Talkin' 'Bout Tiny Games

And Other Stories

Presented on a false cinderblock monitor in the midst of an evolving dreamscape that calls to mind the color aesthetics of really compressed GIF files, And Other Stories is an autobiographical exploration of memory quadfold using the Bitsy engine. The experience of playing it is one of scattered attention, as you’re greeted with four Bitsy games running side-by-side (each screen blending into one-another Exquisite Corpse style), and you control the player character for all simultaneously. Each area is littered with interactive objects that fill you in on the memory itself or are part of contextual narration for the scene being set – and you will accidentally bump into these triggers easily.

Pulling your focus in any one story will almost inevitably involve a mental process of “okay, the next narration bit is over there – oh, fuck, someone’s talking to me to me on the left (who are they?), and in walking I’ve accidentally skipped halfway through the narration down there.” It’s disorienting, though perhaps fitting given the recurring theme of drunken festivity for all of the vignettes. Your attention will flit between these linked memories as you piece together the shape of them, if not the exact details.

The dreamscape isn’t just there as a pretty frame to the game, either – the various objects you interact with mutate your surroundings – bottles appear in the blue sea, flowers grow on the monitor’s lower rim, a hearth gradually burns. As you progress, your mindscape will transform, becoming cluttered with the various mementos from each meta-game, though likely not as cluttered as they could be, seeing as you’re also quite likely to stumble into the trigger that forwards the ‘plot’ with no going back.

In the end, this all meant I had to replay the game four times focusing on a different vignette each time to get the full story, which arguably takes away from the intended simultaneity, but I doubt most people would be able to juggle them perfectly, and the writing and subject matter itself is strongly connected enough without immediate juxtaposition. If you’re looking for a little slice of life (albeit one that goes somewhat heavy), or you want to explore experimental storytelling, give it a shot.

Specifications

• Windows, Browser
• Free
• ~1.5 hours