37 | STRING THEORY
37 | STRING THEORY
by: W Pzinski
Progress:
- I reached the end of the game in Venice (California, not the European vacation you perhaps thought you might be going on) in around 30 minutes. I checked a few more branches to pick up some text I missed, and spent around 45 minutes total with this game.
Things I Appreciated:
-
Despite the often difficult subject matter in this game, something that really came across to me was the playfulness of experimentation with interactive text. For example, I thought the mini-golf puzzle was a charming use of interactive text—I can’t say that I’ve seen anything like that before.
-
I found the semi-unreliable narration to be a really engaging element. I’ll give an example of what I mean. In my playthrough, Aunt Mary “lowers her bifocals, then reaches down for her 16" chainsaw. She pulls the cord, staring maniacally at Uncle Jimmy while she rips through her turkey breast.” In the moment, I took this to be a joke/exaggeration from Jay’s point of view. I imagined that she just clumsily cut the turkey breast using an electric knife since I could not take seriously the idea of using a chainsaw inside at the dinner table. Much later on, if you try to tell Ben about this incident, the actual dialogue will switch to something else (another technique that is used a lot). Similarly, Jay imagines things that could happen but then don’t happen, yet the supernatural visions he experiences seem to be real. I found it enjoyable in moments like this (at least, on topics that weren’t as dark) to engage in this kind of cat-and-mouse game with the narration. The interactive elements really intensify that aspect of Jay’s narration.
-
It’s interesting to me how the idea of an “awkward Thanksgiving dinner with your right wing uncle” is such a cultural trope/stereotype at this point, and this narrative really plays with that trope. On one hand, it presents the uncle in exactly the kind of stereotypical way you’d expect, yet also challenges that with moments that show different sides to his character. It’s like this game is a pastiche of a Thanksgiving dinner that frays these tropes at the edges to give glimpses of something much weirder.
-
The game also seems aware of player behavior in an interesting way: in the bathroom, I naturally snooped in the medicine cabinet (a link appeared, so naturally, I should click it!) and then suddenly came to my senses and was like, maybe I shouldn’t have this character just take a bottle of pills because I’m in parser-mode where I will just take anything the game puts in my path. From that point on, I was a lot more cautious about not automatically clicking links that appeared, with the mindset of trying to help Jay survive Thanksgiving without becoming too miserable. I just find it narratively interesting that the game takes advantage of the impulse for the player to click on everything to kind of simulate the more destructive impulses that Jay is feeling, and put the player in the mindset to do some emotional labor to manage my own impulses.
Feedback/Recommendations/Questions:
-
This narrative is unresolved. I find it structurally unusual that the majority of the game takes place on Thanksgiving day/night, there’s the nightmare scene, and then a winter break denouement that felt like it could have gone on longer. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I think it is realistic for there not to be a resolution—the idea that one could make perfect choices that will resolve (or even make progress on) all of the personal issues that are plaguing you is wish fulfillment that this game explicitly denies with this structure. I felt like the version of Jay that I played as wasn’t able to make any headway on the issue that I had the most anxiety about (for me, it was the food issues. I desperately wanted Jay to just get to choose to eat the pecan pie he wanted to try and not have to feel terrible about it, but I worried if I picked that, it would give him intense self-loathing, so I actively chose to “put off” that issue for “later” in the hopes of just, managing potential harm to Jay (and by proxy, myself). There’s something realistic about this in a way: when in difficult family situations (like the emotional pressure cooker The Holidays™ can instigate), it is too easy to make reckless choices, and perhaps the food and body image issues, for me in this character’s body in this evening, would be better confronted at a less fraught time. But the mixed feelings I have are that I still craved some kind of sense of healing from that. It felt like I was almost missing out on the full version of the winter break at Venice, CA, which if given as much narrative weight as the Thanksgiving dinner, might offer more opportunities to at least come to an understanding on a lot of Jay’s issues (even if they aren’t so neatly resolved).
-
As I discussed further above, this game is very playful, creative, and experimental with its use of interactive text. My recommendation would be that a similar level of attention be paid to the overall UI. I’ve now played enough of these games to recognize the “default Twine” look on sight. And while I don’t necessarily think it’s bad (honestly, much can be forgiven in the face of engaging writing), I think it serves this piece poorly when it comes to the visions. Because so many of these happen, and it is always so disorienting, I feel like these sections should have their own distinct visual style to set them apart from Jay’s point of view. They’ll still be disorienting due to the nature of abruptly switching point of view (I gather than some disorientation is desirable here), but at least help mark the point of view shift a bit more clearly.
-
I thought the family tree graphic was too small to be easily readable without zooming way in, especially with the cursive font used for the names. When I first looked at it, I thought, “Who the f— is ‘Joy’?” and it took me a minute to figure out it was actually the narrator, Jay. So if there’s any way to allow players to zoom in, or for the box containing it to be larger so the image appears larger, that would be great.
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
-
The writing technique that stands out the most here is the use of choice-replacement. That is, you are offered things that Jay wants to say, but won’t due to the social circumstances, so when you click on those things, the actual dialogue said is something different. This creates a specific kind of relationship between the player, protagonist, and narrative that I thought was distinctive and interesting.
-
Another interactivity flourish is the comedic use of links to add more and more description to the pecan pie description before the punchline. What I loved about that joke is how it really could only have been made in this medium because of the structure of the reveal. So I appreciate the invitation to think about how cycling links or clickable links building toward a “final text” can be structured according to a sense of comedic timing.
Quote:
- “Oh, pumpkin. You’re not weird, you’re sensitive.” (This really made me laugh for some reason. It reminded me of the “is he… you know” meme. Sensitive. At that point, you might as well just call me an f-slur, etc. But, well-meaning and cute in context. I think it stands out to me so much because it reminds me of when my mom once told me that I got along so well with another relative because we were both "eccentric”.
)
Lasting Memorable Moment:
- My favorite moment was when the family tree graphic suddenly tilted. It had been such a staple of the corner of the screen that it was quite a surprise when it moved like that, and very fitting for the moment that it was attached to. I thought that was especially clever.