39 | YOU CAN’T SAVE HER
39 | YOU CAN’T SAVE HER
by: Sarah Mak
Progress:
- I completed this game in about 16 minutes (I guess the estimated play time doesn’t account for spending 2 minutes searching for headphones
. But definitely take the game up on the headphone recommendation!)
Things I Appreciated:
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I was really struck by how well balanced this game is in providing information about the world to the reader/player. There are just enough worldbuilding details to give an impression of a rich and unique setting without hindering the pace of the narrative at all. The narrative trusts me to paint a mental image of scenes in this impressionistic way that fills in the gaps.
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I’m very glad that I took the game’s recommendation to wear headphones and listen to the soundtrack by Falling Islands while reading it. (I usually listen to self-selected music while playing these games, so it was great to have that experience intentionally curated for me.) It’s a short narrative, but a lot of attention is paid toward making those few minutes spent playing a rich and memorable experience. The narrative really races by in a blaze of sound and color. (Shout out as well to Aisha for the gorgeous cover art!)
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I really appreciated the duality theming of the game (with the blue and pink link colors to establish point of view), and the idea that people can respond so differently to “heretical” knowledge. Because you start in the blue perspective, you might naturally assume that blue is the one who “can’t save” pink, but with the first switch in perspective, you learn that the reverse is perhaps even more true. These two characters, despite all their shared experiences, have fundamentally diverged, and the narrative conclusion doesn’t force a reconciliation and instead lets them part ways. I thought there was a lot of depth to this relationship considering the duration of the game.
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Since, as discussed in the first post of the thread, I have little experience with interactive fiction, I do not have any experience with the work of Porpentine, who this game is extensively referencing. However, based on this game, it definitely makes me interested in learning more about their work on my own time away from these IF Comp responses. I appreciated having an opportunity to taste the vibe of a well-crafted work here and have it lead me to other work that I would probably also enjoy.
Feedback/Recommendations/Questions:
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I picked dark mode from the menu, but a significant percentage of the game (the flashbacks) were displayed in light mode anyway. It seems like perhaps the flashbacks could have been formatted in an alternate-style dark mode rather than just overriding the player’s choice? I went through again just now to test light mode and was surprised to learn that the flashbacks in that section use an alt-light-mode with a kind of off-white parchment-colored background, so it seems reasonable enough to me to expect a dark-mode style for the flashbacks.
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It took me a while to understand how some of the click links worked. For instance, very early on, I arrived at a page with links for “Shoot her” or “1 second.” I didn’t want to shoot anyone at this point, so I clicked the “1 second” link first, which… resulted in me trying to shoot her.
. I hadn’t realized that the “Shoot her” was a cycling link because there was nothing visually differentiating it from the other type of link. It wasn’t until this happened twice in a row I realized how the choice mechanics were working. Had this been a longer narrative, this would have not been that much of an issue since it would just be part of the game training me how to play it, essentially. But with something this fast-paced and concise, I think it is extra important to intuitively signal to the player how the gameplay mechanic works. To the game’s credit, I found all the other interactive links intuitive and frictionless, so it really just was a matter of this particular situation early on.
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
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The power of saying less, for pacing. This game goes by in a fast-paced rush of color, sound, and narrative, without distractions. And the interactive elements are (except in the one instance detailed above) intuitive and frictionless. This is a great example of well-tuned short-form narrative. I was invested in the character dynamics and world despite the sparseness of detail because of how fluid and immersive the reading experience was.
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I really enjoyed the narrative technique of exploring the same scene from another character’s perspective. Weirdly, this was something I was already thinking about for an IF project I am considering writing, so what great timing to have an example of it here. The risk of this type of narrative device is if the other perspective is too redundant—that is, it can be tedious to re-read the thing that already happened if there isn’t a compelling reason for the new point of view to be presented. But it works great here, with the game mechanics changed slightly and the fun realization that you are playing “against yourself” from earlier. This was an exciting moment and made me more engaged with the text, compared with examples I’ve seen in media where this technique didn’t work for me (the season 2 premiere of tv show The Good Place, “Everything is Great!” comes to mind, where each perspective shift adds new information, but not enough new information to warrant being shown certain scenes 3-4 times.)
Quote:
- “You wonder if the gates and golems are meant to keep heretics out, or keep the worshippers in.”
Lasting Memorable Moment:
- When the perspective switches and you use pink’s visions to outsmart the player’s choices from like 2-3 minutes ago. Such an exciting moment!