Escape the Pale

This is a meaningful game written about a Jewish person escaping persecution from the Eastern Europe/Russian part of the world (in the early 1900s, I think, maybe late 1800s).

Most of the game is very bare-bones. I'm not sure what system it is; it might just be custom javascript. You select a number and then push SUBMIT to move on.

Gameplay is almost entirely buying items at a low price, going to a nearby city, and selling them at a high price. Each city only has a few its next to, so you can either map it out as a graph, or (what I did) just memorize the cities with the worst prices and don't pick them. Near the end I got comfortable enough to travel 3 or 4 cities at a time to get a good price.

Behind its dour aesthetic, the game hides emotional moments written in terse text. Accidentally going beyond the 'pale' was terrifying, and my companion Ephraim didn't make it in the end.

The starkness of the game contributes to its overall feeling, emphasizing the numbness you could feel in that scenario. On the other hand, it feels at times like it fights against the player. Having just a map connecting the stations might be nice, or more indication of the story to come. I guess it all depends on what effects the author is most interested in having on the audience.