Aquarium

This fun little Twine piece takes a classic convention of IF--the amnesiac protagonist--and puts a new spin on it, featuring a character with an extensive but mysterious and shadowy past. The protagonist has big secrets to hide, but she's also a normal person on a date, and she's trying to balance the tension of her hidden identity with her genuine interest in her classmate.

This piece wasn't as tense as the follow-up, Thanksgiving, because it isn't as linear; instead, it presents a limited open-world concept (within the confines of the Aquarium), which held through some fairly complex state tracking regardless of how I tried to subvert or break it.

The technical complexity is matched by the writing, which manages to be fresh and creative despite the modular framework; very impressive.

I loved the tenseness of Thanksgiving, but both works are strong and stand on their own as fun and replayable pieces. This piece feels more open and replayable--I have the sense that even more is going on here than I found in a few run-throughs--which is both frustrating and compelling. On balance, it's a rewarding, challenging, and intriguing work.

I came to this game after playing the sequel, and I loved learning more about the protagonist. This series is about a young girl who has deep secrets, and the men she is involved with.

The links in this game are cleverly colored, with one color for cycling text, another for branches, etc. This makes the game much more enjoyable than standard Twine.

The story is about a date with a boy after ditching school. Both of you have secrets. The game is pretty complicated, with many options to branch out on.

The one thing I didn't like as much was the styling. It looks like an aquarium, which really fits the story, but I found it mildly irritating. I loved the CSS of Thanksgiving, the sequel. However, this is a minor complaint.