Released back in April, Friendship Village is Closet Goth’s second album release and their first album with record label Warped Your Records. Currently touring, Closet Goth is made up of a large ensemble of artists, though only a hand full of them took part in creating Friendship Village, including Colin Bauer, Nick Kivi, Aaron Ponzo and Alexis Molina. Their songs usually walk a line between grunge, punk and art rock, an undoubtedly effective mix that gives their album a variety of sounds that still manage to tie together through their themes and production style.
Closet Goth’s instrumentality is consistently great, fluctuating between a cacophonous, aggressive sound and a far more laid-back melodic style; best displayed in the song “Heartbreak Kid.”
While this can sometimes prevents Friendship Village from flowing from one song to another as nicely as it could, Closet Goth does connect everything together through their lyrical style and themes. The shifting tones created by Closet Goth play into their own abstract lyrics, creating a sense of disorder. In tandem with the actual contents of their lyrics, Closet Goth’s vocals communicate the chaos that is the young adult mind, tackling subjects of relationships, connections, belonging, along with the anxiety intrinsically connected to those themes. In the end, while the drastic change in instrumentals and vocals can be grating, the themes of the album tie it all together nicely.
Heheheh. Closet Goth’s actual Bandcamp page is just kind of fun.
Image Courtesy of Closet Goth.
Closet Goth has improved quite a bit since their last album, Pretty Dead, which while still pretty awesome, lacks the polish of Friendship Village, specifically in their sound mixing. This becomes most clear when comparing the “Do You Think Divine Intervention Gave Me These Abs?” from Pretty Dead and Friendship Village.
Overall Friendship Village is an awesome album and one to check out if you’re into art rock and post-punk music. The increase in quality this album represents already shows both a willingness and an ability to adapt, and hopefully spells the beginning of Closet Goth’s continued growth. If you have the time I would suggest at least giving “Heartbreak Kid” and “Touch Myself” a listen as since they essentially represent the two musical sides of the album and who knows who might enjoy one, if not both of the styles.
Check out Closet Goth on Bandcamp, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
Bones of Contention: Important Story, Poor Implementation
June 11th 2018
So I watched Bones of Contention last week in the theater, and it was, well... It had an intriguing topic and some great interviews, but as a film it was “meh.”
Directed and written by Andrea Weiss and released back in February 2017, Bones of Contention focuses on the Spanish Civil War, the proceeding Franco years and their effect on modern life. Specifically, Bones of Contention spends much of its run time focusing on the impact on the LGBT+ community. The topic is undoubtedly important and I don’t regret watching the film. However, as a film, Bones of Contention was just not that well made.
First of all, Carmen Vidal’s cinematography was pretty awful. For one, the camera work is shoddy and shows a lack of understanding of shot composition. Secondly, there is no overall style. There is no consistency in the types of shots used and the aesthetic of the shots go all over the place. Shot composition bounces between candid street shots from a car, to shots panning down from the sky where there is barely anything to actually see, to outdoor interviews where the cameraman clearly could not keep the camera still. The last one does not even make sense in the context of the rest of the film, as there are many interviews where the camera manages to stay still. I assume this is due to a limited access to a tripod, but if they could not have filmed with a tripod outside why did they not stage all the interviews inside. The lack of awareness Vidal’s cinematography created an extremely jarring experience that detracted from the films story and message.
I cannot speak for everyone, but I know that my education treated the Spanish Civil as a step towards World War 2. Bones of Contention goes far more in depth into what actually happened during the Spanish civil war and the atrocities committed by Francisco Franco’s government. However, the film’s story had a lot of narrative problems. This is understandable to an extent; reality doesn’t shape itself into a perfect story for filmmakers, that is the duty of the filmmaker. Unfortunately, Bones of Contention fails to follow a narrative path, simply going from one scene to another with little coherent progression. Scenes ended up feeling disconnected, almost unrelated, leading to the muddling of the film’s themes.
In general, many of Weiss and Pamela Ralat editing choices were awkward and poorly thought out. While the readings of Lorca’s poetry were interesting, the film stops everything for it, just switching to a plain black screen with a few white lines while text appears with the narration. This not only breaks the pacing but looks like it was made in Windows Movie Maker.
If it had looked like this it would have been fine, unfortunately it did not.
Weiss and Ralat’s choice to include old documentary footage was an excellent choice, adding an outsider perspective to the documentary. However, it again felt separate and disconnected from the rest of the film.
Interviews made up the majority of the film, and some of them were great. Specifically, the interviews with Silvia Reyes and Antoni Ruiz were incredibly impactful. That being said, Weiss made this really odd choice to include a discussion between two of the interviewees which they just filmed. I’m guessing it was an attempt to get a candid take on the situation, but it came off as out of place and awkward. The shots of the street arguments were cool, an interesting way of showing the dissenting opinions of Spanish civilians, and having more of them probably would have better created that authentic aesthetic Weiss and Vidal were going for in the directing and cinematography.
Overall Bones of Contention was lacking; in style, in cinematography, in editing and polish. Honestly, the topic was very intriguing and has inspired me to do my own research into the subject to learn more. However, the film itself just has so many technical faults. While they only had a budget of approximately $300,000, many of the problems were simply due to a lack of skill and, perhaps, time. I cannot recommend Bones of Contention as a film, unless you are interested in Francisco Franco’s time in power and its impact on the LGBT+ community, but not interested enough to do your own research.
The Tragic Tale of Bark Scruffalo is Too Much Fun, Somebody Please Stop Me
June 10th 2018
The Tragic Tale of Bark Scruffalo is a minimalistic “retro battle doggy defense game” and was created by artist and game developer Polynaut, otherwise known as Nicholas Vigna. The story follows you as you fight to protect your dog, the titular Bark Scruffalo, from mysterious ink creatures and their monolith spawning points. Like many tower defender games, Bark Scruffalo is a great time consumer, likely one of the better time consumers. Released back in April, Bark Scruffalo is currently only available for Windows users, however, Polynaut is currently working on a Mac version.
As a mobile game artist it is no surprise that Vigna’s art for Bark Scruffalo is pretty great.
Causing me to care way too much about Bark Scruffalo, who is such a good boy, yes he is.
Image courtesy of Polynaut
Though it is his first foray into pixel art, Vigna undoubtedly crushed it. His use of a white outline for all the key parts of the game successfully communicated their importance without sacrificing the game’s aesthetic. The game animations captured a cartoon-like fluidity, especially in the case of the shadow ink creatures with their shifting, liquified bodies.
The main theme that plays during the game is cute and effective, flowing back into itself in an unobtrusive fashion. The start page theme is a little odd with its darker more ominous sound, not really fitting the far more upbeat and adventurous main theme. The melody does not come in until about 15 seconds in, and while that doesn’t sound like that long I would not be surprised if most people missed it while starting up the game. It far from a bad song, it just feels a little out of place, as though it would fit better in a different game.
Gameplay is unsurprisingly simple but fun. It certainly did not take long for me to fall into a groove of smashing ink monsters, grabbing crystals and laying mines.
Although I kept dying because I will be DAMNED if I ever let Bark Scruffalo dies on my watch.
Image courtesy of Polynaut
Basically, check it out. It's fun little game that deserves attention, especially considering that this is Vigna’s first game. It is also free, much to my chagrin (damn it, let me support you Polynaut, LET ME GIVE YOU MY MONEY). At the very least you will get a fun couple of minutes out of it.
Check out Nicholas Vigna at his twitter, itch.io page or website.
You Can’t Break a Fourth Wall that was Never There: A Review of Ultra ADHD
June 10th 2018
Released October 5th back in 2016, Ultra ADHD, or Ultra Amazing Death and Huge Destruction, was developed by Alon Karmi, otherwise known as DancingEngie. It's a short adventure game, in which the player is ping-ponged between visual novel to adventure game to first person shooter and back to visual novel. And it could have been fun. Emphasis on could have.
As a player I need a reason to care, even if that reason is that the gameplay is awesome. Ultra ADHD attempts to use witty writing and constant randomness to keep the player engaged, and while the comedy is occasionally successful, it's just not enough. None of the characters are given personality traits beyond sarcastic and/or “is violent”. Without any depth, the characters are just cardboard cutouts yelling punchlines at me or telling me how to do the thing.
Some of the visual comedy can be funny though
Image Courtesy of Alon Karmi
In its attempt to be witty and self aware, Ultra ADHD is filled with fourth wall breaking jokes. The issue is that Karmi never developed a fourth wall to begin with, the game just starts by telling the player that it is a game and nothing is real. So why should I as the player care about anything that happens from there on out.
I want to care about shotdog, shotdog seems like he has a dark and dangerous past, but it doesn’t matter because nothing in this game matters.
Image courtesy of Alon Karmi (edited by author-sorry my teacher reads this)
As mentioned earlier, the characters are not particularly engaging, the main character is just an avatar who we are given no reason to care about, the apocalypse is not given any real weight in the world, let alone to us as the player. I get that Karmi was trying to create a purely comedic game but the jokes are not funny enough on their own.
The actual gameplay is fine; simplistic and functional. Similarly, the pixel art is pretty basic. Although the absurdist style was initially engaging, without further depth into the world it ultimately felt like a missed opportunity. The quality of the music varies, as do the actual artists.
In the end, Ultra ADHD is not endearing enough to be entertaining. Maybe with more effective comedy it could have been a fun game, or with a more fleshed out world and cast it could have been more engaging. But ultimately Ultra ADHD just lacks the qualities needed for me to justifiably recommend it. On a positive note, Karmi is still a young developer, and while this game is not the best, it shows a lot of potential in both in game development as well as game writing.
Check out Alon Karmi on his itch.io page, twitter, youtube page or website.
Loan Wolf is a short but sweet visual novel created by Team Rumblebee for Yuri Jam 2016. Released November 1st back in 2016, Loan Wolf focuses on Laika, a werewolf working an IT position at a nondescript firm, juggling shape-shifting mishaps, romance, and the ever present stress of school loans. Maybe I just haven’t played enough gay visual novels but this is easily the best one so far, despite its short length.
Unsurprisingly, as a visual novel the gameplay of Loan Wolf is nothing inspired. However, an aspect that, while small, had a lot of potential was the interactive phone. All it did was show photos that had been taken in the narrative, but it was a sweet addition. If expanded upon in future works I believe it could be a great way to increase interaction and thus engagement in the game.
While short, Loan Wolf’s narrative captivated me with its likable main character and witty writing. The main character, Laika, manages to be both relatable and her own character, while Victoria and Daphne act as nice foils to each other as romantic interests; the sexy new co-worker and the cute college best friend.
Victoria is best girl, don’t @ me
Image courtesy of Team Rumblebee
The dialogue is cute and feels real, and Laika’s inner monologue is both witty and relatable, managing to avoid the uncanny valley of cringe so many have been lost to.
The art of Loan Wolf certainly has its highs and lows. For example, Laika’s character design was simple yet aesthetically pleasing and effective in communicating her character. However, the art style felt very soft causing the come of the characters to fading into the background. Sharper character art could have easily improved many of the scene. The electro-jazz soundtrack was cool, easily filling otherwise empty space and adding to the games more relaxed atmosphere.
My main gripe with the game was that I wanted more. More interactivity, more characters, more story, etc. Not that Loan Wolf isn’t effective in its brief play time, it is. But I’m greedy. Ultimately, I just want to see more from Team Rumble Bee. If this is what they can do for a game jam I would love to see what they can create over a longer period of time.
Check out Team Rumblebee on their itch.io page or tumblr.
IT IS LITERALLY CALLED “Costume Institute exhibition and Met Gala”
May 11th 2018
Full disclosure: I am not really a fashion person. The majority of my wardrobe consists of hoodies, joggers and t-shirts. However, I do have an appreciation for those who are fashionable, after all fashion is just a subsection of art. As such when the Met Gala comes around I get interested; how will fashion designers and artist collaborate this year, what intriguing pieces will be created, whose outfit is the coolest?
(It was Zendaya’s, fight me)
That is why the Met Gala bothers me. This is a gala that encourages experimentations, hence why last year the theme was the works of Rei Kawakubo. Rei Kawakubo is a leader the world of fashion for her innovative and unrestricted style, a style meant to be captured in this gala.
(Yes Elle Fanning, that dress is really innovative, really game-changing, totally related to the theme)
Don’t get me wrong, there were awesome outfits that made appearances at the Met Gala throughout the years; Rihanna, Zendaya, Solange and Nicki Minaj have consistently brought their A game, or at least was wearing something interesting. However, overall there is a serious lack of innovative outfits, considering that is kind of the whole point of the Met Gala. I mean it is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and yet the majority of attendee are wearing glorified prom dresses.
I understand it's not the actors designing the outfits, but I would like to assume that they are the ones choosing them. This is one of the high brow red carpet events of the year to wear art to push the limits of fashion. Yet we still end up with outfits that not only fail to address the gala’s theme, but are just boring in general.
(Elizabeth Debicki, is this really the best you could find for the theme Manus X Machina? Really? And Prada, is this really the best you could pay Elizabeth Debicki to wear?)
As someone who likes to consume art, who really likes to see experimentation, this is a major disappointment. It shows to me that a ridiculous amount of these celebrities are too cowardly to wear anything actually intriguing, and that many of these design companies are too incompetent to put out anything of any artistic value. This matters because art matters, innovation matters, change matters. Stop adding to the stagnation of art and start actually caring.
A Review of You left me; because I’ve been too happy lately
May 5th 2018
You Left Me is a short point and click visual novel created by Angela He, otherwise known as Zephyo. Developed in two days and released March 24th, You Left Me was created for Ludum Dare 41 with the idea to combine aspects of point and click adventures and visual novels into a single game. While straightforward in design, You Left Me creates an engaging atmosphere through its dream-like visuals and writing.
The story is straightforward but powerful. The player has lost someone close to them and is currently suffering from a form of dissociative amnesia, blurring their everyday life. He informs the audience of these facts through the players interaction with the world. The moon tells you cheesy jokes, while your one eyed, two tailed cat excitedly declares their (platonic) love for you.
Doggo is best cat.
Image courtesy of Angela He
The dialogue and surreal imagery are effectively immersing. I did find it odd that while we saw everything through the main character's perspective the fridge notes were readable to us yet unreadable to the main character on their first try. Not that important to the overarching narrative, but a noticeable detail.
He’s unwavering approach to themes of suicide and depression was certainly appreciated, though the “Join” ending’s tone seemed a little too positive for an ending where you kill yourself. That being said, the emphasis on trying in the face of loss and near powerlessness was clear and inspiring to an extent.
Image courtesy of Angela He
You Left Me’s gameplay is what you would expect from a point and click-visual novel crossover, effective and uncomplicated. I did die a lot though.
As mentioned previously, He’s art is fantastic, to the point were I made sure to purchase the wallpapers after playing through her game. Through her use of pop colours among the grays of You Left Me’s world, He creates eye catching images which work in tandem with the narrative. The music of You Left Me consists of three melodic electronic songs; “I can’t forget you” by rxdlxst, “Bedtime Candy” by Rose, and “All about you” by Yung Sherman. The lo-fi electronic track “I can’t forget you” matches the game’s tone with its distorted lyrics and reverb filled instrumentals, while “Bedtime Candy” communicates a clear change in tone for the positive, via its music box-esk melody, as the player reaches one of the two main endings.
You Left Me is a beautiful and bittersweet game with a mostly positive message. If you have a bit of time on your hands, and are in the mood for short but meaningful game, I would highly recommended checking out You Left Me. Angela He really shows her talent and passion through this game, and I for one will be checking out her other creations.
Check out Angela He on her itch.io page, youtube page, tumblr, or twitter.
Album Titles as Tongue Twisters: Biologically Ubiquitous Demonstrably Superfluous
April 18th, 2018
Hey it’s free, kind of!
Canadian artists Ghost Factory and Sean Hamilton have teamed up for a name your price EP with the ridiculously long name Biologically Ubiquitous Demonstrably Superfluous.
Guys, hate to break it to you but this isn’t Scrabble.
Real Time: Is the ghost naked too?
Image Courtesy of Ghost Factory and Sean Hamilton
Released on Bandcamp last November, the folk-punk EP contains fours songs, two from each collaborator. Full disclosure: I’m a big ‘ole fan of Ghost Factory, but I’ll try to remain reasonably impartial.
Ghost Factory approaches their songs with their usual angsty folk punk style, with both their songs being partially sung, and partially shout-cried. It is through this style that Rob Gruszecki manages to convey so much emotion in his vocals. As usual, the instrumentals convey a sense of warmth, in contrast to Ghost Factory’s lyrics. Particularly, Eric Svilpis’ melodies on the keyboard softened the sound of their songs, which, with Gruszecki’s guitar, creates a sense of comfort and familiarity. Despite the anguish, Biologically Ubiquitous Demonstrable Superfluous is very hopeful, especially in contrast to their past work. Thoughts of depression, alienation and self loathing are still brought up, but both songs have a strong sense of renewed hope.
I cannot say I am as big of a fan of Sean Hamilton’s work. For one, it's less a fusion of folk and punk and more a fusion of alternative rock and country, particularly in “Neon Lights.” The instrumentals, in particular, are more in the style of rock than folk or punk, especially in comparison to Ghost Factory. Definitely not a negative, but important, considering how the EP is categorized. So if you’re not a country or alternative rock fan, Sean Hamilton might not be your style. Hamilton does have a far more melodic voice then Gruszecki, while still being able to make it sound like he’s about to cry during the emotional moments in the song. The tone of his two songs are very different, despite sharing themes of navigating interpersonal relationships. While “Neon Lights” is more of a love song, “Shadows and Sound” is focused more on overcoming personal adversity. Overall his songs are solid, but nothing special.
Ultimately, I recommend checking out Biologically Ubiquitous Demonstrably Superfluous, but don’t expect anything outstanding. Still, the pick up in mood from Ghost Factory was very interesting, and I would be curious to see how Ghost Factory evolves from here.
Check out Ghost Factory on their Bandcamp or Facebook.
Check out Sean Hamilton on his Bandcamp, website or Facebook.
When Something ‘Different’ is also Good: A Review of Elvis Guevara by Cosmonaut! Cosmonaut!
April 5th 2018
Surf and punk had a beautiful baby and it is called Elvis Guevara.
Released last February, Elvis Guevara is Cosmonaut! Cosmonaut!’s second EP after their 2010 release Stars Hide Your Fires. As with their previous album, all of Elvis Guevara’s vocals are done by Julian Thorley while the instrumentals were put together by Richard E Stuart. However, unlike Stars Hide Your Fires, Elvis Guevara was mixed by Resq85 ITB.
As is their style, Elvis Guevara is filled to the brim with a surrealist sound that is way too addictive. The instrumentals walk a line between rockabilly and electronic while the fever dream-like lyrics bring texture to the songs. Evolving from their previous album, Elvis Guevara is far more melodic, falling more into the rockabilly genre then its predecessor. It seems that in particular Stuart’s instrumentals have had a massive upgrade since the last EP. His sound is far more authentic, especially in the case of the guitars and drums. The synth lines flow better with the rest of the instruments and are far less intrusive than those of Stars Hide Your Fires. The end result is an absurdist sound that will have you itching to rock out to. That being said, Julian Thorley’s vocals can be occasionally jarring and the music itself is occasionally repetitive.
I have no idea who made the album cover, but I love it.
Image courtesy of Cosmonaut! Cosmonaut!
Elvis Guevara consists of four different songs; “Hot Summer Night”, “Elvis Guevara”, “Countryside Girl”, and “Shine On Without Me”. While the album is cohesive, with every track feeling like a piece of the whole, Cosmonaut! Cosmonaut! still manages to make each song sound unique among the others. The shifts from psychedelic chill to the blasting rockabilly punk is that the band creates throughout the album definitely help form the EP’s more interesting shape.
In all honesty I was shocked to see that I was the only person supporting the album on Bandcamp because it is genuinely awesome. If you have the time, I would highly recommend checking it out, if at the very least to hear something different.
Check out Cosmonaut! Cosmonaut!’s page on Bandcamp.
1998 is a short, pay what you will, story-heavy RPGmaker game released by averageavocado or Maggie on itch.io back in December. You play Audrey, a cynical 17 year old who feels that she has wasted her high school years. The game is focused on her development, or lack there of, over the course of the summer as she becomes friends with Jun, a 17 year old boy who has just moved from New York.
I am going to go ahead and say that I do not recommend 1998. As a first game it’s fantastic, but as a product it is just not that enjoyable. That being said, if you do not want spoilers then you might want to stop reading here.
I had high hopes starting 1998. The pixel art was aesthetically pleasing, the music was pleasant to listen to, and while the story was predictable from the start, it seemed like it could still be a fun experience. Yet, over the course of the game my hopes were quickly cursed beneath the utter unpleasantness that was the main character’s personality.
As mentioned before, Audrey is a cynical 17 year old girl, a fact which the dialogue really plays up.
NOBODY UNDERSTANDS ME
Image courtesy of averageavocado
Essentially, while playing 1998 the player is given the option to have Audrey respond to other people like a decent person or like a not decent person. Through this, the player is made responsible for Audrey’s growth as an individual. While it was an admirable attempt to immerse the player further into the story, the game ultimately fails in making me care enough about Audrey in the first place to be impactful.
The art and soundtrack are easily the best parts of the game. Averageavocado’s choice to keep everything in monochrome with the exception of the main characters and a few key areas worked well and efficiently communicated how Audrey experienced the world around her. The pixel art was also just pleasing to look at, in particular the park area, which I purposefully took detours throughout the game just to look at.
Those trees though
Image courtesy of averageavocado
The cutscene art was well illustrated as well, nothing outstanding but generally appealing to the eye. For the most part the layout of the illustrations were effective, though most of the scenes were simple anyways. For such a short game, 1998 had a shockingly well composed soundtrack. Among 1998’s soundtrack Wings, Monochrome and Monochrome Reprise were particularly notable.
The gameplay is what you would expect from a story-heavy RPGmaker game. Simple, basically just walking to one plot point to the next. Some of the places you would expect to be able to reach are blocked by invisible walls, but it is far from anything game breaking.
Back to the writing, the small bits of text, included by averageavocado by interacting with the environment, were often entertaining. Though that’s where my positivity about the writing comes to an end. Put plainly, everything happened too fast. I can only talk for myself, but I find it pretty far fetched that anyone would take their friend of a week to their father’s grave. The entire game feels like it’s tripping over itself to get to the major plot points. In this race for the finish line, the game fails to make me care about either of the main characters. If anything I feel pity for Jun because Audrey is terrible company.
Ultimately, bad pacing killed the experience. Potentially engaging characters were not fleshed out to a point where I could care, and the story itself quickly became unbelievable. 1998 has a lot of ambitious ideas that are not properly addressed and end up appearing shallow. As such I can’t recommend 1998 to play, though I can say that with this being averageavocado’s first game, I am already interested in what she will make next, and how she will improve her skills as a game developer.
Check out 1998, or averageavocado on her tumblr, RPGmaker.net account or itch.io page.
Check out 1998′s soundtrack on its soundcloud page.
Bea Ritter’s Trying is an approximately hour long game where you play You. Three years ago You were cursed by a witch to be discontent for the rest of your life, and now you are seeking her out for revenge. Trying was published on Itch.io January 3rd 2018 by the previously mentioned Bea Ritter, who is also the writer and illustrator of the ongoing webcomic Goeston Presence. Trying is a story-driven, roleplaying game created, essentially, around a series of fetch quests.
If you are here just to learn if you should bother playing Trying or not, then here is the answer: Yes, go play it. Trying is free to play and just a really lovely experience. Actually, if you are going to play it, you should go do that before you continue reading, because I am going to be talking about Trying’s content, which may or may not include spoilers.
Gameplay-wise Trying is pretty simplistic; get the thing for the guy so he will give you another thing for the next NPC, so they will give you the next thing for the NPC after that. Standard fetch questing. This is to be expected from a short indie game and is hardly an issue. In actuality, Ritter’s writing adds more than enough charm to each fetch quests. The quests in themselves are reasonably straightforward and any problem can essentially be fixed by talking to enough npcs (unless you’re an idiot like me and get stuck trying to find the last costume ticket for six hours). There are no glitches with the exception of one area where you can take a step into the wall, which is not exactly game breaking.
I AM THE WALL WALKER! NO WALL CAN STOP ME!
Image courtesy of Bea Ritter
The writing is where Trying really shines. Ritter shows her own appreciation for writing in games with just how many details she puts in, and how charming every character is within the game. And I do mean every character. Just little throw away lines from NPCs that are unimportant to the rest of the story are interesting to read and displays how much care actually went into Trying. Nothing feels forced or lacking, making the game easy to enjoy. The main cast includes You, Celestine, Davis and Orville. Each is endearing in their own way, and by the end of the game I just wanted to spend more time with them all.
btw, Davis is the best, fight me
Image courtesy of Bea Ritter
It is not as if Trying gives each character a detail backstory or complex motivation either. They are purely enjoyable to interact with.
While the plot is simple, it is effectively motivating. The surrealist aspects were also fun, just the little oddities gave the story plenty of character. I was pleasantly surprised by the final decision given to the player, as originally I thought the end would have been set in stone. Sure, the choice leading to the “good” ending is clear, but the fact that there is a choice is what creates an emotional impact. Interaction is what defines a game and by including the final choice the final interaction with actual consequence finalized the connection I felt between You and myself.
As with the writing, Ritter’s experience with webcomics comes through in Trying’s art, which while simple is also cute and effective. In particular, I appreciated how the expressions of the characters changed during the dialogue. These reactions really enhanced the flow of text. On the other hand, Trying’s music was not the greatest. 8-bit in style, the music was extremely repetitive, quickly becoming jarring, and just was not very good. The Haunted House song was undoubtedly the best, but among the rest of the music that isn’t nearly enough.
Despite the lackluster music, I would say Trying is more than worth the time it takes to play. Personally, I finished the game feeling better; happier, than I had felt going in. So if you’re looking for a short enjoyable experience, a picker-upper of sorts, I would highly recommend downloading Bea Ritter’s Trying.
Check out Trying or Bea Ritter at her twitter, tumblr, or itch.io page.
Update: Check out the musician behind the Haunted House song Shawn at his tumblr.
