Deliquescence

This is a very short conversational game in which you spend time with your best friend in her last moments before she melts into goo. The writing is sharp and nostalgic, and the friend is a well-realized character who I became attached to as I replayed the game over and over, trying out all the options. The custom web implementation is beautiful, and enhances the mood of the game a lot. The background dot pixel grid made me think of a grid of molecules lined up in order, in contrast to your friend's sickness.

Unfortunately, in the approximately fifteen minutes I spent playing Deliquescence, I encountered two different major glitches that blocked the game from continuing. For such a short game, it's no hassle to restart and just play options that don't lead to glitches, but I really wish my experience with this game had been less buggy.

I got pretty emotional playing this one because it made me think of a close friend of mine who died very suddenly a few years ago- I sent her some messages when I learned she was going to the hospital but by the time she got there she wasn't in a state to read them, and I often think about what I would've liked to have said if I had the chance. Instead our last conversation was about something totally mundane. In Deliquescence, the most mundane conversation options seem to comfort your friend the most. This game really encourages you to be a thoughtful friend and cherish every conversation.

'She has been a solid and your friend for a long time.'

This is a solid opening for a game about your friend turning liquid in a fatal way.

This game has an utterly unique (to me) presentation, with a kind of game-boy looking feel and collapsible menus made with plus signs.

It's very short, and that shortness adds both urgency and futility to the game. What are you going to do in the precious time that you have?

This kind of game to me feels 'right', like someone's using interactive fiction in a way that it's always been meant to be used. This makes so much more sense as a text game than as a text (where the sense of unfinishedness would be absent) or as an illustrated game (I think the mind's eye is so evocative here).