I love the way you write these emotionally delicate stories, subtly conveying a sense of helplessness and sadness. While playing, I kept thinking: 'If only my choices could influence the direction of the story,' but that in itself seems to express a sense of powerlessness. Amazing work!

I liked how you portrayed these people and each of them seems so...alive. i only wish that my action could change something or maybe that i could get another portion of the story for each of the characters, as i was very invested while reading, but then the story ended so abruptly! that felt a bit harsh :)
and the music started playing after i finished the story, was it intended?

Really enjoyed your game, great experience!

Nice little bite sized stories, very well written. The lack of impact any choice you make nicely ties into the whole powerlessness theme. Really liked the callback to the previous parts in the Russian woman's story.

Twine! Its fun to see someone use what I used and see what is possible.

Alright, I like how we travel in time, a story per page basically. The first time I was somewhat confused as it switched to another perspective, but soon I realized what was going on. It was all written well, and the real world places, happenings helped with imagining.

While I understand the thought to see how a story turns out showing the powerlessness of us humans I would have loved to see how the choices would affect the story. Though seeing you did this is so little hours I am definitely already flabbergasted you did as much as you did.

The music was fun, tho only played at the start and end, while I don't even know how to add music to Twine, I do wonder if it was meant to be an intro and outro, to tie it all together?

Finally I get to your game :smile: Reading is not my cup of tea to be honest, never has been. I'm a bit of a slow reader, so I waited for my weekend so I have some quiet time and still have energy :-) I really wanted to play yours


This was interesting and a bit existential-crisis-inducing. :sweat_smile: At first I thought the choices would have an impact on the next slide. But I think I see what you're going with here, this is for self-reflection. *"what would I do in this situation?"* I think the vivid storytelling really helps here. Having just a black screen with white text makes it somehow more immersive: ones imagination takes over.

First I was a bit confused with the way you implemented the theme in this one. As you mention worms for instance. But that feels more like a side-note than the overarching story. Then I thought about us selves: humans. *Are we the tiny creatures?* *Do the choices we make have a significance in this universe?* *Or is it all for nothing?*

Don't be too hard on yourself, I think this is a solid entry. I like the Krafter-sauce you put on top. Most of your games contain some deeper narrative. Sometimes about conflicts and relations, other times about spirits. This time its about us as humans and the hardships we have to face.

One question though: what is the thumbnail about?

Though time goes on, people somehow stay the same. Those in power making others feel smaller than they are. And the powerless trying to make the best of their situation but still fully aware of the realities of their lives.

One person's story is but a tiny speck when compared to the history of whole civilizations in all of time.

You have a way with words. Making me step into those different people's shoes and sharing their helplessness.

Your game gave me a lot to think about. Thank you!

Hi @lizz , thanks for playing! I actually checked your game out two days ago (due to Wouter loving to mention you) but am still gathering mana to write feedback. A bit underperforming these days.

So yeah, as you noted, the choices are there just to confirm the impotency of the tiny creatures. And I'm aware that this no-branching pushes the reversal of player's expectations too far. But, even if I had more time, I'd still see no point in continuing the stories, as their essences have been told before the choice has been offered to the player. I'd feel like a sellout to give players what they want, when the whole point is to make them wonder about others.

In general, lately I have been struggling with trying to figure out how a piece of interactive fiction can have both the branching narrative and provide true value at the same time, and so far I'm failing to find pro-branching arguments, but I do have some ideas for upcoming experiments.

And yup, getting the sound to work in Twine was hard, I rarely ever use it. The only thing that ended up working (with Harlowe) was HAL https://twinelab.net/harlowe-audio/#/ Basically, you download the zip, copy javascript into story's javascript window, copy CSS into story's style window, and read instructions for commands (you can play/loop and stop sounds in any passage). Use relative paths ('./music/sound.mp3'). BUT, idk how to make this work from Twine's build/test environment. I put sound folder and files where Twine project file is (which is just an .html file) and run that file directly in browser instead.

Thanks for playing @wouter52 ! I know the feeling, I'm not too enthusiastic about text-only games either, some of them are very good but it's a chore to make myself start.

Yeah, a day after publishing it occured to me that writing "tiny worms" may make someone believe that this is the only relation to the theme, but you figured it out. Thank you for kind words, much appreciated.

The thumbnail is about "And now to publish... Oh shit, I need a thumbnail!" lol. So I used the well-known symbolic of human society as a pyramid, and the arrow is showing where all the pressure of the structure is going. It is also a sort of "you are here" arrow as it is pointing at the bottom line.

I get it: tiny creatures we are, most of us anyway. Very true, and I like the way in which you brought the point home. I’ll add that the United States is no exception — the MIC rakes in the cash while the lower class struggles. It seems our plight only grows worse over time.

Overall, a very good use of Twine. I like the way you compacted several millennia into a single story — an impressive feat of writing.

Jesus Christ. That was very emotional. I especially liked the part where the lady is reading stories of the past and thinking "it must have been so much better in those day" while the paragraphs before that were filled with misery. A very meta game. I am definitely impressed.

wow, it was much better than i expected with such game description. I think it would be better with halfed text lenght on each page. thanks!

Interesting! I love the music!

Initially I didn't understand how this is related to the theme. I enjoyed the story anyway.

Great story-telling, and a really cool exploration of the theme. Would have liked ambient music the whole time, but I was engrossed anyway :)

It was interesting to play the text game. I hoped that the decisions made would come together like pieces of a puzzle and would have an impact on something. Either this did not happen or it is difficult to notice. Nevertheless, the stories were interesting. Well done!