The intro to this really grabbed me and I love how you used twine for this!
I couldn't play for much longer because of the black background and white text (astigmatism goes *ouch*) but if you ever release a version with softer colors/values I'd love to try again!!
As someone new to Twine, I feel like I learned so much about different ways of working with Twine by playing your game. The application, the texting, everything just worked with the mechanics of Twine. This really helped me immerse myself in your game and what a brilliant game it was! It touches on so many ideas in an evocative and true-feeling way.
Congrats for this game! It amazed me at how Twine was used in ways I've never experienced before (the auto-filling of the form caught me off guard in a very good way). I loved the story-telling and the interactions with your love interest. The ending is heart-wrenching but also because it hits super close to home - that struggle to be who we are and wanting to support our friends, but the need of money to be able to do that. That fight that may not end.
Having worked with very big corps in the past, it also struck in more ways than one, since I was prompt to like their efforts until I realized how they wouldn't really care.
Anyway, thank you very much for that game and for sharing it with all of us :)
Really, really great game! And a super evocative use of Twine. I particularly like the game's sardonic tone, the way it draws attention to rainbow capitalism and seems to leave space for the player to draw conclusions about the interaction between identity and state warfare/imperialism and how fundamentally incompatible these things are. I especially loved the reroute to the poem at the end. I feel this whole game is very... relevant right now, let's say, given the current ethnic cleansing of Palestine at the hands of Israel and the complicity of Western nations in this. Obviously a heavy topic but I didn't want to beat around the bush regarding connections drawn in my head, maybe it's just so much on my mind. Thank you for sharing this.
I love your game! It's well written and really immersive. I found it super funny at the beginning with the form (I won't spoil lol) and I also like how you incorporated the texting mechanic. I don't know if that could be interesting, but your game reminded me a little of Jordan Youngblood's paper on homonationalism and militarism in the Mass Effect series.
Ugh, there is so much to unpack here. I love the way that this game addresses complicity head-on (but also gives me the power fantasy of being able to escape with a mech). The "all-queer weapons machines company" felt very realistic to the way some companies feel.
This was reaaally really good. I love how established the world was and definitely relatable. I've had people tell me working at one of the big tech companies everyone (including me) hates would make my life better because of all the money and being able to pay off people's gofundmes and it's like. I don't want to be someone who has to sell their soul to survive and I liked grappling with that feeling in this.
This was awesome, Sasha! I've played a few Twine games that I've really enjoyed on Itch in their own ways but this was the deepest, and yet done in a way that feels so natural. There's no exposition, no "here's the backstory" dump of text, you're just tossed into it.
And I absolutely love that this game is created in such a way that you genuinely feel equally valid for either major choice in the end. I had to do both, of course, to see what happened 🤣 But, especially living in a small town, it almost felt evil (intentionally so, of course, and also equally realistic) to have such a queer-friendly, positive, lovely place be so entrenched in war. Like... I would dream of a workplace like that, and I'm sure I'm far from the only one. Heck, I've never even had a job with insurance, let alone the rest 🤣🤣🤣🤣
All of that to say that I love this so much and you captured it all so well in wonderful writing and world-building!
Great story and a great take on the queer worlds theme! Assimilation is such n important topic to address, and nice to see that done in a video game space where assimilation is often the default way of representing queerness. I like the elements of choice you get at certain points and I’m curious how the story would differ depending on the decisions you make 👀
Comments
The intro to this really grabbed me and I love how you used twine for this!
I couldn't play for much longer because of the black background and white text (astigmatism goes *ouch*) but if you ever release a version with softer colors/values I'd love to try again!!
As someone new to Twine, I feel like I learned so much about different ways of working with Twine by playing your game. The application, the texting, everything just worked with the mechanics of Twine. This really helped me immerse myself in your game and what a brilliant game it was! It touches on so many ideas in an evocative and true-feeling way.
Thank you for sharing this!
Congrats for this game! It amazed me at how Twine was used in ways I've never experienced before (the auto-filling of the form caught me off guard in a very good way). I loved the story-telling and the interactions with your love interest. The ending is heart-wrenching but also because it hits super close to home - that struggle to be who we are and wanting to support our friends, but the need of money to be able to do that. That fight that may not end.
Having worked with very big corps in the past, it also struck in more ways than one, since I was prompt to like their efforts until I realized how they wouldn't really care.
Anyway, thank you very much for that game and for sharing it with all of us :)
Really, really great game! And a super evocative use of Twine. I particularly like the game's sardonic tone, the way it draws attention to rainbow capitalism and seems to leave space for the player to draw conclusions about the interaction between identity and state warfare/imperialism and how fundamentally incompatible these things are. I especially loved the reroute to the poem at the end. I feel this whole game is very... relevant right now, let's say, given the current ethnic cleansing of Palestine at the hands of Israel and the complicity of Western nations in this. Obviously a heavy topic but I didn't want to beat around the bush regarding connections drawn in my head, maybe it's just so much on my mind. Thank you for sharing this.
Poignant, funny, great world building. That mech boot sequence dialog really shines for me.
Also, “TENDER IN VICTORY” has been living rent free in my head since playing this. Could you say more about the inspiration for that mural?
I love your game! It's well written and really immersive. I found it super funny at the beginning with the form (I won't spoil lol) and I also like how you incorporated the texting mechanic. I don't know if that could be interesting, but your game reminded me a little of Jordan Youngblood's paper on homonationalism and militarism in the Mass Effect series.
Ugh, there is so much to unpack here. I love the way that this game addresses complicity head-on (but also gives me the power fantasy of being able to escape with a mech). The "all-queer weapons machines company" felt very realistic to the way some companies feel.
This was reaaally really good. I love how established the world was and definitely relatable. I've had people tell me working at one of the big tech companies everyone (including me) hates would make my life better because of all the money and being able to pay off people's gofundmes and it's like. I don't want to be someone who has to sell their soul to survive and I liked grappling with that feeling in this.
This was awesome, Sasha! I've played a few Twine games that I've really enjoyed on Itch in their own ways but this was the deepest, and yet done in a way that feels so natural. There's no exposition, no "here's the backstory" dump of text, you're just tossed into it.
And I absolutely love that this game is created in such a way that you genuinely feel equally valid for either major choice in the end. I had to do both, of course, to see what happened 🤣 But, especially living in a small town, it almost felt evil (intentionally so, of course, and also equally realistic) to have such a queer-friendly, positive, lovely place be so entrenched in war. Like... I would dream of a workplace like that, and I'm sure I'm far from the only one. Heck, I've never even had a job with insurance, let alone the rest 🤣🤣🤣🤣
All of that to say that I love this so much and you captured it all so well in wonderful writing and world-building!
- ✨Beth
Great story and a great take on the queer worlds theme! Assimilation is such n important topic to address, and nice to see that done in a video game space where assimilation is often the default way of representing queerness. I like the elements of choice you get at certain points and I’m curious how the story would differ depending on the decisions you make 👀