Starfish & Crystallisation by Colin Justin Wan
Playtime: 9 minutes
This made me want to talk about:
- a well-sketched exploration of a specific grief (complete with opening instruction to play with a glass of vodka and the musical stylings of Liszt), the details of the PC’s life etc. are nicely fleshed out
- I may be overreading, but I thought the connection between the complex nature of the PC’s grief and the sort of oblique asks on the player was effective. we’re circling around something the PC doesn’t fully understand either. The little check-ins for the player create player interest, and also generate a “huh, what are we trying not to think about” vibe.
- I had somehow escaped pager code thus far in my life, but that was a fun tidbit!
- it’s a piece about an emotion, and, you know, it did make me feel something
Notable line:
My one fervent wish:
Although I’ll generally go to bat for the unorthodox styling choices and bold colors here, I found the aquarium-inspired scenes very hard to read (even at night, on a full monitor, so I suspect it could be even worse for some). Making the text more readable (perhaps by choosing a thicker & bolder typeface?) would be a great step.
Overall, a short requiem with a mildly self-destructive mood