This is exactly what I thought. This was originally supposed to be a PM (!), which wasn’t feasible, so the authors only had a week to work on it after the 4 PM hours were up. Which illustrates how you can never really be sure how good/big an idea actually is until you get into it. I would have happily played this for twice as long.
5 Likes
Stories of the bifurcated or dual self have a long cultural history. While I can’t speak for everyone, I find them interesting because they are a way to dramatize an internal conflict. Bruce Banner, a rather unassuming physicist, is also the Hulk. Ultimately, I find that self-awareness and discord must coincide sometimes.
do not let your left hand know
Naarel
spoilers
On its surface, do not let your left hand know is a modern telling of a folkloric changeling. Changeling Lisa (I hope I have gotten this right) inhabits Monica. The former craves… spreadsheets? And vanishing into crowds. Monica, on the other hands, wants to inhabit the world, to forge relationships and lead a life that many would consider “full.”
I hope readers will forgive this personal interjection: I, myself, found vanishing Lisa, whom nobody ever seemed to miss, most relatable.
But I think investing too much in who the “real” person is might be missing the point. I experience the central conflict of do not let your left hand know as “This body ain’t big enough for the two of us.” That is, the central question arises from the incompatibility of the two personae, Monica and Lisa. That is our only choice as players: who will it be? The choice is appropriately momentous, and these two personalities are quite different and would, left alone, lead very different lives.
However, I think this entire story can be experienced in a figurative way, as a fable, or myth. Monica’s friend (and possible spouse) recounts the myth of the changeling (of the possessing variety), and enough time is spent on it that I feel we are meant to find in it a kind of hermeneutic. In light of Vivienne’s account, are we invited to consider the possibility that the changeling is not usurper but liberator? Some space has been left for players to make up their own minds. In my first reading, I actually believed that Monica was the changeling for this reason.
A well-written, brisk read with attractive styling.
5 Likes
OK, I think I’ve gone as far as I can go! I do have some brief comments about a few games.
Sundown
Charm Cochran
I originally planned to write a full review for Sundown, but I found it devastating in a way that is hard for me to articulate. I’m just not up to writing about it right now. I found it both challenging and excellent in equal parts, and rate it highly.
Dark and Deep
Amanda Walker
I think Robert Frost is generally misunderstood. While many people seem to see him as both an archetypal rural New Englander and a rustic sage, I perceive in him a deeply pessimistic wonk given to fussing over trochees and the like. It was a pleasure to playtest Dark and Deep, which dramatizes a Frost “deep cut.” I think the darkness in “The Witch of Coos” is a better representation of Frost than are his most famous poems. A treat.
No More
Tabitha
I really appreciated the design of No More, which uses examining as its primary action. It makes perfect sense: in a parser game, all we have is all we have read. I also enjoyed the way the story mode was constructed, because it offered a “directors cut” of details that were carefully chosen to show players more than just an ending. Recommended.
I played more games than I wrote about. Either I just didn’t have anything smart to say (most likely) or else I simply didn’t have time to write more. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like your game!
I hope everyone had a good Ectocomp. I know I did. This is probably the last comp/jam/etc I’ll get involved with until Spring Thing, that other best IF event. Thanks everybody for reading along.
13 Likes