Playing “The Girl In the Haunted House” gives a general outline for the best way to design this sort of game in a way that branches well, yet provides enough cohesiveness to the different branches. While there wasn’t much stylistically here, the font choices (small, white font with little kerning) and a black background fit the theme. I wish that the game was more visual, with sound or other media that helped to relay some of the action and events, but I was satisfied with the dialogue.

The opposite is true of “The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo.”  The sound design was excellent. With the clock chiming, the sound of the storm outside, and the other ambient noises, the game became unsettling through the way that those pieces enhanced the dialogue. To me, the most haunting, impressionable effect was the “voice” of the “uncle.” The distorted, echoing, moaning, churning voice made the appearance of the uncle mysterious but also incredibly dreadful. I did not even realize that the voice was speaking until I listened closely through the distortion. When I figured out that it was saying “Child…” repeatedly, it somehow became more unsettling. Presenting the uncle like this was great though because it never quite let through a solid idea of who or what it was.

There was a sense that the story was unpredictable because the true nature of the “uncle” and what he was is hidden from the player. In all of my playthroughs, I had to piece together who or what the phenomena was through context and without being directly told the information. In that way, I believe that the story maintains a sense of discovery which helps it feel even more like a game. Finding new information through exploration and through the contextual pieces gathered from multiple playthroughs gave me a feeling that I had to play through multiple times to find more. I enjoyed that aspect of it, and it made the new dialogue options feel more varied and unique.

The first thing I noticed about The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo was the level of suspense that it instilled in me. The sound effects, especially the thunderstorm, set the scene with an ominous tone. This resulted in a bit of fearful apprehension as I made each selection through the game. Although, since many of the sounds are from video games, I was comforted by Super Mario Bros, which I play often.

I found the Depression Quest to be quite different. The way some options were not available to you, but were visible , was particularly manipulative. I found myself wanting to select the only choice that was being kept from me. Call it human nature maybe, but I wanted what I couldn’t have. Then I realized the point of this game when I made myself stop and consider what those choices I was unable to make had in common, they were what I would consider to be the normal or respected choices, which she was unable to choose due to her depression. I related to a particular scene dealing with waking up in the morning. Even though the person woke up before her alarm she still snoozed it so many times as to cause her to be late for work, and instead of being able to just get up and face the day, she decides to stay in bed and call out sick from work. This game is actually a very good representation of what some people face when dealing with Depression.

I will go back to the topic of the creepiness factor of these games for me, but it may have something to do with recently watching Twin Peaks, X-Files, and Supernatural. I think that I am expecting things to take a supernatural or spooky turn with every word I read of the story I am creating in the game.