Grimm's web games thread

[SpiderQueenPC]

For a while, I've been playing and writing brief reviews of various web games. It was just for fun and I wasn't sharing them anywhere, but Andy said it'd make a good thread, and yknow what? He's right, so here it is. Feel free to recommend any web games to me! If I don't already have them on The List™, I'll add them.

I have a handful of these lined up, but anyone who knows me even a little knows what I have to post first.

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corru.observer by corru.works
[corru.observer]
10/10 - Highly recommended!

Where do I even start? (<-said with enthusiasm)

I'll say this right off the bat: this is the best one I've found and it's hardly a contest- not because the others are all bad, but because c.ob is just that good.

In c.ob, you explore the decaying memories of an alien who died under mysterious circumstances to find out what happened to her. The mystery itself is multi-layered and gripping, the worldbuilding is remarkably rich, the characters are lovable, and the story has a surprisingly wide emotional range despite the shadow of death it resides in.

Unlike other web games, which are built entirely on point-and-click exploration, c.ob experiments with different kinds of gameplay frequently. There's turn-based combat, bullet hells, and more. And of course, I have to mention the gorgeous dithered CMYK art style.

In short, there's a lot here, but it's all cohesive and it all just works.

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: Terminal 00

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

ok I gotta be careful with this one or COS is gonna spread to deskGen.net.

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Terminal 00 by Angus Nicneven
[angusnicneven.com]
??/10 - Do not gaze into the abyss. Abandon hope all who enter here.

Where do I even start? (<-said with dread)

T00 is the single most esoteric and audience-hostile work of fiction I have ever encountered. It is a truly vast, grating labrynth full of dead ends, red herrings, puzzles you cannot ever hope to solve, and a previously unheard of number of decisions made exclusively for the purpose of disrespecting the player's time, all dotted with occasional moments of staggering beauty and profundity.

(You might have noticed I didn't provide a synopsis. That's because after several dozen hours spent exploring the site, I'm still not sure what's going on. It definitely HAS a story, I just couldn't tell you what it is.)

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: God is Home

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

epic Squirrel Stapler reference??

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God is Home by girl//scum
[godishome.neocities.org]
9/10 - Recommended

This one, while still being a fictional story, is fully grounded in reality. It explores religious trauma, religious OCD, and to a small extent, how those things interact with queerness & therianthropy. It is intense, earnest, heartwrenching, and tremendously effecting in the way that only real, "mundane" horrors can be.

It's the smallest in scope of the web games I've played so far, but that fact doesn't hurt it. It says as much as it needs to to express its point.

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: Wired Sounds for Wired People

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

Lowest score I've given but the name goes hard.

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Wired Sounds For Wired People - Fauxx
[fauxx.neocities.org]
3/10 - Might be worth a brief look if you really like the color pink and flashing lights

(It should be noted that, like Terminal 00, this is (was? it appears to have been taken down since I initially wrote this) also a personal site for the creator's work. And like T00, I am not judging that part of it or any of the creator's other work- only the part of it that is a web game.)

Wired Sounds has a very consistent aesthetic that is distinctive and novel, but once the novelty wears off, it's got little else to offer, as it lacks any apparent story or lore. And unfortunately, this doesn't take too long. The aesthetic is too specific, and thus wears its own novelty out fairly quickly.

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: heaven_online

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

And we're back! I have no excuse for why I dropped this series, I just kinda forgor, sorry. Anyway:

Do you have a moment to talk about our lady and savior Hatsune Miku?

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heaven_online - Momotsuki Vǫl'gureschnxyzxyz
[heavenonline.xyz]
7/10

A fun parody of Terminal 00 in which vocaloid synths (yes, really) become gods to fight angels. It is deeply unserious and far friendlier to its audience than its spiritual predecessor, while maintaining a very similar aesthetic identity. Pretty enjoyable overall.

Unfortunately, I do have to knock a point for the fact that out of all the web games I've played, this is the only one that has ever seriously stressed my browser and been slow to run (save for a few instances of me pushing corru's roguelike mode to its limits). Otherwise, this would've been an 8/10.

Edit: I no longer stand by this review. Momo's criticisms made later in this thread are fair, please read them for full context.

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: Fancy Island

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

LET'S GO GAMBLING!! (jumpscare) aw dang it

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Fancy Island - fancyislandrrs
[lomando.com/main.html]
6/10 - play it if you liked that staircase game

This one's a haunted house!

The inclusion of some horror elements is pretty par for the course among web games, but this is the only one I've found that's truly dedicated to being a horror game. Is it scary? Eh, that's subjective. I don't think it is. But even if it's not keeping me up at night, I like its vibe. The house has a mix of carnival aesthetics, industrial aesthetics, traditional haunted house stuff, and plenty of creepy ass porcelain dolls.

There's some puzzles, but a lot of progression is just trial and error- "there's a bunch of links, only one leads forward and the rest kill you"- that sort of thing. To me, that feels like the game's biggest weakness, but I know there's an audience for that style of gameplay out there. If you liked SCP-087-B, you'll probably like Fancy Island too.

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: Nirakul Archives

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

friendship ended with javascript now static html documents are my best friend

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Nirakul Archives - Aalay Nirakul
[aalaynirakul.com]
9/10 - Highly recommended

Welcome to the (approximately translated) Archive of the Nameless. Here, you can explore numerous interconnected vignettes, ranging in tone from campy to quietly introspective to cerebral to... down bad for the grim reaper? God this rules.

There is some overarching lore that you can take the time to put together if you want to, but the focus isn't on that. Instead, the focus is on the specific emotion that each vignette wants you to feel, and they don't need context outside of themselves to achieve it.

There's some remarkably beautiful digital paintings in this thing. There's also some much sillier, intentionally lower effort art that might not appeal to everyone, but it fits well with the tone.

And I'd be remiss not to mention the inventory system, because I find it very charming. Your inventory is in your bookmarks! (I recommend making a folder for it and pinning it to your bookmarks toolbar, as I did.) Since it can't check, the game relies on your honesty to only "use" items when you have them. And maybe it's just me, but the game putting that trust in me makes it feel a little more intimate somehow.

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: metaphorical.monster

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

The only reason you're alive right now is because someone loved you.

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metaphorical.monster - octofoss
[metaphorical.monster]
10/10 - Highly recommended

Usually, I head these reviews with either a joke or a little bit of commentary about the thread itself, but I can't bring myself to do that this time. It hit me hard enough that you're getting a quote instead.

m.m has minimal gameplay. There's a tiny amount of exploration, but the main event is in the interactive novel pages. One of these is easy to find and I will leave that to you. The other is a hidden page,

Spoiler: (web page name)

/handholding

, that I was only able to find through the personal website of one of the contributors. I ended up reading this first. While it is not the intended experience, I actually recommend this as your starting point as well. Up to you, though.

Anyway. By god, the story these pages tell.

It is one of agony, of too little too late, of a particular kind of selfishness, but most crucuially, of love. It is painful and frustrating in the most delicious way, and, at the risk of being too personal, a very real and raw depiction of the emotions in severe illness, just barely made digestable by the distance sci-fi elevation provides. Heed well the content warnings at the beginning, but if you can stomach all that: Read this shit. I'm so serious.

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: IN THE EARLY MO-RNING

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

this one's a little different but it's my thread so you're just gonna have to bear with me

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IN THE EARLY MO-RNING - rainyatrium
[rainyatrium.net/legacy/elizabeth]
8/10 - Recommended if you've already played corru.observer

This is a corru.observer fangame featuring the original character Elizabeth. It is very well put together, with music and word choices that do a fantastic job at building a surreal and distressing atmosphere. Elizabeth also has some funky and mysterious Species™ stuff going on, which is very fun to chew on.

EARLY IN THE MO-RNING is very short, and while it does leave a strong impression regardless, I do think it could really benefit from being expanded on. Not because what's there is lacking, but because what's there intrigues me so much.

Ana, if you happen to read this: Pretty please infodump everything about Elizabeth in my DMs; I promise I won't tell anyone.

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Next time on Grimm's web games thread: Digital Penthouse

 

[Thingie]

DIGITAL PENTHOUSE MENTIONED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

I was just made aware that as of 16 hours ago, Momo has taken it upon herself to publicly insult me individually for recommending her game to people, due to the fact that I also happen to have some strong criticisms of the game that inspired her to make it. Nothing about my opinion on heaven_online itself has changed, I still think the site is pretty good. I considered not addressing this at all. But Momo has asked, however impolitely, that I rescind my recommendation, so I am honoring her request by formally rescinding it now.

(Also: Obligatory disclaimer that you should not go bothering her or her fans.)

 

[kevin supermarket]

what the fuck lol ok

 

[momotsuki]

Hello. I wasn't certain if I wanted to respond to this but I figured it was worth doing, since this thread can appear when my website is searched for on Google, and I think it would be a shame if somebody were to come across it and end up with some wholly inaccurate takeaways.

I will start with the review. To be clear, I have no qualms with the review's score of 7/10. People are free to judge the quality of my work however they would like, be that 10/10, 7/10 or 0/10. That's fine. However, it is the description of my website that I feel inclined to respond to:

A fun parody of Terminal 00 in which vocaloid synths (yes, really) become gods to fight angels. It is deeply unserious and far friendlier to its audience than its spiritual predecessor, while maintaining a very similar aesthetic identity.

This is completely and entirely inaccurate. This is not the story, at all. The idols (the "vocaloid synths") are relevant, but they are not "gods" and for the most part are not becoming such to "fight" the angels. It is also not "deeply unserious" - though I can understand thinking such if the above was your understanding of its plot - it is all of me. It is a project I have poured a solid 25% of my life into and counting and its story is deeply, deeply personal to me. That doesn't mean anyone has to like it or think it's any good, of course, but to say it is "deeply unserious" is simply untrue.

Of course, not understanding the story isn't some kind of misdeed. There's nothing wrong with not understanding something; there are plenty of things I do not understand. But it becomes worrisome when one's misunderstanding is confidently stated as fact in their description of the subject matter. People are free to have their own interpretations of art, but when one sees somebody's interpretation stated so authoritatively, it may dissuade them from using their own brains to decide what it means to them.

Furthermore, the website is not a "parody" of the Terminals. It is of a similar vein and was inspired by their excellence, but it is absolutely not a "parody" and I find it unfortunate that somebody would use that word to describe its relationship to the Terminals. Even something like "knock-off", while disparaging and not something I'd agree with personally, wouldn't sting nearly as much. Which leads into the recent post:

I was just made aware that as of 16 hours ago, Momo has taken it upon herself to publicly insult me individually for recommending her game to people, due to the fact that I also happen to have some strong criticisms of the game that inspired her to make it. Nothing about my opinion on heaven_online itself has changed, I still think the site is pretty good. I considered not addressing this at all. But Momo has asked, however impolitely, that I rescind my recommendation, so I am honoring her request by formally rescinding it now.

(Also: Obligatory disclaimer that you should not go bothering her or her fans.)

First and foremost, I acknowledge that I was wrong to choose my words so hastily when initially discussing this matter. However, the sentiment that spurred this on was not that you had criticisms of the Terminals. As mentioned, I don't particularly care what anyone's judgement of a work's quality is, that's their opinion and that's quite fine.

It was specifically that you used this criticism to praise my own work in comparison, that it's "friendlier to its audience", despite the fact that my work has similarly inscrutable puzzles to the Terminals, and in fact is more densely packed with them than they are. The fact that somebody could assume my site is "friendlier" to its audience suggests to me that they did not explore it sufficiently. Which isn't a misdeed on its own - nobody owes me or anyone the time it would take to fully explore my art - but becomes rather striking when you feel inclined to "review" the site. The creative lineage of my work is integral to its essence, so invoking it disparagingly to offer praise that isn't true in the first place signifies a clear lack of understanding of how these works happened.

Both the Terminals and my own site predate corru.observer by some time. While corru.observer is a good website with much in it to appreciate, I can't help but lament how so many people come across it and then look towards similar, older works without taking any time to try and understand the culture and craft that brought them about. Again, to not understand something is no crime. But to lack the capacity to even register the possibility that you may not understand something, becomes very troublesome. And this is why I reacted rather strongly - and, again, maybe a bit too strongly.

Take care and be well. For what it's worth, I do not hold any ill will towards you, though I still entirely stand by having been rather miffed.

P.S. My surname is spelt Vǫl'gureschnxyzxyz, not "Vql' Gureschnxyzxyz." Though I can forgive this, seeing as it's definitely not a particularly easy name.

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

Hello. I wasn't certain if I wanted to respond to this but I figured it was worth doing, since this thread can appear when my website is searched for on Google, and I think it would be a shame if somebody were to come across it and end up with some wholly inaccurate takeaways.

I will start with the review. To be clear, I have no qualms with the review's score of 7/10. People are free to judge the quality of my work however they would like, be that 10/10, 7/10 or 0/10. That's fine. However, it is the description of my website that I feel inclined to respond to:



This is completely and entirely inaccurate. This is not the story, at all. The idols (the "vocaloid synths") are relevant, but they are not "gods" and for the most part are not becoming such to "fight" the angels. It is also not "deeply unserious" - though I can understand thinking such if the above was your understanding of its plot - it is all of me. It is a project I have poured a solid 25% of my life into and counting and its story is deeply, deeply personal to me. That doesn't mean anyone has to like it or think it's any good, of course, but to say it is "deeply unserious" is simply untrue.

Of course, not understanding the story isn't some kind of misdeed. There's nothing wrong with not understanding something; there are plenty of things I do not understand. But it becomes worrisome when one's misunderstanding is confidently stated as fact in their description of the subject matter. People are free to have their own interpretations of art, but when one sees somebody's interpretation stated so authoritatively, it may dissuade them from using their own brains to decide what it means to them.

Furthermore, the website is not a "parody" of the Terminals. It is of a similar vein and was inspired by their excellence, but it is absolutely not a "parody" and I find it unfortunate that somebody would use that word to describe its relationship to the Terminals. Even something like "knock-off", while disparaging and not something I'd agree with personally, wouldn't sting nearly as much. Which leads into the recent post:



First and foremost, I acknowledge that I was wrong to choose my words so hastily when initially discussing this matter. However, the sentiment that spurred this on was not that you had criticisms of the Terminals. As mentioned, I don't particularly care what anyone's judgement of a work's quality is, that's their opinion and that's quite fine.

It was specifically that you used this criticism to praise my own work in comparison, that it's "friendlier to its audience", despite the fact that my work has similarly inscrutable puzzles to the Terminals, and in fact is more densely packed with them than they are. The fact that somebody could assume my site is "friendlier" to its audience suggests to me that they did not explore it sufficiently. Which isn't a misdeed on its own - nobody owes me or anyone the time it would take to fully explore my art - but becomes rather striking when you feel inclined to "review" the site. The creative lineage of my work is integral to its essence, so invoking it disparagingly to offer praise that isn't true in the first place signifies a clear lack of understanding of how these works happened.

Both the Terminals and my own site predate corru.observer by some time. While corru.observer is a good website with much in it to appreciate, I can't help but lament how so many people come across it and then look towards similar, older works without taking any time to try and understand the culture and craft that brought them about. Again, to not understand something is no crime. But to lack the capacity to even register the possibility that you may not understand something, becomes very troublesome. And this is why I reacted rather strongly - and, again, maybe a bit too strongly.

Take care and be well. For what it's worth, I do not hold any ill will towards you, though I still entirely stand by having been rather miffed.

P.S. My surname is spelt Vǫl'gureschnxyzxyz, not "Vql' Gureschnxyzxyz." Though I can forgive this, seeing as it's definitely not a particularly easy name.

Thank you for your apology, I appreciate it. It is true that I didn't explore it quite as thoroughly as I did T00, but I did explore it enough to encounter a couple puzzles. I found them less frustrating than the ones in T00, personally. I do realize now that that's entirely of a matter of what my brain happened to click and not click with, though, and I definitely should have played more before I posted about it here. I apologize for what was definitely a misleading description. I would like to add that I was not entirely referring to gameplay when I talked about T00 being unfriendly, but also the general attitude the writing has towards the player. I apologize as well about the mispelling, I will go up and fix it right after I post this. (Edit: I've also added a note to the original post stating that I don't stand by what I said anymore.) Hope you have a good (whatever time of day it is where you're at).