IFComp 2023

The first time I played, I got the “bad” version (the one with a 38.8% chance of appearing). It's a short, non-branching story that yells in all-caps about the hero's unfortunate fate of at the hands (er, boots) of various villains. It features shaking and rotated text over a flashing backdrop. It wants to be disliked.

But… what if I kind of like it?

The juvenile tone brings me back to middle school in 2002. This is exactly the sort of thing that was popular at the time with my peers. There's an extra layer of humor in seeing the amount of time someone put into making terrible internet content. In this case: It's ugly and offensive, but the CSS behind some of these effects isn't trivial, and there's some obvious care in the placement of novel misspellings throughout the piece.

Later I opened it on my phone, and got the “good” version, a more conventional Twine adventure where a steady stream of double entendres grace Dick's efforts to avoid his fate. I enjoyed this too. It's objectively better in many ways, but it doesn't have the same middle school charm. Not sure what that says about me. :joy: