Fragments of the Nile by Storyteller
I’m now starting on the collection As I Sat on a Sunny Bank by Senica Thing, a group of students from Slovakia, Slovenia and Italy. I plan to review each story separately. They are perfect for when I fancy playing something a bit more bite sized! Though when I’ve finished them all I will make a combined post here linking to all the reviews, and will then link to that combined post from the reviews spreadsheet.
First up this one, which intrigued me by the Egyptian sounding title. Curious to see what the 15-year-old author comes up with. I appreciate the information at the start about the author and what feedback they are looking for.
The game turns out to be an archaeological mystery, which can go in various directions, including from the very start. It’s a branching Twine piece, and I found the writing made me want to replay to experience the other options. I especially liked when the game took you into the past. Very imaginative, and not what I was expecting. The other main branch of the game explored the same ideas but from a different perspective. That branch (the radio/research one) absolutely did not go where I expected it to! An exciting read.
I liked the archaeological excavations especially. But something that I felt was lacking in that portion of the game was a real sense of place. It would be nice if the author created more of this in game, whether through descriptions that you read, or more interaction options for the player. What does it feel like in Egypt? What can the player see, hear and smell? You could put this information into the game text. But a better option might be to let the player interact more with the world and what they are seeing. For example when you start digging in the cave with other people around, maybe let the player choose to look more closely at the others nearby, and look around the cave. Maybe let the player optionally even smell the air? All of these little extra touches can be implemented by additional choice options in game. Which will engage the player more deeply than extra non-interactive text would do. None of these extra choices need to change the core plot, but all could help to create a richer sense of player immersion.
Basically though I liked it a lot, admired the storytelling, and was so engrossed that I replayed to see lots of different branches. Well done to the author!