Viv Dunstan's Spring Thing & Autumnal Jumble 2025 impressions

[vivdunstan]

Those voices are getting louder captain by Mushroom

Onto my last game from the Senica Thing anthology this year, and this fun tale of dodgy goings on at sea, and worrying tales from a fellow shipmate. There are multiple endings to discover. All (I think) categorised as either good or bad.

I laughed at so much of this. The game is very self knowing and meta textual, critiquing choices that you can make e.g.

(Choose this one): Knock the sailor off saying that he´s talking nonsense.
(Or) Ask him what voices he means. (Don´t. You. Dare.)

The author did a great job making the game work at multiple levels, and integrating the meta commentary within the rest.

I think the story itself could be fleshed out a little bit more. But it’s really funny, I was engrossed. The branching works well, and the funny bits are just the best.

I don’t think much work would have been needed to get this ready for the Main Festival. So yes, if the author wants to aim for that in future, go for it!

[vivdunstan]

I’ve now reviewed all the Senica Thing games from the anthology As I Sat on a Sunny Bank. So it’s time to make a post gathering all of my reviews together:

• A Brand New World
• Bottle
• Fragments of the Nile
• Nothing
• Power Turtle
• Those voices are getting louder captain
• Untitled
• Wonder of the Woods

I really enjoyed the range of games this year, all providing a different take on the original idea posed to the students.

I appreciated the notes about each author and what sort of feedback they were looking for. I was also impressed by how many were considering aiming at the Main Festival in future.

I didn’t comment on spelling much. There are typos in many of the games, quite a lot. But honestly, I think you’re all fantastic, and in this case spelling is not my top concern.

Thank you all! Good luck with your continued writing projects.

[vivdunstan]

Starfish & Crystallisation by Colin Justin Wan

This is a short multimedia Twine piece about past memories and loss.

It’s quite evocative, and well written, though not too interactive. There are some key choices to make, and also some sections where you’re asked to type an answer or word into a box. Which can be challenging, though hints are given.

There is music, but fortunately for me it was instrumental, so unusually for me I kept playing it while I read the text. Often audio tracks for multimedia IF distract me too much from reading. The visuals got a little muddled at times, making text harder to read. But generally the interface was pretty clean.

A short piece, but well worth playing through. It only took 10 minutes of my time, but I found it very engrossing.

Question for the author

Was the title of the entry changed? Because the end credits referred to “Echoes & Traces”. Which sort of made more sense.

[vivdunstan]

The Sandman by Bellamy Briks

The world is ending. Will you be awake to see it?

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play this. Things are bleak enough in the real world in many respects right now! But it’s called me in, so here goes.

First up I turned the sound off. it’s very atmospheric and brooding, but distracted me too much from reading the text. which is my core focus.

In the game you’re one of the last survivors of a virus, seeking sanctuary with your two children. And above all to survive you have to stay awake, and keep your children awake too. And then you meet the mysterious man.

It’s an episodic day by day adventure, where if you can keep going you can play for longer. I got to day 11, and then had no viable option but to go to sleep. But at least it felt like a satisfying ending.

However it’s a difficult game emotionally. And a lot of the more interesting discussions are uncovered by talking to the old man, which increases the risk of your children dying. Which left me really not knowing what to feel for much of the time.

Helplessness I suppose. It did not leave me in a happy place emotionally! Though that’s thanks to the quality and emotiveness of the writing. I did hang on at one point to the core idea and importance of love though.

It’s definitely a game that deserves replaying, though like me you may get to the point where you can’t get further. I liked how it invited you to name your character and your children. And also how this was remembered when you replayed, if you wanted, so you didn’t need to reenter the details every time.

But it is extremely bleak, and will be too much for some players.

Recurring typo for the author

You have 1 actions left today.

• should be “action” singular when down to just 1.

[Eudokimos (Ondrej Odokienko)]

Hi Viv,

I really enjoyed reading every bit of your review. It is a pleasant proof that someone played our game and found interesting exactly those things which were the main engine of our authoring motivation. Thanks

[vivdunstan]

Social Democracy: Petrograd 1917 by Autumn Chen

On to this alternative history simulation of 1917 Russia, and the political machinations between Menshevik, Socialist-Revolutionary, Kadet and Bolshevik parties. Note I’m going into this with very little knowledge of the period. Also I have not played the Social Democracy game from 2024.

I played for about 40 minutes, right through, in easy mode. I chose to control the Socialist-Revolutionary party, and pushed for agricultural reform and an end to the war. That strategy did not ultimately go well, though it was fascinating to follow, week by week, as the multitude of factors interacted. Not towards a good end for my goals.

Not being familiar enough with the different Russian political parties then, I found it hard to differentiate between them clearly as I played and made decisions. I focused on the single party I was personally controlling, the party of the peasants, and tried to keep a clear idea in my head of what I wanted to achieve. But I was still rather overwhelmed by the other factions manoeuvring. And felt out of control. Which is probably not unrealistic for the situation being simulated.

The interface was nice. Even worked on my low resolution massive font view on the browser. On the left panel I had stats appearing (rising inflation aarrgghh!). Then on the mid/right area the game text would appear as I interacted. In addition I could draw cards, seemingly at random, for each organisation or institution I controlled, which would then let me choose what to interact with. The randomness of the cards - or seeming randomness anyway! - was fun, and added unpredictability. But it also made things frustrating. For example I’d want to change the food policy, or taxation, and it seemed to be pot luck whether those cards would appear.

It’s not a game I would want to replay soon, but I think I may well come back to it in 6 months or a year. And I would very much like to play its precursor game from last year.

The game has prompted me to want to learn more about the period though. I know quite a lot about the Romanov side of things, but less about the various political parties and their activities in this period of Russian history. And I would like to read more about that. It might have been nice to see a recommended reading list at the end from the author, or tips about useful resources to go to.

I’m an academic historian but this absolutely isn’t my historical period or context. So I’m totally unqualified to judge or assess the game’s accuracy in historical terms, or how good a simulation it is. But as a player I found it captivating to play through, albeit somewhat overwhelming.

Definitely recommended.

[vivdunstan]

Just had another play through of Social Democracy: Petrograd 1917, and discovered a few more options. Further down the screen - off my screen, with my huge font and low resolution - there were extra advisor options I could select. So more to do. But still as unsuccessful an outcome as before

It is a fascinating game though. I really look forward to reading any post mortem / after competition thoughts from the author.

[vivdunstan]

Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight by Drew Cook

This is a charming cat-themed adventure, where you play Marbles the cat, who has to help her person, while investigating a mysterious theatre. It’s set in a vaguely fantastical world, but the game’s action is located firmly within the geography of a theatre, so is easy to visualise for contemporary audiences.

I had so much fun doing cat things especially. The parser implementation was very responsive. Though I didn’t manage to knock something off or over, which was a disappointment! I may have missed an opportunity there.

As Marbles the cat you alert your person to items of interest by meowing at the items. Which is delightful in itself, but also makes the game extremely newbie friendly. There are also sporadic “CAT NEWS NETWORK” snippets, telling you more about how to play the game, which is all very well handled.

There were only a few places where I struggled with the parser, unable to get the message across, sometimes not trying the right thing at the right time, or in the right place, or both (the ladder and the door combination were a particular challenge). But the built in HELP command responses are comprehensive, with well-written multi-step clues to reveal.

As a player I appreciated the episodic nature of the game, built around a series of short acts. With this structure I felt like I was making progress, and it also helped break up the story.

Best thing though was the implementation of Marbles the cat. Who clearly adores her person. I had so much fun exploring the many cat things she can do, and increasing my score of them. I was proud of my final “Outstanding” cat report!

Thanks to the author for the end of game additions to the HELP command. It’s nice to read more about the game development process. Including some Inform coding tips!

Highly recommended.

[kamineko (Drew Cook)]

Thanks for reviewing my game! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it.

I think you’re right; something should be knocked over. I’ll add that to a future release!

[vivdunstan]

Hauntless by Abby Blenk

This is an atmospheric Twine-based piece, where you are a professional spirit exterminator investigating a haunted circus, and trying to solve the mysteries of unsettled spirits.

I liked a lot about this. The circus is a richly developed setting for a game world, and I enjoyed learning about the various characters involved with the circus. There’s a lot to uncover and a lot of depth.

On the downside I found the physical navigation around the circus somewhat problematic. I would often move from, say, location A to location B, but not be offered the chance to return to A directly. There is a “reorient yourself” option in the left side of the user interface, which I used a lot. This keeps a record of the locations you’ve visited, and how often you’ve visited each one, and lets you jump straight back to any one of them. Plus it includes hints of locations still left to discover. In this game it is often worth returning to a location you’ve visited before, and the “reorient yourself” list was handy for noting those places I hadn’t investigated too many times.

I found the number of characters and the secrets revealed for them overwhelming, but equally not enough clarity for me personally to rule most out as guilty or innocent of the crime I was investigating. There’s a “notes” section you can access, where you can make notes about guilty or innocent against a character. I just did not feel confident enough about that for the vast majority of cases. Equally there’s an “assignment details” button to reveal more witness statements. It took me a very long time to even notice that let alone use it. I kept on being puzzled when the game would refer to a witness statement, but I didn’t seem able to look at it and read it …

However, I worked my way through, had lots of fun, and managed to identify a key guilty party at the first go (extremely satisfying!). Which then opened up the option of investigating the circus further, or leaving the site. I chose to stay, and bring the game to a satisfying ultimate resolution. Though I had to take a brute force approach to this bit (luckily you can try multiple options for how X was killed by Y with Z!).

I did notice a few small typos the author may want to fix. But generally the writing was very strong. Only one expression threw me and I had to google its meaning (“bleacher seating” - I knew immediately what that was after googling!).

Nicely done. I was playing for about 70 minutes. Oh and I loved the art. And not done with AI. Well done!

A few typo notes

Following a series of suspicious and abnormal deaths on March 13, 1924, Cirque Deliria was rapidly abandoned prior to the night’s opening show. Law enforcement and subsequent visitors have reported strange visual and auditory experiences that are attributed to the haunting, in addition to more traditional supernatural occurences. Fire issues are unspecified.

• should be occurrences

The Contortionist’s Tent appears barely large enough to accomodate an audience of any kind

• should be accommodate

Note: The cook and doctor refused allow their interviews to be shared with Hauntless by law enforcement

• should be “refused to allow”

[vivdunstan]

Cut the Sky by SV Linwood

Ok onto this parser game now. And the first thing I want to say is probably a bit provocative, but the blurb

You’ve been wandering for a while now, searching for something worthy of your blade.

really didn’t encourage me to play the game! It feels so unfinished, and “so what”. But I’m playing it despite that.

And it’s delightful. A rather trippy series of episodic fantastic moments, where you have a sword that you can use, and the question is what to do with it. Each of the sections are short, some shorter than others, but evocatively written. I especially enjoyed the Jack Vance like encounter in a forest.

On the downside I had quite a lot of fight the parser moments. If you have a reduced parser like this, it probably needs more playtesting to smoothe things. I see there were a lot of testers, but I wonder if even more might have helped. I’m going to list some bits I had issues with in a section for the author at the end of this.

But other than that I really enjoyed it. Yes it needed smoothing in quite a few places, but overall it was a magical experience to play through. And I loved the fantastical descriptive storytelling throughout. I played for about an hour.

Highly recommended.

Some issues noted for the author

> talk to guard
"I always liked passing through here. It's peaceful. Well, most of the time."
 In the late afternoon, as the glow of the sky begins to dim, you come across a sliver of darkness on the ground. It seems nothing more than a shadow at first—but there is nothing to cast it, and it is too stark for the sky's weak light. Otherworldly laughter fills the air, and the shadow wisp begins to grow, pitch dark, like a tear in the fabric of the world.
 > examine sliver
That is either absent or unimportant.
 > examine wisp
You stare into its depths and find nothing but darkness.

• should response to EXAMINE SLIVER too

You sit beside the crackling campfire. Beside you are gathered a group of pilgrims. Their solemn voices echo in the silence.
 "Once the sky shone bright."
 > think
There is nothing to do but sit and listen.
 > listen
You do not need to do that. Type verbs to see which actions you may take.

• ok fair enough it’s reduced parser, but if ever there was a time for LISTEN this is it

They dart towards you; quickly you roll behind a tree, and they shatter into a shower of sparks against its trunk. The air sizzles on your skin.
 > cut trunk
That is either absent or unimportant.
 > cut tree
A thick tree trunk crashes into the ground, where the undergrowth quickly begins to consume it. Sticky black sap oozes from its wound.

• allow TRUNK as alias for TREE here

TYPO:
Finally, the day comes. The wizard tears a whole in the world; beyond it a vision of the black tower twists and flickers. "Well, then!" he says. "Come visit me sometime! Unless the spell malfunctions! In which case you'll probably be in too many pieces to do that!"

• should be “hole in the world”

The Black Tower
The tower seems to go on forever. Still the stairs continue to rise. On the wall, a panel shows you a vision of a pyramid.
 A metal sentinel bars your way, perched on three sharp, spindly limbs. Above it a gemstone floats, glowing bright blue.
 < no one remembers what we did >
 > examine gemstone
It lies on the floor. Its glow has died.

• erm???

Also I seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time fighting the wizard. I felt very stuck until I tried CUT BUSHES at the right time, having gone to the walkthrough. I don’t think that is clued enough. More variant words for bushes would help.

[svlin]

Thank you for the review! And thanks for bringing up those issues, that’s very helpful.

[vivdunstan]

I’m hoping to get another couple of games in by this Friday, but since last Thursday have been constantly waking up rather shocked after 4pm. And typically falling back to sleep again after then! Thanks progressive neurological illness, not!

So apologies to those folks whose games I don’t get to. Many thanks to all the authors this year. You’re all fab!

I will make sure whatever happens to get my ribbon nominations in in time.

[vivdunstan]

Canvas Keepsakes by C.T. O’Mahony

Pleased to get at least one more game review in. I was playing this one for about half an hour. It’s a choice-based art/fantasy/horror mystery story. And it’s another with a most excellent cat in it. Which I greatly approve of.

I really enjoyed playing this story right through. The player character can enter paintings and take keepsakes from them. And in the process discovers a much more dangerous threat which they have to face.

It was constantly a very tense playing experience. I often felt that I needed to read the text and make my next choice quickly before I ran out of time. I’m not sure that was a real concern, but the writing definitely added to the tension.

I was very happy with the ending I reached, though I expect there may be less positive outcomes to discover too.

Really good stuff. Thank you to the author.

I spotted just a couple of typos:

Summary

"I told you the demons could get out!" he cries, arching his back and flatteing his ears.

• flattening

"Aaaany second now," Pixel says, and there's an almighty hiss as your snake monster wriggles out of the sketchbook. You hold a hand up protectively, but the snake just blinks at you. Did it recognise you as it's master? Why? Your spider sure as hell didn't...

• its master

[CTOMahony]

Thanks so much for the lovely review! I’m delighted you enjoyed the game

[vivdunstan]

As the Fire Dies by Alex Carey and Deborah Chantson

This is a charming short Twine-based piece, where you have a fire to tend, and dreams to explore.

It’s episodic, with light puzzles at each stage. In addition you need to keep that fire burning …

The writing is strong and richly imaginative, and I felt thoroughly engrossed and charmed in the world.

I played for about half an hour.

Thank you to the authors.

I spotted just one typo:

Typo note for authors

The tallest penguin waddles forward, the sun glinting across a pair of half-moon spectacles. It waggles its their flippers expectantly at you.

• remove “their”?

[vivdunstan]

Portrait with Wolf by Drew Cook

This is a curious parser piece, where you ostensibly put together different motifs to create art works (with the art works explained in text format), and aim to fill an art gallery with 8 different art works. I got 4/8 endings, and couldn’t unlock all 8. I gather from other reviews that this work reuses the poetry of Sylvia Plath, but I’m too unfamiliar with that to connect with it.

I don’t think I was the ideal audience for this piece. I think there’s a lot more depth to it than I was feeling. But I struggled to engage with it. Which isn’t any fault of the author. Just some things click for some folks and not others. I’m also one of those folks who tends not to get on with more abstract works, and prefers things spelled out simply.

I also struggled a little with the parser interface on my low resolution enormous font laptop screen. The game text kept filling the screen and I’d have to constantly tap to show more, but then with my hand control problems I risked entering the wrong next option, which was rather crucial to get right. So it was a rather fraught playing experience for me.

But again that may well have been just me.

[vivdunstan]

That’s me played all the entries I’m going to get to. 16 per the review spreadsheet count. Though in practice because I wrote individual reviews for all 8 Senica Thing mini games/stories it was more like 23 works played and reviewed

Thank you to all of this year’s authors. I got something different out of all the entries I played. Every one made me think about interactive fiction in a different way. And I loved the variety of approaches that you brought to the competition.

Apologies again to those folks whose entries I didn’t get to.

And thanks to my fellow reviewers. Whenever I’ve reviewed a game I’ve gone to read other people’s reviews after writing mine. I’ve hugely appreciated the time and effort put into reviews by folks this year.

Thanks all! And my ribbon nominations are in.

[kamineko (Drew Cook)]

Thank you for playing and reviewing Portrait with Wolf as well. I especially appreciate your comment regarding scrolling with larger fonts, as that is something I had not considered.

[Loressa]

Thanks for the feedback and the typo spots!