The Maze Gallery - An Exquisite Corpse project with Many Contributors
I have just started sampling the entries and I’ve not gotten far into many, but this one will likely be one I keep returning to.
Most people say “don’t use mazes” since they’re such a trope-y thing and nobody wants to map one. People also say mazes aren’t viable in choice narratives.
Whoa, nellie, does this thing break those conventions. Many people worked on this so it’s unsurprising how polished and well-documented this is. It’s an enormous Twine project and it flips all of my switches.
- It seems to be in Twine Sugarcube, but it starts doing tricks you’d see in Ink. It may do other things (?)
- It’s an enormous, nonlinear, exploratory choice narrative
- It has a world model and an inventory system well-documented with maps
- There is music, and a composer is credited
- The design/packaging/branding knows what it’s doing and is impeccable
- I’m a sucker for absurdist-bureaucracy, and for dryly snarky writing that has made me laugh out loud so far several times
- It’s supremely meta but in a subtle way - at one point I found a wastebasket filled with papers I could read and I believe what you find are literally ideas that were pitched for the game and not used. Each time you take one it adds a “discarded idea” to your inventory, and they seem to be brainstorms for gallery ideas they laughed at a lot but were unfeasible.
So this gives me warm fuzzies and I’m hooked. My first thought was it feels like a virtual Meow-Wolf installation (Mathbrush said this too when I glanced at his review to see if there was a game thread for this already) and also feels like you’re simultaneously in Wonderland, a baroque liminal space, and an even wackier version of Christopher Manson’s Maze puzzle-book with it’s CYOA route-linking. There’s also an almost SCP-like repository vibe like they’ve collected confounding mazes in a museum to preserve them. It’s also an art-gallery that offers some hilarious commentary on modern art.
The “descriptor” card fails to convey the vomit of colors and shapes forming the vague idea of a cow that is (probably) out in a field. There are so many details: the Catholic priest collar, the occasionally paisley microbes, the ears of corn made of smaller ears of corn… the closer you look, the less you understand, until your head begins to split from trying.
There’s so much randomness, and even though you’re technically “lost” in the facility, so far it seems very clearly navigable. You might get lost in a micro-episode, but usually there’s a way to go somewhere else or “pull back” and choose a different room you have access to. The map/directory of the gallery is ENORMOUS and maze-like itself so there is no problem immersing yourself for a good long time.
There are tons of “feelie” style documents accessible from the main menu, some are out-of-play housekeeping, and others that are in-world. I’m almost fearful that I’m only seeing a sliver of the map since there appears to be unconnected paths on the west side and the edge of a circular area. This may be purposeful deception. I love how the gallery labels are mundane, Douglas Adams-esque (“Missing Art Wing” “Wing of Bad Art” “Tiny Art”) and sometimes vaguely menacing (“Body Parts Room” “Clown Room” “Hungry?”) so it entices and dares you to explore.
I’ll quote a few passages that made me laugh. I’ll spoiler blur but these are very near the beginning so these probably won’t ruin it and there is surely much more.
As you approach the disinformation desk a few things become apparent: the audio tour guide is a fake (the headphones are plugged into a potato), the list of events can’t be happening (who would participate in a phoneme-forming contest?), and the attendant seems deliriously happy.
You acknowledge the attendant’s (misrepresentative) help as you step away. She giggles, “Enjoy your brief visit!”
Here’s where I started getting distinct Wonderland vibes when I got the opportunity to discuss art with some other museum-goers (who seem to be raccoons atop clothing store mannequins concealed by trench coats to masquerade as human(?):
One of the arms in the trenchcoat raises towards the face of the gray raccoon(?). The sleeve falls down to reveal a plastic mannequin hand, which scratches the raccoon chin as if deep in thought. “Well… I think… Well, if you observe the shape of the brown dirt and consider the, the implications… we can… draw a conclusion about…”
“Be honest, Pen. You don’t know either. We can’t make a lick of sense out of this.”
Pen(?) sticks his actual little black raccoon hands up through the collar of the trench coat and coughs into them nervously. “No, no, my dear… I just… can’t find the words about what this thing is!!” He gestures with his little hands at the Cow painting, while the large mannequin hand remains in the thoughtful gesture resting against his chin.
“I think it’s picture of a Cow in all of its normal state.”]
“I think it is a combination of multiple animals, stuck together in a brown mud.”
