The Maze Gallery by Cryptic Conservatory
Content warning: Some disturbing content, explicit language, mention of suicide, animal gore, violence, clowns
Literary nonsense • Longer than two hours • Choice-based • Ink
This game is a collection of bits from various authors combined into one large work. “Maze gallery” suggests a difficult-to-traverse, meandering, labyrinthine museum of various exhibits. The pseudonym for all of the authors, Cryptic Conservatory, implies something similar, yet slightly different. “Cryptic” has a more puzzly feel than “maze” does, the latter of which is more physical and process-of-elimination than a puzzle would be. A conservatory, or one of its definitions, is a school of the arts, which aligns with the museum theme but is still distinct from a “gallery”.
Most of the content warnings are likely due to the various exhibits. Some seem to get very dark—animal gore makes me imagine dissected animals—and some could be less intense, like the clowns, or even uplifting, like possibly letters between lovers.
“Literary nonsense” may be my new favorite phrase. Its whimsical, tongue-in-cheek humor fits really well with the theme of the game. It perfectly encapsulates the sundry collection curated here. Props to whoever came up with that.
TLDR: similar-yet-different title and author plus a superb description