Glimmer by Andy Campbell (2009) is a Dreaming Method interactive fiction. The scene opens up of a package where the the name and address are blurred out. Pieces of text would float in front of you and you had to be quick to read them before they disappeared. You were able to maneuver the screen itself by moving the mouse, up, down, left, right, imitating how a some video games would play out. Some of the floating texts were options to take you to the next layout and part of the story.
The story itself seemed kind of scattered until the end where the layout consists of bubbles floating and the noise of kids laughing. The story was about a little girl who drowned at the bottom of the pool because her hair got caught in a grate. The background noise of the laughing children and the actual text did not match at all. This is what I thought was interesting, how it didn’t make sense to have such happy sounds playing while a tragic event was occurring, but it did make sense at the same time because occurrences like that do happen. Before the girl had drowned in the pool, kids were playing around and having fun but the laughter of the kids didn’t stop even when it did happen.
This particular IF was interesting because it consisted of many different artistic elements that made it hauntingly beautiful. The background music and sounds followed along with the different artistic layouts. For example, there was a scene of an ocean and the sounds would be of waves crashing against the shore. I was not entirely sure of the significance of the orange plastic goldfish. It seemed as if it played some important meaning of the IF.
What do you guys think of it? It’s short and easy to get through so I would recommend playing through it! Let me know in the comments down below.
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