The Shyler Project
Naomi Norbez (call me Bez, e/he)
For starters, it was cool to hear voice acting in a piece of IF! I think both actors did a really great job and it added an additional level of depth to the game. The story was interesting, and the writing is pretty polished. I liked the UI and the music too. Some of the choices where they appeared felt quite surface level—often just variants on the same response, or so it appeared. I would have liked to have seen some more choices that felt like they could have a more significant impact on the course of the narrative, such as the one where Jaiden decides how to respond to Shyler’s issues.
In terms of the central relationship, obviously this is a dynamic we’ve seen before—an AI tool gaining sentience, or at least the capacity for self-reflection, and a human communicating with them. Maybe it’s my expectations of the convention that are to blame here, but I was really surprised when almost immediately Shyler began talking about their own opinions on God, faith, etc. before offering much in the way of support to Jaiden (especially when Jaiden has just explicitly disclosed that they’ve recently had a manic episode). I don’t know if this is meant to imply a continuation of long-standing relationship between the two, but it did jar with me slightly. I might have liked to see Shyler’s personality, opinions and perspectives reveal gradually over the course of the narrative rather than being front-ended—or, at least, for that earlier relationship to have been shown a bit more. From my understanding Shyler’s approach is meant to have shifted away from their creators’ intended programming, and I would have liked to have seen that shift happen rather than being told about it after the fact.
The relationship between Jaiden and Shyler felt a little forced rather than developing organically, which is a shame because I think it could be really compelling if built upon more. I also think the idea of an AI being able to be programmed to be ‘better’ left some interesting questions unexplored—is facilitating this bittersweet for Jaiden, a human being whose own mental health issues can’t be ‘fixed’ in that way? How this change affect Shyler’s ability to support their users? I think there’s a longer game in here, one which takes more time to explore these ideas more fully.
In conclusion, a snappy little game which raises some compelling questions about AI and mental health, which could benefit from more time and space to linger on them.