and i made sure to hold your head sideways

Game: and i made sure to hold your head sideways

Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson

Platform: Browser

Play here: https://q_dork.itch.io/and-i-made-sure-to-hold-your-head-sideways

I've stated before in my post about Kill Baby Hitler that I'm not too crazy about visual novels. I'm not one to immediately write them off as hot garbage without playing them myself, but I will say they aren't my cup of tea, mainly because of how drab the presentation can be. Interactive fiction can be done well if given the right application of its tools. One of those games that I have come across in my recommended feed on itch.io was and i made sure to hold your head sideways. 

And i made sure to hold your head sideways is an interactive fiction game made by Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson for FLATGAME Annual Jam 2016. The main idea was to create a game or visual novel utilizing the basic fundamentals of the Unity game engine; essentially using the game engine at its most basic of functions. The interactive fiction piece, without giving too much away, tells the story from the first-person perspective of our main character recounting the events of a party they and a friend went to while attempting to help the latter sober up before things got out of hand.

Normally, as I've stated before, interactive fiction isn't necessarily my forte. What I will say though is that this piece did manage to keep my attention because of its presentation. Its story is told very much like in a pop-up book format, from my perspective at least, and using the arrow keys to form the illustrations to continue the story I found to be incredibly charming. It also helped to keep me engaged while reading the story as opposed to just clicking away through heaps of text. Coupled with the black and white color scheme, it maintains a simple and intimate aesthetic, like the coupling of memories piecing themselves together when thinking back on an event that happened.

I also liked the way the story zigzags along as you progress through the story, like literally zigzags. As in the camera jumps from one picture to the next in a zany way. It helps give the game some personality. The music itself has this ambient vibe to it as if recalling a memory from the past. I found it charming, to say the least.

I was pleasantly surprised by and i made sure to hold your head sideways as far as interactive fiction goes. I enjoyed the personality this little game had, how you pulled the pieces together like a puzzle. While this hasn't fully changed my opinion on interactive fiction as a whole, it does help take the idea of giving some more in the future a chance. Perhaps I'll cover another interactive fiction piece on this Frankenstein monster of a blog.