Bellamy's 2023 Spring Thing Thoughts

Here are some of my notes on the Spring Thing entries this year! Hope my entry makes its debut in IFComp later this year.

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SPOILERS AHEAD

Spoiler tags only hide things I would like others to experience themselves, not every secret that the games offer. Proceed with caution. :^)

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Current Reviews
Aesthetics Over Plot
Elftor and the Quest of the Screaming King
Etiolated Light

6 Likes

Number one, Aesthetics Over Plot - ~~~

Positives

This experience was funny and weird, but a genuinely entertaining game to play. Maybe random does equal comedy!

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Plot Deconstruction

So you are a biologist that was laid off from their job a year ago and your goal is to go to your friend’s party and network with as many bosses as possible! You will meet an unimaginably cool donkey, an interesting fellow whose name you can’t remember, and, of course, a telepathic cactus. Look your best, talk your best, and feel your best in order to get a job offer and save yourself from homelessness!

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My Questions/Notes

Here are some random thoughts that arose during my playthrough

  • Someone threw flour on my T-shirt… Taking the bus was a mistake.
  • I love how we’re just grabbing random spiders now.
  • My Donkey escapades - We have to impress the donkey!! Seconds later - I insulted the donkey, noooo. More seconds later - I lost after apologizing to the donkey. :frowning: He was too cool for school
  • OKAY! TIME TO FLIRT WITH THE CACTUS. 2 seconds later - Aww, flirting got me nowhere.
  • Love the Achievements - The James Bond one was great

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Criticisms

There were some grammatical errors, but I usually got the overall gist of the passage. Most of the choices are linear as well, but I enjoyed the writing more than the freedom of choice so I didn’t mind.

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Overall Impression

Great, fun game! Nice way to start off Spring Thing.

7 Likes

Number two, Elftor and the Quest of the Screaming King - ~~~

Positives

This game was very fun, the visuals were pleasing to look at, and the main characters were just the right amount of morally corrupt and morally righteous to me. The way they would switch from one moral code to another was great and the narrator increasingly villanizing us with each proceeding link was also very appreciated haha. Overall, the writing was lively and it felt like a joke RPG game that you’d play in the early 2010s. Always a format that is welcome.

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Plot Deconstruction

You, an Elf hero named Elftor, and your trusty manservant Manny have found yourselves in a kingdom that has been cursed to yell at the top of their lungs. You are entrusted by the king to find the cause of the curse and save the kingdom from an incoming war at nightfall. In order to save the kingdom, you have to remain focused on your search. Only remaining focused gets very hard to do when there’s a plethora of screaming townsfolk that will attempt to make your job as hard as possible…

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My Questions/Notes

Here are some random thoughts that arose during my playthrough

  • The amount of snark between these two main characters is amazing.
  • That Old Lady just wasted my time. The urge to rob her is… overwhelming.

  • He took my puppy. The ogre took my puppy. I mean the orphans are saved but…my puppy…
  • 20 minutes later - Deciding to rob the old woman cause now I’m desperate lol.
  • So robbing the Old Lady was the true path. I should’ve succumbed to my previous urge! Would’ve saved me 20 extra minutes of headache haha

  • Got most endings except for: Straight-up Died; Yanked the wrong chain; Criminally stupid: or Nightfall. Not sure how to get them…

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Criticisms

There was one typo I found and a blank wall with no restart after I got clobbered by the ogre. The EXP and Health system also would have been nice to see in action, but it served its purpose as a joke. Exposure was a great twist.

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Overall Impression

Very fun! It was interesting, humorous, and intuitive. In the future though, I wouldn’t mind having a hint system put in place in order to get some of the endings instead of just guessing and checking.

5 Likes

Number three, Etiolated Light - ~~~

Positives

First of all, the atmosphere-building of this game is elite. I really did feel as if I was transported to a dark, lonely island in the middle of nowhere. And although some moments in this game were described as bright, I still imagined the character I was playing to be in an eternal darkness. That darkness contrasted with the white, shining mansion we’re forced to stay in. The prose is clear and concise, the main character has emotions that the player can also feel, and the overall mood of the game seems to transport the player right into the story. Not to mention the amazing imagery, symbolism, and powerful phrases being dropped left and right. It was a great experience.

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Plot Deconstruction

Guess what, kid? You’ve just saved your family! How did you save them? Well, you just sold yourself away to be married to another child that you’ve only had a two-second interaction with…

The narrative begins by telling you that your parents are poor and gives you chance to pick the possible addictions that keep them poor. Becoming betrothed to the other child named Cessair is how they used you to get money from Cessair’s wealthy parents. When you’re older, you complete the marriage ceremony and are forced into a white mansion on an island surrounded by the ocean. Alone with your new spouse. Things start to feel awry to you as you notice butterflies being caught in webs, a sister named Lola dying from a strange illness, an elusive gardener wandering the property, and of course, the weirdest thing of all, your spouse who always seems to be sickly and is still getting sicker. After a few night terrors involving a giant spider, footsteps in the house, your spouse being eaten, and finally a nightmare that trumps all of them when the massive spider pleads with you to sign a contract with them, our character finally decides that they’ve had enough of this. It’s time to find the secrets of the house and hopefully escape with your soul still intact. But is that still possible?

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My Questions/Notes

Here are some random thoughts that arose during my playthrough

  • What are we signing? Nobody seems too enthusiastic about this. Not even the contractors.
  • Why does a wealthy family want their child to marry into a poorer family? 30 minutes later - Ah, it makes sense now.
  • Cessair is the butterfly? Symbolism?? Being devoured by a two-headed spider? Her parents???

  • My character only remembers either their time in this home or their time as a kid before signing that contract. Since that day, I think that contract effectively stopped their life in place…
  • I think it’s gotta be me. I don’t want Garrine, Cessair, or a future child to suffer.

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Criticisms

There are a few typos and places where certain lines of text are missing while they remain in others. I also wish that there was a guide on how to get more endings. I volleyed between Endings 9, 6, and a few others, with no idea how to get more. But then again, I’m not the most intuitive person so there might have been an extra path I missed. I also would have appreciated more clarity between time skips and a general ballpark about how much time had passed, but that omission was possibly due to service the atmosphere. A save button also would have been nice haha.

Writing-wise, I think that it would’ve been nice to have the player be able to spend more time with the characters so that they could slowly unravel their backstories over time, but I recognize that Spring Thing time constraints can be a killer to slow narrative pacing so it’s excusable.

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Overall Impression

I liked it a lot! Surreal games can often be a hit or miss with me, but as a fan of horror (especially psychological), this game was very enjoyable. I would recommend that anyone play in a cleaner state.

7 Likes

:laughing:
Thank you for the review.

3 Likes

Of course! It was great.

4 Likes