by Stanley W. Baxton. 27th place, IFComp 2022.

I think for such a linear experience the Interactive and Implementation parts of this are super-solid; as a fiction I think it mostly captures a particular kind of anxiety (or maybe a bad dream) but setting/plot/characters didn’t really stick with me.

What’s working for me:

• As an expression of this particular feeling of anxiety and panic, it succeeds :100: :cold_sweat:.

• I hate to bother people. I mean, I have a problematic need to be out-of-the-way. This bit near the end really resonated:

I mean, imagine if you faked your way to the top. Miraculously not ruining the day, somehow getting by without inconveniencing anyone. Then, all of a sudden, you ruin it after wasting everyone’s time?
How embarrassing would that be?
You should quit.
That’s really the best way. You won’t be an inconvenience to anyone, then.”

That feeling of doing almost anything not to be an inconvenience is real real real.

• Everything seems executed well, it’s a clean implementation, things are readable.

• The background effects. Subtle enough not to be too overwhelming, until they are supposed to be, then they definitely help create the sense of panic.

Mixed feelings:

• I played on phone first, and then on a laptop with a touchpad. I actually liked this better on a phone. Being on the laptop made me want keyboard input, and with a touchpad the distance between the actions, the words, and the next button in the lower-right was just enough friction to be annoying.

Not working for me:

• I ended the game not sure if it’s a metaphor for social anxiety, or COVID anxiety, or imposter syndrome, or something else… or maybe for all of them? “Embarrassed to be present” can be a pretty broad category. Maybe that’s a strength and the game will speak to people’s particular anxieties well. But the avoidance of details in the writing (besides details about the blood gushing out of our nose) made it a little tough for me to anchor to this character. In particular, there are lots of places the game gives you choices to dig for more information (What happened last time? Where are we going?) and then explicitly denies you that information, which is both frustrating and (for me) distancing from the character. (But then that tunnel vision is also part of the overall anxiety effect.)
• On that note, I wonder if Twine might have been a better engine for this particular story than Texture. It seems like every verb matches to just one noun in the text, and they might as well be links so we don’t have to do the drag-and-drop action. I’m guessing Texture was designed for more of a middle-point between parser and hypertext, where a verb might have several applications.