Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

You have a kind of agreement with “It”. And even though “It” doesn’t really speak your or any type of language you feel that you’re on terms where the boundaries are drawn.

The Urge is a serial-killer story written in Twine by Paperblurt. It’s in the visual novel essentially-no-choices format until close to the very end.

The opening of The Urge reminds me of a splatterhouse Z-movie. Some parts were so unconvincing and badly written I was laughing. I don’t believe that was the desired effect.

But mostly as you still remember the pungent, stale smell as you were lazy and left blood and intestines to marinate the whole thing as the sun raised the temperature.

I’m not certain what the purpose of the opener was except as perhaps some kind of hazing for the squeamish. Where the story opens up — and perhaps it should have simply started there — is when it becomes a love story.

I found the effect on the PC to be compelling, even with the urge to KILL (in big, red letters even) floating through the background. I also found the single choice at the end to be poignant, but the story never manages to shake its initial comedic-Z-movie vibe.