Dysfluent

This is a really thought-provoking Twine piece about speech impediments and specifically stuttering. It puts you in the shoes of a chronic stutterer, trying to get through a busy day, and experiencing lots of problems as a result.

First of all I need to address the timed text issue. It’s used throughout. Timed text is a bit of a nemesis for me. I read really fast, and hate waiting for text to slowly appear on screen. However given some of this timed text was capturing someone struggling to speak and get sounds out I feel guilty for saying I didn’t like it. In fact I think that particular use of it was fine, and appropriate. I just wish that the rest of the game’s text e.g. the descriptive sections in between hadn’t been often timed/slow too. Let people who want to read those quickly.

The story is a mix of the current busy day and flashbacks to younger you. Initially there aren’t many real choices, but later they are more numerous and significant.

Colour coding is used to indicate how approachable different things you might say are. The default colours could have problems for colour blind people. Fortunately there’s a setting at the start of the game that can switch them to a better palette. Though this is still likely to be problematic for someone who can’t actually see any colours. At first I thought showing the colours before you make a choice was revealing too much too early. But then a chronic stutterer probably has a good idea of which phrases might come out most successfully.

Overall I found this really evocative, leaving me with lots of thoughts and a better understanding for what someone in this position experiences. I wonder if it was semi autobiographical. It definitely felt as though the author knew what they were writing about, and communicated the feelings of the stutterer so well.