I am in this photograph is a retelling of the Bluebeard story, as a point-n-click kinetic piece made in Twine. The poetic prose, revealed by clicking on different parts of the displayed photograph, depicts the perspective of one of Bluebeard’s wives, as she defies her husband’s directive, going into the fated basement and running away. Some of the previous wives are mentioned in passing, forgotten or done dirty. It is pretty chilling.
Shotgun in my Heart is a micro Action RPG where you are in some sort of dungeon, fighting against monsters to get out. Armed with your trusty shotgun, which deals enough damage to one shot the creatures blocking your path, you must target their weak link to move to the next area. And if you miss… you will likely die. And another thing: each monster has two version, chosen at random (that made it pretty frustrating to go through, because you can only make one mistake…). Good luck escaping?
I cheated and opened the Inspect Tool to reach the end, it’s not impossible but very cruel
COMPANY is an absurdist short Twine piece, where you meet with HR at a COMPANY office for a job (I think? you seem pretty taken aback, like kidnapped/blindfolded/thrown in there). It is absolutely bonkers… and yet so close in the vibes of interviews I’ve sat for. Insane behaviour, wayyy too high energy, and questionable corpo practices. The all caps just sealed the deal for me. Slap onto that some sick collage, and you get… this. Surreal.
(limited time offer) is a short Twine piece set on a faraway planet where you play as Theo, a drunk and dying woman, in front of Lisa’s door, your physician/crush, about to tell her the truth. Realising you have little time left, you take a leap of faith and blurt it all out. It is a short scene, muddled with many feelings, messy circumstances and inebriation. The choice given was a bit funny, with that second of clarity through the vapours of alcohol. I wished it had been longer. 500 words feels too short…
Glory to the ghosts of us is a short Ink fanfic piece about Disco Elysium, in which Steban and Ulixes, two infra-materialist, discuss events involving Kras Mazov and Ignus Nilsen, two figures they look up to. Through the conversations, the two debate on whether a certain text is factual or misleading, whether the figures should have met the fate they did or whether they knew certain after-facts. It’s an interesting depiction of younger generations learning about older movements (they themselves follow or are influenced by), and a neat look into the more minor characters of the main game.
Love, Sam is the second snippet of a future project, following Sam, a
cancer patienta hemophiliac, spending an afternoon with an unnamed person, decorating pots and talking about life. The snippets focuses specifically on a short moment, where Sam must carefully take his medication while keeping and eye on Mihr, his mischievous cat who like the pill bottle. It is a very touching moment, and bittersweet.
Eat the Rich is a short piece wanting to be thought provoking. Taking on the titular old slogan, the game takes it literally, showing that eating those billionaires would only result in realising there are still rich people out there, that maybe should be eaten too so it would be more fair. Or maybe wealth could be distributed instead and… oh wait, now we have more rich people and look there are still poor people in that other country.
So, what should we do? Is Eat the Rich the right way of looking at things? The message the author is trying to push forward is to take another approach on the matter. Rather than eating the rich, we should look into one’s self and… realise we’re actually richer than other people, and appreciate what we have.
Inspired by their personal background and realisations, the message ends up feeling preachy and tone-deaf (which the author already conceeded).
To me, it made me think of those people pointing out at cancer patients when you’re complaining about a headache and berating you for not realising how lucky you are. Even if people share a trait (e.g. pain, feeling poor), situations can be completely different, with neither being unworthy of space. Knowing you’re part of the worldwide 1% won’t really matter to you if you’re already counting pennies.It’s a bit of a shame, because the topic (wealth disparity) is all the more important, as many populations are suffering due to inflations while large corporations tout record profits and executive salaries. But the angle was maybe not the right one to tackle it.
Swan Neck is a short medical kinetic piece, where you play as an intern to become a medical professional, looking to recreate that one-in-a-million event that affected you once when you were younger: a swan neck facture. Where your arm breaks in such a way it resembles the neck of a swan, with the bones still inside. Gruesome, right? But that pushed you into this path, obsessing into seeing it again. And then a trauma situation happens at the hospital, flooding the halls with patients…
This was so chilling and full of tension, building slowly until the final moment. In the back of my mind, I knew where it was going, but I hoped it wouldn’t end up there. And still. The descriptions are so clinical, looking at horrific and gruesome event with such coldness and strange admiration. So disturbing. And so good.
To clarify, Sam is not a cancer patient! While chest ports may be more commonly seen in chemotherapy treatments, severe hemophiliacs, especially small children, often have them installed as a means to administer the daily large infusions of replacement coagulation factor to avoid the issue of excessive bleeding from repeated needle injections. The medication mentioned are painkillers, as hemophiliacs are often prescribed courses of them to help manage pain from complications like hemarthrosis.
I am a hemophiliac, but a much more mild presentation than Sam- Sam has Hemophilia A, the more common variant, and is classified as a severe hemophiliac because he has less than 1% of typical coagulation factor activity. Thus, he has more stringent interventions, like prophylactic coagulation factor replacement infusions, a chest port, and is an ambulatory wheelchair user due to long term joint damage from repeated hemorrhages into load bearing joints.
This is all character context that is clearer in larger works featuring Sam, (mostly roleplay writing, though I am planning on featuring him as a main romance option in my current WIP, The Love We Buried) so 500 words is of course scant to reveal all of that and the misunderstanding is understandable. But, I just wanted to point it out!
Oh my bad 
I should have asked you directly first…
I googled it and the cancer thing popped up first.
Lemme edit that then!
It can’t be true it mustn’t be true is the third act of the RGB trilogy, recontextualising the events of the second act. Here, you embody another different person, in the bedroom of the man from the previous act, as you attempt to quietly leave his bedroom while he’s showering, following a warning text from a friend. Again, it switches up gameplay, going for the escape room puzzle. There are multiple ways to trigger the ending, though whether you are successful…
It didn’t click right away that this sequence wasn’t really following the previous one, though, as a whole, it made sense for it to happen now, making the events of the previous act even bleaker and somewhat more satisfying than at first play. And again, the game plays with your senses of agency and influence over the story (is this why the puzzles are relatively easy?). You get so entranced in trying to complete the game that it makes you forget about the inevitable end…
I don’t want it to end just yet… ;-;
sweet shop is a short Twine piece about sweets, and accepting yourself. Feeling like having some sweet thing in your life, you go to a sweet shop, a place you find comforting and soothing. Seeing your favourite candy there, you give in and splurge a little… only to beat yourself up for it, falling into a cycle of despair where one negative feeling brings on another one (specifically of the trans experience). Until… something snaps. And you find some peace. Like the described candy, it’s very sweet.
(that’s the last one for today, more tomorrow)
New day, new games to play. Definitely not as much as yesterday, but it will do.
Shrouded is the last snippet of a larger project, in which you interact with Joel, a religious man, praying by himself in a pristine church. Trying to find peace and solace, you interrupt his prayers, and he returns the favour by sharing his appreciation for the exercise. You get hints of his relationship with the other men of the cloth and his struggles in maintaining his circles separate (between his family and The Family?). Like inside a church, the atmosphere is solemn, both cold and comforting, warm and inviting.
turn the lights off is the final part of the trilogy, wrapping up the story some times after the sequel, where the protagonist met someone new, but struggles with the differences in relationships. Comparing this one to the abusive one they left, they show how opposite these two men are towards them, in the way they interact with their body, respect their boundaries, and care for them.
While it is lovely to see the protagonist get their happy ending, or more like starting their path towards it, the entry still continues its depiction of how complex living the consequences of abuse is, and how it can still linger, frustratingly reverting you to old bad habits instead of going through the difficult work of accepting the past and healing from it.
Yet again, the minimalist aspect of the game, with one single dithered background, a looping muted track, and few words on the screen, hits all the more stronger. As a single entry, it is great. But as a whole, the series is fantastic.
Tectonic is a short Twine piece, inspired by the myth of Persephone. While stuck in the underworld, you (as the goddess) reflect on your situation, with Hades being distant or seemingly interested in you, and you struggling with the reaction of your mother as the “deal” was made. Whichever ending will depend on whether you concede to your new role as the Queen of the Underworld, whether your anger is greater than your love. Whichever choice you make however, never brings back what was taken from you.
i really want that is a kinetic short poem about desires, especially the ones pushed aside for later. The text takes on both an absurd and philosophical approach to the question, as it wonders what happens to unfulfilled dreams. It made me wonder if going through the question was actually worth the effort, as your cursor runs after an exclamation mark (like a quest point), who is always running away every time you approach. Rather than running after the unreachable…
A changing greenhouse is a relaxing mini-experience made in a custom format in Twine. Enjoying a stroll through a greenhouse, you can notice its ever-changing aspects, or simply reflect on memories or feeling, spend some time caring for its plants or have a lay down looking out the window. With a soft and calming background music and delightful cute illustration, this little game brings a cozy atmosphere. Extremely cute!
my third eye opened today is a short kinetic visual novel, where the narrator experiences a spiritual connection with their self during a dream. Through “opening their third eye”, they swift through their feelings, their struggles, in hopes for peace and acceptance. Their Self is the same but also different: happy and sure of themselves, with their hair unbounded and free. Along with lineart illustration and soft background music, the piece brings a very soothing experience.
Space Wizards Rendezvous 1.5: Music Lesson is a short magical moment made in Ink between Daffodil and Castillo, doing some little space magic, on a chill evening night. Either focusing on discarded seeds or the magically-infused instrument, Daffodil tests out some silly spells, leading to one of four endings. It’s silly, it’s fun, and quite lovely! More silly space magic please!
This was also submitted to the Narrascope Jam
To Study a Butterfly is a surreal short interactive piece involving time distortions, where you experience this phenomenon at three different period in your life. Without getting too spoilery, it was interesting how everything related to each other, going almost cyclical. It reminded me of those time-traveller movies, where they go back in time, both by mistake and not really. Neat formatting of the text too!