The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo certainly induced some tension for me. Mostly the music of the “monster”, or whatever the heck happened, was  what got me. I easily was able to put myself into the character’s shoes I was playing as since I played Pokemon, had sleep overs, and never had my own game console but had friends that had multiple ones. Way too relatable! Anyway, I was starting to get annoyed with the all the choices in the den as the game kept pushing me back into the den. I kept thinking there was one of the options that would just move me forward, but it was just as if you were watching your selfish friend play video games, you get annoyed and try to occupy yourself as the time finally passes. I didn’t realize this until the next time I replayed the game. Also, I wish I hadn’t played as if I were myself, because I ran to the bathroom and everything escalated so quickly, by the time it ended I was like WTH? However, playing it through again I quickly learned the whole idea behind the plot, and I thought the game to be really well played out. I liked that the possible endings were shown at the end so I could pick my choices while replaying and end up at that ending. I also did like how the game put the thoughts in the text as options, “you look blah blah blah, but you decide not to,” but if you click the blah blah blah that’s your actual answer.

I thought the first game had just enough text to not feel like it would drag on and it induced anxiety which demanded focus. I went through every other game available and didn’t like how much text it started off with. I couldn’t focus after the first game. So I finally landed on The Girl in the Haunted House, which escalated way too quickly…

The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo utilizes a text narrative overlaid on a photo. Considering that these games are primarily text only, using an image, in this case, helps set the eerie mood of the game/story while also giving it extra depth. There are certain pros and cons to using visuals with text. On one hand, as aforementioned, they can better set the tone of a game or story. Alternatively, using images may hinder the world building that goes on in the head of a reader. The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo seems to find a solution to this by using both photorealistic and more abstract images. The former sets the mood while the latter still allows a reader to imagine a visual during critical moments in the story, like when they encounter “The Uncle” for the first time.

The Girl in the Haunted House uses different colored text at certain points in the story. While some games may italicize or bold clickable links, a different color obviously makes hyperlinks more visible. Different colors could, however, be used to indicate different types of game interaction. For example, green could indicate action options (go into the room, talk to a character), yellow could be a hyperlink to background information to a plot point (how you met a character) and purple could lead to more precise visual descriptions of something in the story. Color could also be used to drive home an emotional point (angry dialogue could utilize red text).

Something that became clear when playing both The Girl in the Haunted House and The Uncle Who Works and then comparing them both is how functional fixedness can be detrimental to creating an innovative and engaging game. Color, different type face, color, size, italicization, highlighting, sound and images can be used typically, or creatively to make a text based game more immersive.

I played the Uncle who Works for Nintendo twice. The first time I played it I got out of the house safe but my friend did not. The second time I played it, I think I died. This game was really creepy because it was suspenseful. It used creepy sound effects the same way that horror movies use sound to be scary. A moment that I remember very clearly is when the uncle comes in the second time I played the game and the screen is taken over by red text. In this moment I lost control of the screen and couldn’t click on anything anymore. This made it seem like my character in the game was being attacked. Along with sound, this game also incorporates images. When the setting changes, so does the background image. This made the game scarier because I kept thinking a scary image was going to pop up on the screen.

Another game that I played was Capri Toot. I thought this game was a lot more boring than the Uncle who Works for Nintendo because there was a lot more text and there wasn’t any sound. Also there were no images, the color of the rectangular border of the text just changed. I played this game a couple times and both times nothing notable, like an image appearing or sound playing occurred at the end. With that said, something that makes this game interesting is that I keep wondering if there is a strategy to it and if the ultimate goal is to get to Zone Z because it’s at the end of the alphabet.

So, after playing The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo (UWN) and The Girl in the Haunted House (GHH), it’s safe to say I’ve had my fill of creepiness for the night. I want to talk about both games, but I played UWN until I unlocked all the endings so I will primarily discuss that game.

First of all, how freaking scary. From the lack of color, to the sounds, to when Uncle comes in and wrecks everything with his strange red text commands–this game is definitely one of horror. Using different drawings of the setting to help create a sense of place worked to make the story feel more realistic. The sounds creeped me out every time. I think having the option to check the grandfather clock while also having it chime to indicate the passage of time was smart, especially considering how important time is to the story. Honestly the way time works when it comes to “choosing your own adventure” in this game was probably its coolest feature.

One play-through is enough to understand that the dreaded Uncle is coming at 12. Many of the games options change depending on the time. For example, what games you play/watch your friend play changes depending on the hour you ask. Same with the talk option. Only after your friends’ mom brings you popcorn at 9 do you have the option of asking about the Uncle’s visit. If you don’t call your mom before 11, then you’re doomed to meet the Uncle.

Certain options are not only time-sensitive, but depend on other choices being made first. For example, if you wish to find out about the Uncle you need to first think about him. This causes the option to “think about your own mew” to appear. Choose that and be sure to click on the bolded red text (which throughout the game indicates a choice) to find out about the storm. Then ask your friend about their uncle and tell them you don’t believe them. Be sure not to punch them back or you will never get the choice to find out about the Uncle. After things settle, talk to your friend about the storm, and once they realize you remember, you’ll learn about the Uncle.

It was fun to find out what choices I needed make to unlock new ones, and what kind of endings would come out of my choices. The moments of choice mostly feel consequential, though a lot of them lead to the same next choice (like, for example, all the options you have when talking to your friends parents).

GHH was similiar to UWN in that options would appear only after other options were chosen, but I don’t think it was as effective as UWN. But then again, I definitely played UWN for a lot longer than GHH (only played through that one twice) so maybe there’s still more for me to discover.

When I played the game “My fathers long, long legs.” At first, I will admit that game was going very slow. I had limited options to control how the game would play out, most of the time I was picking the only available option in order to continue the game. The story, however, started to get better and creepier as I continued. For example, one part of the story the girls “uncle” came to visit her dad who was down in the basement digging. When he left, the girl said in the story that the man never returned again. It made me wonder who the “uncle” actually was and why he asked to see the girls dad. The plot got interesting in the sense that as the dad kept digging, he grew taller and taller. My favorite part of the game was when the whole screen went dark and the cursor became a flashlight. I had to hover over the words in order to see them with my “flashlight,” and that was cool because I kind of felt like I was actually digging deeper. Also shortly after the flashlight cursor came along, the sound of digging in the background started playing. These two settings helped a lot with creating a sense of place and made the game a lot more interesting. Right before the end of the game, I clicked one of the options and I saw a long leg run down the whole window. I got stuck in a couples loops throughout the game, which was a little disappointing because it made me feel like there was only one end, but it was cool to reach the end cause I felt like I had won the game. Overall, I found the game interesting and a little creepy, the makers did a good job creating an overall sense of place.

The Nintendo game was the most boring thing I think I have done all week long. I mean that was not too surprising since this week was spring break and there was a lot of interesting and fun stuff to do. When I first started to play this game I was not too impressed because it just looked so boring since it did not have too much color to the game at the very beginning, or at all for that matter. Anytime I see a game that is only red, black, white and gray I judge it hard because it just does not look like it will be entertaining at all. When I started to play the game I realized I did not have very much control over anything that happened in it. Every part of the story only had one or two links to another page. The only page that had more than three links was a page that would send me to another page and no matter what option I chose that page would eventually send me back to the page with six links. This page made me very frustrated because I just could not figure out how to get away from this page. I was not amused with this part of the “game”. All and all I was not entertained by this game. The only thing to do through the whole game is choose a link that you like and find out if it sends you to another page that you have not been to before. I would not consider this a game at all, if anything I would call this a waste of my time. I found no entertainment value though this game what so ever. The judgement I made about this game at the very beginning about the lack of color was correct because this game was as boring as it was colorless.

While playing the Uncle Who Works for Nintendo I felt like, despite having options of things to do, that I didn’t really have any other path besides the one they had planned out for you. It also seemed like all of my options for things to do didn’t affect the outcome very much. I realized pretty early on that a lot of the excess options would lead you to a little bit extra text, but all it did was go in depth on the background of the characters then put you straight back where you were before. It seemed like all it did was inform the player, but not change how things progressed in the game.

The only choices that seemed to particularly mean anything where whether you press your friend for information about his uncle and what you do when the uncle arrives. Even then, pressing your friend for information only seems to make him mildly annoyed with you temporarily and back to normal when it returns to the “hub” where you’re just sitting there while your friend is playing games.

The game incorporates images by having a background image that shows the setting where you currently are. For example, when you are in the friend’s living room the background image is of a room with a fireplace, a deer head on a plaque, and pictures (presumably of the family). Other places were the kitchen, the bathroom, the dinner table, and arriving at the house. There were occasions where the image was mostly just weird black and white shapes and they corresponded with more mysterious parts of the story like when you were being hunted by the uncle.

Sounds weren’t really used that much, mostly only for when the time changed while watching the friend play his games.

So I played two games, obviously the Uncle Who Worked for Nintendo, and then also The Girl in the Haunted House. Fun facts, I died in both. Though, with The Uncle that Works for Nintendo, it seemed to me like. just the way it always looped around, that no matter what I did I would’ve dies in the end anyway; and by die I mean get captured by some type of cyborg-alien monster thing. I noticed with The Uncle that works for Nintendo, that, they sometimes gave many options, but ultimately kept going back to that main screen until you picked the option they wanted you too. For this one, it also every once in a while, when you “went back to the den,” would have the clock chime, and it occasionally would tell you the time, or you could count the number of times it happened, so I was able to know, when the time came, when it was, midnight and the “Uncle” would arrive. So that was interesting. Sound was really effective in this as well, because when the “uncle” showed up, I was not expected what would happen, and the sound of the door knocking like crazy was really effective. It made it feel like more of a game, because I felt more in the moment, as if I was actually the eleven year old who was about to get eaten or whatever.

With the other game, like I said, I also died, but I’m pretty sure I could’ve changed that, or survived had I gone back and tried a different tactic, or made different choices, so I felt like I had more control in that game. That being said, it wasn’t as fun or interactive, due to lack of sound and pictures, compared to The uncle. At the end of this one I just accepted that I died, but at the end of the Uncle I got pissed off and walked away form the computer.