Equal-ibrium by Ima
According to the cover art, the game is called Equal-ibrium. According to the title on the competition page, it is called Equal-librium. According to the blurb, it seems to be called Equal-ibium. Sad to say, this apparently unintended confusion is emblimatic for the game as a whole. It is full of spelling errors, including really egregious ones like “coffee-spliage”, which any basic spelling checker could find. Several times I got an error message that said “I can’t run the macro ‘text-type’.” And one of the paths through the game is simply not completable because you end up with a link you can’t click. Equal-ibrium isn’t even ready for beta testing, let alone for a competition release.
The story of the piece is about a CEO who is apparently trying to make money through some kind of deal that I never fully understood. Someone is going to make this deal public – who this is seems to depend on other choices you make – and this might ruin your reputation. But if you’re nice to a guy who spills coffee on your shirt, you won’t have to commit suicide. Whatever happens, at the end there’s a little moral about having to maintain equilibrium. It’s… I think it’s trying to make a point about how unlimited greed is destructive? But that’s so basic, that it’s hard to believe that this exhausts the game’s point. The unfinished state of the game made me rather uneager to delve more deeply into this.
I must admit that I didn’t get anything out of this.