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).