AKheon | Through the Shattered Lens

Smart Theory is an entrant in the 2021 Interactive Fiction Competition. All of the entries can be browsed and experienced here.

In Smart Theory, you’re a college student who is woken up one morning by Paul “Big” Brother, who is excited to have the chance to teach you about Smart Theory, the new academic theory that is sweeping the campus. Whether you go willingly or not, you will eventually end up at the assembly and you will discover what Smart Theory is all about. (Personally, it’s more enjoyable and morally more rewarding to go unwillingly.)

Originated by a Texas fertilizer salesman who was trying to win a bet, Smart Theory may seem like a bunch of movie quotes but it’s actually the new way that you are going to be expected to view the world. And while some of it may sound dumb, it can’t actually be dumb because then it wouldn’t be a smart theory! Get it?

Designed with the Twine operating system, this is less of a game than a satirical short story about the current culture of conformity on campus. The more Smart Theory is explained, the more obvious it becomes that no one is willing to point out that the emperor is wearing no clothes. The game has something important to say about being weary of any ideology that doesn’t allow its followers to question it. To enjoy this game, it probably helps if you already agree with the point that it’s making but that doesn’t make that point any less relevant.

Play Smart Theory.

Ascension of Limbs is an entrant in the 2020 Interactive Fiction competition. You can browse and play all the entries here.

In Ascension of Limbs, you play the owner of a mysterious antique store. You may have bought the store. You may have inherited from a relative. You may have gotten it in some other mysterious way. There’s a lot of randomization involved in Ascension of Limbs, which means that you can play the game several times and have a totally different experience each time.

Your goal in Ascension of Limbs is to not go broke, to not go insane, and to not end up poor and destitute. That’s not as easy as it sounds. There are some dangerous things in that antique shop and, if you’re not careful, they can sap away your sanity and lead you to do some terrible things. (Losing a point of sanity limits what you can do in the store, sometimes at the worst possible moment.) If you can’t find anything to sell, you’ll lose money. Lose all your money and the game is over. It’s not easy to make money when you’re also losing your mind. Lose your mind and the game is also over. Balancing both money and sanity will be challenge but the game offers a lot of ways to do it.

Make your choices. Do you promote your store or do you hope the customers will just find you? Do you call the police about criminals or do you use them to commit insurance fraud? Do you build up a strong base of loyal customers or do you murder them, for either their money or as an exchange for forbidden knowledge? The choice is yours!

Ascension of Limbs is a challenging game but I can’t recommend it enough. For those with patience and a tolerance for the occasionally macabre, Ascension of Limbs is a game to play again and again.

Play it here.