Storysinger Presents | Through the Shattered Lens

extraordinary_fandoms.exe is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition. Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

This game is about a non binary teenager who gets on Discord, discovers a group of friends, and also discovers a love of coding while helping them design of wiki for their Japanese virtual idol group. Things take a serious turn when the teenager’s friend realize that the teenager is in an abusive situation. The friends come together to help them escape from their horrific home life.

This game is a tribute to the friendships that are made online and how they can change a life forever. It’s mostly made up of a combination of Discord chats and DMs and it carefully charts the path to discovering that the main character is being abused by their parents. Like many Twine games, it’s more of a short story than a traditional IF game. You do get options but mostly it’s just two different ways to phrase the same sentence. Do you say “hi” or do you say “hello?” I would have liked more choices but that’s not really what extraordinary_fandoms.exe is all about. Instead, it’s a celebration of friendship and changing lives and, as far as that’s concerned, it succeeds. Most importantly, if it’s help out anyone who is in a similar situation as the game’s main character, that’s all that really matters.

Play extraordinary_fandoms.exe.

This TWINE game is an entrant in the 2020 Interactive Fiction Competition. Because it’s October, I’m currently concentrating on only playing the horror and fantasy-based entries but I hope to have played and reviewed all of the entries by November 29th.

In this game, you are Lightbearer, Garden City’s greatest hero. And you are also Promethium, Garden City’s most nefarious villain. You play both roles in this unusual text adventure. When Lightbearer finally defeats Promethium, it might mean that she’ll have to leave Garden City and, for a lot of reasons, she’s not ready to uproot her family and make that move. So, Lightbearer and Promethium make a deal. Lightbearer will let Promethium go free on the condition that they continue to have regular “staged” battles. Lightbearer and Promethium meet regularly at a coffeeshop to choreograph their fights ahead of time. Depending on the choices that the player makes, the hero and the villain can bond over their unexpected similarities or, as the title suggests, trying to trust your enemy can be a complete disaster.

I enjoyed this game. It took me by surprise and both Lightbearer and Promethium were interesting and well-written characters. This game explored why a hero needs a villain and vice versa and the story led to some very unexpected places. It’s not a short game but it is a rewarding one. It’s well worth the time required to play it.

It can be played here.