Join the Swarm

Originally posted on intfiction. Some edits were made.

I played a previous Senica Thing anthology, Deep Dark Wood, when looking at past Spring Thing games. I found it a delightful, cozy yet gruesome experience. So I was excited to experience stories by (mostly) young new authors, and each of them brought a smile to my face.

A Swarm of Spiders, by DiBa

With no time to waste, author DiBa understands that showing off what your title is about from the beginning is a tried-and-true technique to catch interest. Many of the endings are some variation of “You decide not to investigate, so you go to bed and the rest of the night was uneventful,” but the ending that rewards a true explorer’s spirit was unexpectedly funny in a good way. This best captured being a sleepless kid at night, wondering what creepy-crawlies are out there, and entertaining the “what if I snuck out” fantasy.

WHAT A MESS, by T.H.K.

We start with a classic “Once upon a time,” but only a few possibilities resemble a fairy tale. Most of the choices are a word or two describing an event or an object, but how the object figures into the next passage is a mystery until you pick it. Instead of roleplaying as the couple Emma and James, this game is like having random refrigerator magnets, trying to put them in a readable order, and imagining what happens. Because of this, the story can go in wildly different directions (though paths and endings can converge), some funny, some deadly. This approach made me eagerly hit the restart button to see the different possibilities of our main couple.

Join Le Swarm, by Neural

It starts with a mysterious text message received in the dead of night. It could end in communication. This game utilizes text effects and colors, including shaky/vibrating text. The text effects combined with the sentence structure and rhythm made for quite the creepy mood. The choices will take you to varying paths culminating in four endings, all satisfying in different ways. This best captured atmosphere, making risky life-threatening decisions when you don’t know the consequences, and (Spoiler - click to show)becoming part of a hive mind.

Dystopia, by Creator

Author Creator goes for something probably familiar to many game developers in triple-A companies in this IF where you’re a game developer signing a metaphorical deal with the devil. Corporate horror, with the author’s own earnestness about development unbound from commercial demand ensues. The villains are over the top and very punchable which could have been exhausting, but I didn't feel so because the game is honest about its message from the beginning.

As with Join Le Swarm there is copious use of colored and animated text, though unlike that game, Dystopia uses text effects as a sort of character tag so you know which character is talking to you, and has a couple of illustrations to go with the descriptions. However, there are a few instances of text being colored so dark it was impossible to read without highlighting, all related to when you’re talking to the receptionist. She only has about three lines in the story so it’s not too big an issue but it was a little stumbling block.

I think this story has the longest individual playthrough length, if you play from the start to a definitive happy ending. (Spoiler - click to show)Compared to the other games in this collection, there are hidden passages and a hidden ending, though I found the endings you get "normally" more satisfying. There's nothing very groundbreaking but I appreciate their presence.

Swarm of Thieves, by SKIT

One of two stories in this collection that were written by someone with prior IF experience. Author SKIT previously released A Bottle from the Future for last year’s Spring Thing.

You play as TRUTH (most proper nouns in this story are written in all caps), a rebel leading a swarm of thieves to combat a King and his swarm of Kleptocracy. The writing makes it abundantly clear that this is an allegory for advancing equality for the 99% as an alternative for the stifling self-interest of the oligarchs, the 1%. This is more stylized than the previous games with a background image and text in colored boxes rather than default dark mode Harlowe. There are six short endings that determine the success of the rebellion and the King’s fate, three you can get from having TRUTH escape the authorities and three from being captured.

There were a few pronoun mismatches for TRUTH, though all in the first few passages (the rest of the game refers to TRUTH with female pronouns, so I assume all instances of he/his/himself are typos), and some other typos within the text, though they do not diminish the quality of the message.

John the Swan, by Vitalii Blinov

This is also a story written by someone with prior IF experience. The author previously released One Way Ticket in IFComp 2022, and other works that are written in Russian.

The story is unique compared to the others as its events are esoteric, it’s written in poetry form, and uses timed text to progress line by line. Additionally, when you click on a piece of text that confirms an ending, it begins to shake and the lines of the poem all disappear gradually one-by-one. This could be annoying if the game length or the timer was longer, but text appeared right when I finished reading an individual line, and as playthroughs are short you can still collect all endings in a few minutes. I found the timed text format to work with short-form poetry, it forces you to digest each line and the different possibilities for John (or Swan).

The Underground Dungeon, by A.S.M.

A tasty appetizer with a dark, moody undertone, like blackcurrant flavor. This is the game with the shortest individual playthrough length (though John the Swan without timers would match it), where the protagonist, a royal chef, really wants to break into the castle’s underground dungeon. Interestingly, in the “perfect” playthrough (Spoiler - click to show)you never even encounter a hint of anything swarm-related (unless the dinner guests count). I love how the game, when presenting a locked door, immediately throws the player into (Spoiler - click to show)deciding between attempting to steal the key or flat-out assassinating the king. That escalated quickly, and made me think: Is the king a bad ruler and the assassination also an attempt at trying to end his tyrannical reign? Are we a rogue chef who only cares about the castle’s secrets, even if that means slaying a good or passable king? Somewhere in between? A motivation for taking such a drastic action would be the perfect sauce to go with this dish.

Join the Swarm, by SAT

A mysterious nighttime occurrence awakens a swarm of voices in your head, with a little bit of (Spoiler - click to show)Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde going on. Though the description says to turn the volume up, I didn’t hear anything when I played the entire game with headphones plugged in, and I was worried that I’d suddenly be flashbanged with a really loud noise. After looking at the source, the audio link unfortunately goes to a 404 page. Individual paths are lengthy but almost all lead to a single passage where you make the final choice that determines your ending. My favorite route was where you (Spoiler - click to show)follow a persuasive voice all the way and feel the tension of power, of doing what you want, the consequences be damned.

It’s Here, by Chaos

‘Let’s explore nature! Let’s look at a mass of animal movement!’

That’s basically the entire plot of It’s Here, but the depth of detail in describing the swarm’s behavior (this game is pretty much 90% descriptive text) makes the story stand out. I wanted to study and visualize what was going on, and the way sentences are laid out made it easy to do so. Unlike every other game in this collection, death is not a possibility at all, and there is only a single ending though you can meander through passages endlessly if you wish. There is the occasional text font or color change, mostly done tastefully, though some of the sentences had a gradient background, or were in very dark blue that made it hard to read without highlighting the text. This felt like being on a wildlife tour (well, one where you can touch the animals, which I don’t think exists) and recording your observations on paper.

Yellow Swarm, by HOT

Surprisingly, the only game in this collection with an actual bee swarm. You are a badass agent sent to stop a biotech experiment gone wrong. You explore an infested building, shoot ‘zombies’ and drop a quippy one-liner every so often. This entry stands out for having a full custom stylesheet, and its aesthetic resembling a CRT screen was a good match for and enhanced the game’s setting while being readable. There are three endings with various levels of success, although it’s not hard getting the perfect ending if that is your goal. To me, this was the most nostalgic entry, reminiscent of an action-horror flick but fast-forwarded to all the good parts.