Over the past year, I’ve done reviews of the entries in the various competitions and festivals, distinguished primarily their comprehensiveness and secondarily by their prolixity. This time out my approach is going to be slightly different, however, since my wife and I had a baby (our first) three weeks before this year’s Comp went live. While Henry is awesome, very unfussy and a champion eater and sleeper (review: A+ baby) my time and brain-power are not what they were.
The course of wisdom would just be to sit out this year, but as an author, I know how desperate I always am for any feedback, regardless of quality, so in that spirit I’m bulling ahead. I’m adding a bit more structure to my usual freeform, write-until-I’m-out-of-stuff-to-say quote-unquote method, in hopes of making the reviews a bit more concise so I can get through more of them. After a short summary of my take, I’ll call out one highlight, one lowlight, and then explain how new fatherhood has led me to betray the hard work the author put into their piece. Sorry!
4x4 Archipelago, by Agnieszka Trzaska
After-Words, by fireisnormal
An Aside About Everything, by Sasha
The Belinsky Conundrum, by Sam Ursu
Beneath Fenwick, by Pete Gardner
The Best Man, by Stephen Bond
BLK MTN, by Laura Paul
Brave Bear, by John Evans
Closure, by Sarah Willson
Codex Sadistica, by grave snail games
The Corsham Witch Trial, by JC Blair
Cyborg Arena, by John Ayliff
Cygnet Committee, by P.B. Parjeter
D’ARKUN, by Michael Baltes
The daughter, Giovanni Rubino
The Dead Account, by Naomi Norbez
Dr Horror’s House of Terror, by Ade
Enveloping Darkness, by John Muhlhauser, Helen Pluta, and Othniel Aryee
extraordinary_fandoms.exe, by Storysinger Presents
Finding Light, by Abigail Jazwiec
Fine Felines, by Felicity Banks
Fourbyfourian Quarryin’, by Andrew Schultz
Funicular Simulator 2021, by Mary Godden and Tom Leather
Ghosts Within, by Kyriakos Athanasopolous
Goat Game, by Kathryn Li
The Golden Heist, by George Lockett and Rob Thorman
Grandma Bethlinda’s Remarkable Egg, by Arthur DiBianca
Hercules!, by Leo Weinreb
How it was then and how it is now, by Pseudavid
How the monsters appeared in the Wasteland, by V Dobranov
I Contain Multitudes, by Wonaglot
Infinite Adventure, by A. Scotts
Kidney Kwest, by Eric Zinda, Luka Marceta, Art by Kirstina Nes
The Last Doctor, by Quirky Bones
The Last Night of Alexisgrad, by Milo van Mesdag
The Library, by Leonardo Boselli
Mermaids of Ganymede, by Paxton
The Miller’s Garden, by Damon L. Wakes
My Gender is a Fish, by Carter Gwertzman
Off-Season at the Dream Factory, by Carroll Lewis
A Papal Summons, or The Church Cat, by Bitter Karella
A Paradox Between Worlds, by Autumn Chen
Plane Walker, by Jack Comfort
Recon, by Carlos Pamies
RetroCON 2021, by Sir Slice
Second Wind, by Matthew Warner
Silicon and Cells, by Nic Barkdull and Matthew Borgard
Smart Theory, by AKheon
The Song of the Mockingbird, by Mike Carletta
The Spirit Within Us, by Alessandro Ielo
Starbreakers, by E. Joyce and N. Cormier
Taste of Fingers, by V Dobranov
This Won’t Make You Happy, by Mike Gillis
The TURING Test, by Justin Fanzo
Unfortunate, by Jess Elizabeth Reed
Universal Hologram, by Kit Riemer
The Vaults, by Daniel Duarte
Wabewalker, by Ben Sisk
we, the remainder, by Charm Cochram
Weird Grief, by Naomi Norbez
What remains of me, by Jovial Ron
The Waiting Room, by Billy Krolick
You are SpamZapper 3.1, by Leon Arnott
Highlights for games I beta tested: