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ANTIVIRAL: GA1-ALPHA's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| HOSTS' CHOICE | #1 | n/a | n/a |
| SCARIEST GAME | #7 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| BEST GAME | #22 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
This was a really interesting entry! The textual imagery was evocative, even poetic at times. I felt deeply uncomfortable reading this (in a good way!): throughout the game I felt like an intruder, witnessing things they shouldn't be seeing. The ambiguity in following the narrative definitely helped with this. All the information was incomplete, and the imagery was so surreal that I questioned the reliability of the viewpoints I had access to.
I agree with some of the others that some of the text effects were overwhelming. They worked well, but maybe would have been better used for emphasis, rather than all the time. Some of the other effects worked well (the "I'm here mom", for example: I like how much it interrupted the flow of reading. Seeing that window come back again later in the game felt really satisfying, and gave those particular 'interruptions' their own character). The overall aesthetic was brilliant - the graphics you used really added to the atmosphere, as did the audio. Allowing the player to replay from the branching decision point rather than forcing them to restart the whole game was a good choice.
Often horror tries to overexplain, but I think you struck a great balance here. There's probably a lot to discover about what actually 'happened' in the text, but the ambiguity allows the reader to keep guessing. It feels like there are lots of dark themes on the periphery, and letting the reader draw some of their own conclusions really let these themes breathe. Nice job!
Thank you so much for your comment! I am glad you like it! It is really confusing, indeed, sometimes was on purpose and sometimes I just want to know what people will feel about it... I am hoping this become a kind of a series (now I am taking a pause) to complete some information about this weird thing I wrote. You can check the chapter before if you are really interested. Thank you again!
This was an interesting experience! I felt lost through a lot of it, but I feel like that was probably intentional to add to the storytelling. I do wish there was a clear distinction between the father's and daughter's scenes, though.
Thanks a lot for your comment! I glad you like it... About the father's and daughter's scenes, the father ones has the text centered and the daughter ones are in italic (narrator) and with a different font when the daughter narrates... I should have put that in the description, my fault.
Not really my kind of game but interesting. I like how you made a creative usage of the text by changing its form, color, blur, shape, etc. Good work!
This combines a lot of great body horror tropes and shows a keen knowledge of the genre. It explores fairly confronting and intense themes of pregnancy, bodily invasion, infection and disease, and human experimentation. I'm glad it plays into a larger mythos, but even as a standalone experience it's abstract and descriptive enough to leave a distinctive impression on the player. It's well-written!
Even with few graphics and sound, the story pushes the Twine format to its limits . Effects are used excessively, but many complement the hazy and scrambled mental state that is intended. I love the baby has its own distorted pop-up box. Taking the progression of the narrative out of the control of the reader through scripting also reinforces the intense and helpless states conjured by the story.
The only constructive feedback I can give is that there were so many moving text effects it made me dizzy, but I think that's kind of the point.
Thanks for submitting Antiviral to the SCREAM MACHINE game jam!
I liked it. It was so alive with the text alone. I got lost and confused and it helped the story make more sense. Very creative usage of twine and text effects to bring it to life. Nice work.
Liked the sound design and just the story in general... Great game !
I dig the style of this. It's very artistic and the way the text moves around kinda makes me think of House of Leaves. Very nice little game!
Thank you so much for your comment!. Really happy to hear the House of Leaves reference, is one of the books I took the inspiration from!