19 | LPM | YOU PROMISE
19 | LPM | YOU PROMISE
by: Aster Fialla & Jake Gardner
Progress:
- I played through multiple times, reaching what I think are all the endings in about 12 minutes or so.
Engagement with Horror Genre:
- This is an example of a Faustian bargain, where the protagonist, in desperation, decides to reach out to a fey entity in order to get what they want. Here, the Honored Guest is paying close attention to the exact wording of what you say, interpreting the bargain in a legalistic way that benefits it. There are a few things that stand out to me from this game’s version of the trope. First, the protagonist enters the arrangement with some savviness. They mention that they shouldn’t give away their name, as a cue to the player to be very careful about what to say. Second, something I like is the kind of implied revelation that a Faustian bargain is made between entities with vast inequality of power and stakes. If the Honored Guest makes a bad deal, it is just having a tough day but can try again endlessly with different desperate people. If the Esteemed Host makes a bad deal, they lose everything. Notice that the Honored Guest has usurped full power of interpretation of the bargain, becoming lawyer and judge/jury simultaneously, eroding the boundary between party and judge. One could imagine a situation where the protagonist had access to an equally competent fey lawyer, putting this case indefinitely in dispute at faerie court and creating all kinds of new problems for everyone involved. Like in real life, unequal access to quality legal representation is an enduring source of injustice in the supposedly “fair” and “objective” realm of the law. Narratives about Faustian bargains are great at revealing that.
Things I Appreciated:
-
Ending spoiler: The fade effect in the bad endings is fantastic. I gasped dramatically the first time it happened to me. It is genuinely surprising and fitting, and works very well to emphasize the emotional gut punch of a bad bargain to the reader.
-
One of the favorite things that happened here is the inversion of a structural trope in choice-based narrative. When I first got to a screen where I was choosing between three options (the million dollars vs. two versions of the lottery numbers), I was like, these are all basically the same thing, this choice isn’t very interesting. But as it turns out, being “basically the same thing” is not the same thing whatsoever if you are interpreting the statements through an incredibly granular and malicious lens, as the Honored Guest does, these minor-appearing differences are hugely consequential. If we think of choices in choice-based games across two axes—how consequential they appear at first, and how consequential they really are—this game is an example in an unusual quadrant where choices look inconsequential but really are. I really enjoyed that (belated) realization when I played through multiple times and saw what the game was doing. So cool!
-
More ending spoilers: After receiving several bad endings, I thought the game had only bad endings, until I reached a scene where the second symbol on the briefcase clicked into place. That gave me the sudden realization that a good (or at least, less bad) ending was going to be possible. It turned the first symbol on the briefcase from a curious detail into a sudden symbol of hope that, wait, the Esteemed Host might actually get away with this?! So I like that the game held multiple revelations, making replays worthwhile.
Miscellaneous Comments/Recommendations:
- Oh no! It’s ending spoilers again! As a minor note, when I reached the good ending, I was not able to restart to check the last few bad endings. (I just went back to double check, and it turns out that it does restart automatically, after a very long timer.) I wonder if, for this ending in particular, it would make sense to offer a button/link to restart, or handling the timer a bit differently than the bad endings? Just a thought.
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
- The power of an unexpected visual effect. When a game lulls you into a rhythm with its presentation, introducing an element that changes the UI so dramatically can intensify a key moment in the narrative, which happened here.
Memorable Moment:
- A one-two punch: the first time the screen started to go dark; and then, the first time I realized a good ending might actually be possible.
That appears to be a wrap on my English-language EctoComp 2024 responses! I will probably be back later with some final thoughts. Thanks again to everyone who made these awesome games/pieces/stories and put them out into the world, and best of luck in the competition!