Welp⌠Itâs a full year and new edition later. A bunch of new games were submitted. Iâve played and reviewed a couple already. But quite a few are new to me!
Letâs get to it!
Iâll get back to the 2024 entries eventually⌠whoopsâŚ
Habeas Corpus, by Grim Baccaris
Originally submitted to the 2019 subQ Jam, restricted to 1000 words and with the theme Environment. Made in Twine.
Habeas Corpus is a short interactive surreal exploration through an abandoned wandering fortress. You awaken in its centre, only sure that you were meant to be in this space - even if you are not quite sure where you are, or even who you are anymore. In this unfamiliar and perpetually moving construction, you are prompted to look around the 5 different available rooms and its contents. Rummaging through those, you may find objects which can unlock further interactions. Depending on your actions, you may end up with one of two endings.
The highlight of this game is its atmosphere: a mystery shrouded in its incomplete description and minimal exposition, continued through an exploration that reveals little still. You wonât solve the mystery, but might manage to fit some of its pieces together - though youâll still be left with more questions than answers. I kept wondering what we had done to end up here.
Relating back to the title, Habeas Corpus, I imagined the building your find yourself within to be some sort of dystopian machinery imprisoning its residents. You seem certain of your place in this environment, but who says whether you came here with your own volition or you were brought here against your will. If only you remembered things clearlyâŚ
I think the styling of the interface influenced this sci-fi dystopian read on the story, with its pixelated font, the shaky cycling text, and the old school 3D buttons. It made me think of computer interfaced youâd find in sci-fi movies like Aliens or The Matrix.
Overall, this was an interesting game to play, if just for the exploration and the atmosphere.