Quiet

By: Martyna “Lisza” Wasiluk
Engine: Twine
Playtime: 10 min
Link:www.springthing.net/2019/play

Quiet is a Twine game that moves the player through a single conversation where their only way to respond is by using emojis.

The presentation of Quiet was fairly bare-bones, it made use of the default Twine layout but each link was an emoji rather than a word or phrase- in keeping with the game’s main theme. I think that the game touches on an interesting topic, that being, when you are quiet others are able to create their own version of you or can put all their problems on you leading to a negative outcome. It’s an important message that I can’t help but feel frustrated by when playing it through several times. No matter what choices are made the outcome remains generally the same and there was no opportunity for either the player character or NPC to be redeemed.

After multiple playthroughs, I cannot tell which side the author falls on, which is actually a good thing. They manage to create a kind of grey area where Alex (the player character) can generate sympathy from the player or become far too annoying leading the player to sympathize with the generally unlikeable NPC. The premise is interesting and the topic is worth exploring, but I feel that it needs some more fleshing out.