This game is of unusual difficulty for me because the trackpad on my laptop is broken, such that I must exert great physical force for any one click to register. (Most people who try to use my computer can't even pull off a single click.) When clicking on like one thing or two this is negligible, but when clicking something repeatedly it becomes noticeable and then very seriously hampering
My broken hardware caused the physical process of playing this game to become basically the same as what its narrative described
That was fantastic! I'll admit I skipped some vines in the beginning, but the "picture in time" story and the humor was excellent. Definitely fits the theme. Admittedly not something I'd play more than once, but still memorable. Cheers!
Wow that was great. Something I found particularly fantastic was that, as in the writing, I eventually forgot that I was climbing and was only reminded of it when I was reminded of it in game. It really immersed me in the role. I was laughing out loud as well, wonderful writing. I also liked that, while the narrative was really nuanced, I viewed the images as a straight binary distinction (climbing and green, or at the top and blue); this was a very neat contrast. Great work!
lots to like here, it really drew me in in a dream or fever kind of way. At one point I started genuinely fretting for my loot and wondering if I could hold on. I wonder if the writing could be tightened up though. The gorillas were a particular highlight for me, inspired. good stuff.
This is good. It can only hang together on the strength of its writing, which it does. There were some minor graphical glitches (redrawing when climbing higher) that were a little distracting. I liked and identified with the story, especially the part about peeing my pants.
This brought back lots of little memories, which was... negative in some ways, and positive in other ways.
With squashing the mosquito, once my arm was gushing blood, and the only thing nearby me to clean it up and stuff was my white shirt, so I took it off and used it to stop the blood, and when it was tame I unscrunched it and almost didn't wash it straight away so that it would stain, cause I thought it looked cool. Then the phone call brought back relationship things and etc. etc. So yeah. I dunno what to say. It was an interesting journey up the wall.
I almost expected that I would fall off the wall to my death near the top, or that I would verbally realise that I was near the top before I got there.
At first I was like, "Aw man, not another word game thing". But I played it, and really enjoyed it! You had me laughing out loud at some points, and some other points were great reflective moments. From one RPSer to another, great job. (Nice pixel art btw!)
Very immersive, though around the 100 feet mark it starts to lose its dramatic atmosphere somewhat. Around 50 feet I was thinking, 'oh man, I'll never make it', but after 100 there wasn't really much tension anymore; some 'oh shit I'm not going to make it' lines between the distractions would've really helped there. It isn't until you get near the top that it gets dramatic again.
There is one thing that bothers me, though. WHAT THE HELL IS AT THE TOP OF THE WALL?! I climbed 208 feet up the wall, completely destroyed my hands in the process, lost all of my loot, caught malaria and pissed myself, and I don't even get to see the reason I put in all of that effort! What is it that's up there that made it worth the effort to climb 208 freaking feet riskily using vines that are barely strong enough to hold me with a heavy backpack?! I'm fine with anticlimactic endings (such as not making it, not finding what you expected, etc), but cutting it off at that point was just mean.
Ah, looks like I completely misread that sentence; I thought he was saying his helicopter is somewhat far away on the other side of the wall because he couldn't land close to the tomb.
Hm, I guess I'll explain how I initially interpreted various things and why I experienced things the way I did. This is going to be embarrassing and stupid, but I hope it helps.
Let's start off with the choices. I originally felt the clickable text were actions you could do, and that they may affect how the story progresses; a link not clicked meaning an action not taken. For this reason, I usually ignored the sidetracking actions to focus on climbing unless they were relevant for climbing or very interesting, lest I do something stupid and fall and/or wear myself out before I reach the top. It took a very long time for me to realize that these actions would be done regardless of whether I clicked them or not - clicking was only for expanding the text. Because I was avoiding 'unnecessary actions', I also missed how you could change the action you were about to take by clicking the word at times (these moments were indistinguishable from text expansion moments until you click the text); only near the end of the game did I understand how that worked.
The story: I didn't know the opening lines were meant to be taken literally, as they have a lot of implied context I didn't know about beforehand (the game has no description, so I had no idea what the game was about until I tried it). As such, I interpreted it as a cryptic intro text (which is quite common in many stories; my interpretation could be blamed on the fact that I'm currently reading Shikkoku no Sharnoth, which is absolutely full of this kind of stuff) which would make sense later. As the climb began, I had the impression (partially based on the title) that the protagonist was climbing the wall of a ruin he [as I interpreted the protagonist at the time] was about to loot stuff from (and therefore I was wondering why I hadn't left my backpack behind before starting the climb). As the story progressed, at first I was thinking 'it sucks that there's no choice to go back, this isn't going to end well', which gradually shifted towards 'the treasure at the top better be worth it'.
Regarding the protagonist, considering the context (treasure hunter climbing the wall of a [probably ancient] ruin), I was reminded of characters like Indiana Jones and various old video game characters from such contexts (most inspired by Indiana Jones). All of these characters are male, and as it was from a first-person perspective, I am male myself, and there was no clear indication otherwise, I thought the protagonist was a male treasure hunter in his late 20s-early 30s, as that fit the clichés/conventions. Re-playing the game, I found that the only non-optional hints towards her gender were: "You envision piles of Sephora cosmetics. White tiles. Glass case. 20 percent off fine jewelry. Career Woman Khaki package with Ocean Mist Underarm Dab for midday refresh. You can smell the fabric. See the tags strewn across the dressing room floor." As I am not American, I had no idea what 'JC Penny' was; I thought the protagonist was distracting 'himself' from the pain by thinking random thoughts as some psychological trick.
As you can see, I misinterpreted various things in the story. It always happens with stories; anything not told clearly is filled in by whatever preconceptions the reader has. If it was your intention to make certain parts clearer to readers, I hope this helps to understand where it can go wrong in readers' minds.
Low on interactivity for a Twine game, but awe-inspiring in terms of writing and mood. (Of course, that's hardly unexpected for Porpentine.) Now that I think about it, I see how the incessant clicking mimics the protagonist's effort of climbing.
Comments49
My broken hardware caused the physical process of playing this game to become basically the same as what its narrative described
Every hand up further exhausting my tired arms
Not certain I can physically make it
amazingly atmospheric as always
It's so simple, but there's a lot of dialog. Talented writing.
i used "eliminate the back functionality in Sugarcane" and <<cyclinglink>> for the two you mentioned
leon arnott in particular has contributed to twine's vocabulary immensely with his macros
Also I admit I googled and listen to Janet Jackson to accompany the end. Also yay for making playlist, always love this.
All the text and button text is awesome.
Good job! :D
With squashing the mosquito, once my arm was gushing blood, and the only thing nearby me to clean it up and stuff was my white shirt, so I took it off and used it to stop the blood, and when it was tame I unscrunched it and almost didn't wash it straight away so that it would stain, cause I thought it looked cool. Then the phone call brought back relationship things and etc. etc. So yeah. I dunno what to say. It was an interesting journey up the wall.
I almost expected that I would fall off the wall to my death near the top, or that I would verbally realise that I was near the top before I got there.
Cracked up when reading "wiggle your tongue to attract a small bird" :D
There is one thing that bothers me, though. WHAT THE HELL IS AT THE TOP OF THE WALL?! I climbed 208 feet up the wall, completely destroyed my hands in the process, lost all of my loot, caught malaria and pissed myself, and I don't even get to see the reason I put in all of that effort! What is it that's up there that made it worth the effort to climb 208 freaking feet riskily using vines that are barely strong enough to hold me with a heavy backpack?! I'm fine with anticlimactic endings (such as not making it, not finding what you expected, etc), but cutting it off at that point was just mean.
why do people assume it's a he, there's multiple instances of textual evidence hinting at her gender
Let's start off with the choices. I originally felt the clickable text were actions you could do, and that they may affect how the story progresses; a link not clicked meaning an action not taken. For this reason, I usually ignored the sidetracking actions to focus on climbing unless they were relevant for climbing or very interesting, lest I do something stupid and fall and/or wear myself out before I reach the top. It took a very long time for me to realize that these actions would be done regardless of whether I clicked them or not - clicking was only for expanding the text. Because I was avoiding 'unnecessary actions', I also missed how you could change the action you were about to take by clicking the word at times (these moments were indistinguishable from text expansion moments until you click the text); only near the end of the game did I understand how that worked.
The story: I didn't know the opening lines were meant to be taken literally, as they have a lot of implied context I didn't know about beforehand (the game has no description, so I had no idea what the game was about until I tried it). As such, I interpreted it as a cryptic intro text (which is quite common in many stories; my interpretation could be blamed on the fact that I'm currently reading Shikkoku no Sharnoth, which is absolutely full of this kind of stuff) which would make sense later.
As the climb began, I had the impression (partially based on the title) that the protagonist was climbing the wall of a ruin he [as I interpreted the protagonist at the time] was about to loot stuff from (and therefore I was wondering why I hadn't left my backpack behind before starting the climb). As the story progressed, at first I was thinking 'it sucks that there's no choice to go back, this isn't going to end well', which gradually shifted towards 'the treasure at the top better be worth it'.
Regarding the protagonist, considering the context (treasure hunter climbing the wall of a [probably ancient] ruin), I was reminded of characters like Indiana Jones and various old video game characters from such contexts (most inspired by Indiana Jones). All of these characters are male, and as it was from a first-person perspective, I am male myself, and there was no clear indication otherwise, I thought the protagonist was a male treasure hunter in his late 20s-early 30s, as that fit the clichés/conventions. Re-playing the game, I found that the only non-optional hints towards her gender were:
"You envision piles of Sephora cosmetics. White tiles. Glass case. 20 percent off fine jewelry.
Career Woman Khaki package with Ocean Mist Underarm Dab for midday refresh.
You can smell the fabric. See the tags strewn across the dressing room floor."
As I am not American, I had no idea what 'JC Penny' was; I thought the protagonist was distracting 'himself' from the pain by thinking random thoughts as some psychological trick.
As you can see, I misinterpreted various things in the story. It always happens with stories; anything not told clearly is filled in by whatever preconceptions the reader has. If it was your intention to make certain parts clearer to readers, I hope this helps to understand where it can go wrong in readers' minds.
Nice use of graphics, too.
This sort of reminded me of those websites with the 10,000 alert windows. I actually never minded those.