Mirror Girl

This game was entered into the Single Choice Jam, and uses the format well, I feel.

It's a beautifully styled short Twine game with one choice at the beginning followed by 'dynamic fiction' (just click to get to the next part).

It talks about a certain kind of trauma, specifically (Spoiler - click to show)secondary traumatic stress. It hit home, for me.

The concept is a big part of different cultures, including mine. In my religion, we believe (Spoiler - click to show)Jesus basically experienced everything in the game, but willingly, as a big sacrifice that was extraordinarily painful(Spoiler - click to show). When it's not so willing or the person doing it not so capable, it can be very painful. Very interesting read.

Unlike most entries in the Single Choice Jam, Mirror Girl offers the player the choice at the start of the game. A binary choice before you are even introduced to its context or potential consequences. It makes for an intriguing experiment, a bit of an anxious one as a player.

The rest of the game is fairly short, only a handful of passages, providing snippets into the life of a young girl with a strange ability. Hidden at first, and then (ab)used, the girl resigns to her role, as no alternative path is offered to her. She does not have a choice. She never truly had a choice. Children rarely do have those choices…

I think a detrimental aspect of this entry is its reveal at the end of the playthrough. It honestly didn’t make me want to play again knowing that. It think it would have been more powerful if the reveal happened during of after a second playthrough (as in visiting the other path).

While I thought there should be a bit more contrast in the colour of the links, I thought the addition of illustrations for both the first and last screen were pretty cute. And also a bit sad. Fits with the game quite well on that aspect.