really listen to his answers. You check in with him once in a while to make sure he’s feeling good about your relationship. And, wonder of wonders… it’s better this way. He reminds you of the man you first met—you hadn’t realize how much he’d slipped away from that. Every day you don’t just look forward to coming home to him; you marvel at how lucky you are to have him in your life. / You’re Kel. Yaan keeps his promise. He’s open in a way he never was before—he gives you actual answers when you ask how his day was; he’s more affectionate, and tells you things like “I appreciate you” and “I love you.” He meets your family, properly, even though it nearly has him shaking with anxiety. And they admit to you, later, that they actually like him pretty well.”
2 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
Will the building fall apart, or your relationship?, May 17, 2023This falls into the genre of slice-of-life relationship-based stories, centring on a disagreement between a couple and how it ties into the hidden faultlines of their relationship: the title is elegantly apt. The story is told from different viewpoints, often flitting back and forth, which I wasn’t initially expecting, but it’s done very well. I wasn’t sure what the setting is supposed to be - one of the characters is supposed to have worked as a messenger, delivering messages across the city, but that’s the only real indicator: the story centres on a situation that could happen in all sorts of worlds.
A very nice-looking Twine, and rather like a short story in its ability to communicate a lot in what only takes a brief time to play. I very much liked the use of differently-coloured links for different purposes - blue to add extra description, red to move the story onwards. At the end, you reach a page listing all the endings you have reached so far, so it has some good replay value.
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
Narratively innovative LGBTQ Twine based piece, May 16, 2023This is a LGBTQ novella adapted into multiple ending Twine form.
There’s quite a lot of interaction with your partner, and a lot of choices about how to speak to them. But often early on I felt it wasn’t offering me the chance to explore difficult choices. There were things I wanted to say or do that weren’t offered to me. Which is maybe not surprising if it’s adapted from a novella.
However it does something narrative wise part way through that totally switches around, and I found extremely satisfying. I only played through to one ending. There are multiple choices you could make and change how it ends up. But i felt interactive, and exploring the characters, and reaching a satisfactory resolution.
So yes, initially I thought this was going to be far too linear and not interactive enough. But then things flipped, and it took a totally fresh approach. Well done to the author!
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
A queer relationship in trouble, May 1, 2023This game definitely brought back a lot of memories. I had a long relationship where I had a lot of work-life balance issues, and it eventually ended up falling apart, and this reminded me of that.
There are several endings, so there are likely different versions of this game depending on how you play, but in my playthrough, there were two main characters: a wealthy government official, and a young, poorer-class individual.
They love each other, but there are tensions. The poor one is concerned with fairness and trying to find beauty in day to day moments, while the richer one is trying to 'bring home the bacon' and do well at work.
An argument about one partner staying home late and missing an appointment because their boss corralled them at work reminded me of times that my boss in my first job wanted me to stay home late while my partner was caring for our newborn.
It's a tough situation. So I think there's a lot of emotion in this game. Your choices have a lot of freedom, too.
The only thing missing for me is length; I felt like the pacing in the first half was more drawn out and set up expectations for a longer game but that was rapidly concluded in the ending, leaving me wanting or expecting more.
1-5 of 5 | Return to game's main page