Glimmer - Katie Benson
Glimmer is a very short twine mood piece. Several brief paragraphs are presented in an almost completely linear fashion. We are depressed and gradually stop doing things until we are holed up at home in a mire of our own depression - then whatever we click, we reach a somewhat positive resolution.
There’s not much to this. I want to be positive, so I will say that, despite its brevity, the text given is quite nicely written and to the point. But in the lens of this competition, as presented - a short, out of the box twine UI with zero agency, this will struggle.
I think the author feels strongly about this, and is maybe telling the story from personal experience, and I’m sure most readers can relate to greater or lesser extents. But the history of using a choice based narrative to enable the reader to experience a strong negative emotional, mental or psychological state of mind is rich and varied - many interactive texts have attempted this to various degrees of success, whether it be through a parable, a surrealistic narrative or a more literal approach. When this works, it’s at least in part, because we do have some agency - not only are we experiencing the protagonist’s struggles, we are trying to shape that struggle and in the process becoming educated how difficult that struggle can be for the individual.