IFComp 2024 Impressions is a series where must-play entries from the aforementioned jam are showcased for your convenience. Final Arc would like to give a disclaimer that it does not encourage readers to vote for any particular game mentioned in this series.
Your old friend starts laughing harder, laughing in the way that one would laugh at the antics of a small child.
- Text by Sarah Mak.
Friendships aren't easy. Sure, you can get a lot of happiness from a friendship. But all sorts of things can get in the way. That's why they're so valued. Sometimes it'll be miscommunication, other times just drifting apart. But sometimes it’s conflicting views over escaping from the comfort of your insular religious prison as opposed to escaping it all and seeing an unknown world filled with unfamiliar things.
Well, uh, that last part is a bit particular, but you'll see why.
What is You Can't Save Her?
The nuns told you that you must kill her, for she had fallen sway to the other god.
- Text by Sarah Mak
Sarah Mak’s You Can't Save Her is a short Twine game where you have to kill a friend who's gone rogue in three seconds, whether you like it or not. That's what the basic description is, at least. But it's so much more than that.
Time is just an illusion that helps stories make sense.
- Text by Sarah Mak.
Without giving spoilers, You Can't Save Her explores a broken friendship by manipulating time itself. Throughout the game you find yourself at various points of the characters' shared history. From split-second attacks to navigating childhood memories, you’ll eventually realize that time means nothing. Each click of your mouse advances a second in the tale, but the order of what you're shown doesn't actually matter. It's the convergence of events that make the story. Time doesn't matter when you love (or loved) someone, a fitting message for a piece of interactive fiction (IF).
You laugh again. This is the first time you have seen your friend in years, and her first reaction is to try to kill you?
- Text by Sarah Mak.
Mak's game is a piece from a promising IF author. The production value is top-notch with ambient music, great cover art, and interesting use of text effects. For example, in one sequence of the game certain choices are highlighted as part of a character's abilities. This addition took me by surprise and was a great way to switch things up in the story. You Can't Save Her is another exciting example of the creative talent that's coming out of South East Asia.
One big thing You Can't Save Her does well
You are teenagers at the monastery, and you heard that the nuns are burning books today.
…
You are young, and curious. You want to steal one of these texts before they are destroyed.
And your friend is refusing to help you. They have been banned for a reason, she says.
…
But you tell her, don't you want to know what's out there? There must be worlds other than the one we know.
- Text by Sarah Mak.
By and far I was impressed with how Mak managed to build both the characters' relationship and the world in an intertwined way. It's subtle and efficient in that with a short playtime of 12 minutes, we learn about the unnamed characters' feelings about each other while also learning about the oppressive religious society they were raised in.
You wonder if she assigned you to check on her, because you are the leader of your cohort, or because the nuns know you are her friend, despite their disapproval.
- Text by Sarah Mak.
This technique seems simple in hindsight. However, I'd like to point out that it's quite a challenge to pull off without the story becoming confusing. This is where You Can't Save Her's short length comes in clutch. By focusing on a single shared moment in the characters' lives, the game takes as long as it needs to explore everything without overstaying its welcome. Mak managed to contain the complexity of her piece by exploiting the very element she obliterates in-game: Time.
Who should play You Can't Save Her?
You want more choices.
- Text by Sarah Mak.
This one's for the choice-based enthusiasts, for sure. I don't say this just because of how cool it looks, plays, and reads, but because Mak adapted lines of text in You Can't Save Her directly from pieces by the Twine legend themselves, Porpentine. She's not just a newish author trying her hand at IF; she's someone who appreciates the medium and what it can accomplish. It also helps that she's a good writer, too.
Before you murder your ex-bestie…
The pale desert of this moon curves towards an empty horizon.
She is to the north.
- Text by Sarah Mak.
Right as we were about to publish this piece, a rip in the space-time continuum popped up and out dropped a note on my desk from Sarah Mak herself:
“I wanted to make something short and intense, something that would sucker punch the reader through the heart. So I treated this piece like a poem, and tried to ensure every element felt intentional.”
Gang, it's time to turn our “friend” into the “end”. You can play You Can't Save Her on the IFComp website or IFDB.
THE BODY & THE BLOOD
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Justin's many things: Memer, designer, developer, game maker, Tarot reader, writer, and more. Now he's a keyboard monkey for Final Arc (don't tell them he said that). Website: heyjustinkim.com
