Hey everyone, I’m back after several years away to play some IFComp games! I’ve applied my usual filters (choice-based games under 2 hours) and started playing from shortest to longest. I tend to write short capsule-style reviews, so I’ll group them into posts based on game length. I’m covering most games under those filters, setting aside some games I didn’t play or click with for whatever reason.
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15 minute games!
On Repeat, by Sarah Wilson
This game follows a tech worker going through the motions as they decide what to do at various breaks/periods day after day. There’s a bit of a curveball half-way through, and then a speed-up toward a final scene/philosophical resolution. I enjoyed the gradual world-building and continuity you get whenever you repeat a previously selected choice: you meet your friend for dinner one night and learn about her new boyfriend, then if you get dinner with her again you comment on how he doesn’t actually sound so great.
I wish there had been more variety of outcomes when choosing to listen to the album repeatedly (as it’s always listed as the first option so it feels tempting), as well as some sort of aha moment to the ending tying together the threads of the album release, the repetitive choices, and the life events that happen to the main character. On the other hand, it does live up to its “slice of life” categorization.
The Very Last Night I Spent at Ethelred Estate, by Kai DeJesus
This is a very atmospheric dynamic fiction game written in Texture, which follows a woman as she (mis)remembers various details of what seems like the worst wedding night ever. I was happily absorbed in the gothic-ness of the vibe, and enjoyed playing around with the various options to tweak the narrative (I liked the moment where you could mix and a match a set of three adjectives to a set of three nouns).
Unfortunately, the game seems to have locked up (or maybe just ended abruptly?) near what felt like the end (when approaching the brother in the church). Since Texture can be very fiddly to use, with constant precision drag-and-drop that I admittedly don’t love, I didn’t want to go through it all over again. However, I did appreciate what I played!
Under Loch / Enkii, by M. M.
This is a puzzle game of sorts, using the cool conceit of being split into two separate games and requiring interaction (via walkie talkie) to advance in each one. I’m not familiar with the technical details of how this can work in a browser, but it’s impressive!
In terms of the playing experience, there were a few moments when the narrative thread of the back-and-forth replies was hard to follow, and it ended up feeling a bit tedious to ping-pong between tabs so frequently; I wish that there had been slightly longer sections for each “side” to do before having to switch back (e.g. exploring around the pond a little), and more depth to the dynamic between the two characters (I got some flirtatious undertones at a few moments that could have been fun to explore more, if that was intended).
9 Likes
30 minute games!
Ass in the Woods, by Alice Vartevanian
This is a lovely twist on A Midsummer Night’s Dream that follows a character who isn’t supposed to be there (as many of the other characters point out) as they overhear and meddle in the various happenings of the play. The prose was vibrant, and the use of color, timed text, and even bouncing text (when the fae are fawning over Bottom) is excellent and immersive, really bringing the story to life.
I played through a couple of times and it seems like the decisions you make don’t have any real effect on the story, which is understandable as that’s a bigger endeavor, but it would have been fun to see how differently things might go given that this is already providing an alternative retelling of the famous play.
BLOODRUST, by Orx
A very atmospheric game that puts me in the mind of dystopian movies like Brazil or Delicatessen, without their comedic twists. There don’t appear to be any real choices in the game outside of the blackjack scenes (and I imagine that the outcome of those scenes are predetermined), which makes this very squarely a dynamic fiction piece.
The game felt fully commited to what it was trying to achieve through the multi-media design, and it felt coherent in its relentlessly dark and despairing vibe, though that made it a bit hard for me to take at times. I also appreciate that while much of the narrative feels very in line with genre tropes, there are some moments (such as with the Dealer character) that feel unexpected and thought-provoking.
Dreamteller, by Fatih
Another very atmospheric game, this time a bleak one where a detective chases a serial killer, reminding me of movies like Se7en or Zodiac except it gets a bit more supernatural and delves into dream states. Design-wise, it’s in a narrow scrolling column meant to be experienced on a phone, but still very playable on a desktop as well.
I enjoyed the dynamic way that highlighted text expanded into red thoughts, which kept me engaged, as well as the kinetic energy of the story that kept building up to a disturbing climax. It hits a lot of predictable beats, but I found it well-paced and well-written.
El Ruido, by Jen Lee
A surreal tale where a character from a telenovela starts questioning why she’s doing things. The game was very slight (took just a few minutes per playthrough), but enjoyable to engage with; they choices hilariously consist mostly of slapping and glowering, but using Texture can be applied to many different people or objects in each scene, with amusing results.
I appreciated the appropriately campy setting and action, complete with dramatic music occasionally interrupting the scene, and also that there are real consequences to your choices; I got three distinct endings on my three playthroughs, including one that peels back the layers a bit on what’s going on. I do wish there had been a longer intro to establish the setting a bit before things start getting called into question.
Quackpond, by Quackpond Admins
A fictional-website game that’s reminiscent of Neopets (which also gets an in-game shoutout). There’s plenty of drama going on in the forums, which contain most of the narrative (tending to your duck gets repetitive). I was almost expecting a surreal/creepypasta type of twist, but the story that plays out is pretty tame.
I appreciate how 2000s the whole vibe is; there’s even a moment where someone posts a broken image on the forum and it just feels authentic to that era. I also like that the game prompts you to engage by writing your own forum posts, though they (understandably) don’t seem to have any effect on the game. I would have liked to see more stakes for the player character in the main conflict that plays out, as ultimately you’re pretty removed from what’s happening.
Skeletrom Crew On The Loose!, by Kai Stewart
In this piece, you pick a skeleton and follow it on a lyrical adventure on All Hallows Eve, told through poetic narration that’s often very stream-of-consciousness. In my playthroughs I was a former playboy who becomes a forest lake, and then a valkyrie-type warrior whose story is told entirely in verse and who ends up in an “it’s complicated” relationship with a dragon barista. Not a set of words you’d necessarily expect to appear together in a sentence!
I appreciate how the narration takes on an eye-winking poetic voice that’s occasionally interrupted by very modern asides, and there’s also a fun LARP-ing quality to it at times as well. There also seems to be a lot of branching content even within a single character’s story, which gives this a lot of replayability. I can’t say I fully followed every narrative beat, but it was a fun night out with the crew.
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Thank you for playing BLOODRUST!
As you’ve determined, this is a dynamic fiction piece with predetermined choices. I’m glad that you enjoyed it. 
1 Like
1 hour games!
Necromanceers, by C. E. J. Pacian
This game starts off feeling like it’s going to be a long epic with many characters, with many asides and establishing lore and relationships, and then pulls the rug out a bit from under you as things get hectic and narrow in focus. The game took about 30 minutes for a playthrough (even with some backtracking to get different endings), though there appears to be ample replayability as the Compendium of summons suggests (I uncovered less than half of them).
The narrative and vibe are very assured and were a pleasure to follow, as were the various relationships with friends, lovers, foes, and the ever-present inner twin. I loved how you can rapidly iterate over a variety of endings that function as epilogues and bring to mind movies like The Fountain or Cloud Atlas, showing glimpses of a pair of characters living together across a number of possible existences. I did end up wishing that this was a longer game, given the fairly involved setup and complex lore presented in the opening sections, as well as the investment I was developing in the characters.
Pegasus Crew, by Dildemma
An immersive sci-fi game about exploring a sinister pleasure planet with two sidekicks, trying to find your memories while staying true to your values and relationships. The choice structure is interesting in that for much of the game you’re given opportunities to respond in different situations and then receive direct feedback as to which NPCs approve or disapprove. That approach did start to feel a bit reductive/simplistic, since the two sidekicks have opposed personalities and you get a lot of “X approves, Y disapproves” reactions that work against the complexity that they otherwise do develop throughout the story.
I thought the narrative and world-building were engaging, as were the flashbacks and character development for all three crew members. The final choices were interesting and the two endings I picked (which boil down to “choose the past” or “choose the future”) gave some nice closure to the story.
Wild Ride to Earth, by Cavaris
A wide-ranging game that throws a lot of different twists and turns at you as you find yourself stuck in an alien galaxy with limited time to get back to Earth. During my playthrough I voluntarily went on display at a zoo, tried (and failed) to get a shady politician elected to a Space council, hopped around a few planets making money from odd jobs, and eventually hitched a ride with shady space invaders back to Earth, causing planet-wide devastation; but hey, at least I made it back!
The game is set up around an interface that tracks a number of things like time units, currency, special items, prestige, etc. and also provides a relatively consistent menu of options available on each planet. Yet I also love that the vibe is a throwback to Choose Your Own Adventure books, with the feeling that anything can happen and the game is ready to turn onto a completely new path at any time, which is really fun.
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